Almost two weeks ago we took our first exam in our MGT class. To the classes surprise, half of all the students failed and the highest grade was an 86!! Obviously this wasn’t a good thing. Thankfully I didn’t fail but I didn’t do so good either. Little did we know Prof. K was going to give us all a chance to bring our grades up. During the last thirty minutes of class the entire class had a chance to come up with a way to raise each persons grade. Whether it be through a curve, extra credit, etc. The only catch was that everyone in the class had to agree. Among the chaos we eventually made our decision but not everything went so smooth. As you can imagine, forty students trying to agree on one thing was not easy. Some students wanted to do whatever it took to boost their grade. Others just wanted to make everyone realized that instead of focusing on this test we should focus on how we should study for the next exam. A lot of the students in the class did participate but there were some who sat back and let everyone else decide.
Personally, I don’t think I used one specific way to handle the chaos in the classroom. I was kind of quiet to begin with because I wanted to here everyone out. I had no problem agreeing with everyone else’s decision about how to raise our grades. I guess you can say I used accommodation to handle the beginning of our task. However, I didn’t act this way because I though the issue wasn’t important to me but because I agreed with what everyone else was saying.
After this decision had been made we had a chance to decide what our next exam would look like. At this point everyone was arguing about which sections of the test we should eliminate. I voted to eliminate the “multiple multiple” choice section, until one of the students explained how that wouldn’t benefit us. During this part of our task I tried to voice my opinion of making the essay extra credit by raising my hand, like one of my classmates previously stated we should do….but at this point everyone was rushing to decide because we had about five minutes left. I know the guy next to me agreed with me and we both tried to get everyone to listen but no one did. In the end we were successful though. I don’t know if the guy in front had heard us but an extra credit essay was made an option and everyone agreed. Maybe if we were a little louder someone would have paid attention to what we were saying =)
During this whole process I was noticing how some of my other classmates were acting. I noticed that some of the students on the left were forming their own group. I remember two students in particular that acted in a “compete to win” behavior. They were the loudest in the whole class and voiced their opinions (which was perfectly fine). The two guys who stood in front of the room (I believe Abe and Julian) were the mediators. Their behavior was an example of trying to come to a compromise. Other students were quiet, they either displayed avoidance or accommodation.
Overall, I think if our class would have worked together a little more and took into consideration EVERYONE’s thoughts maybe we would have reached our decision faster. If one person would have explained all the options clearer the first time than we wouldn’t have wasted so much time trying to explain it a million times. I don’t think I would change the way I acted during the decision making process because I’m not the best persuasive person. In the end I do think our decisions were the best ones.
Like myself, I see that you were also rather quiet at the beginning and I feel like I played the avoidance-card at first due to the same reason you did, being more of a quiet person, not necessarily too persuasive and trying to hear everyone out but eventually I think even the quiet ones put their mind to what was going on. I totally agree with what you mentioned at the very end; had our class worked together in general and listening to everything presented instead of making sure they were heard over everybody else, maybe there would've been a little more order and a little less chaos. At the end of all of that, i think we truly came to a sufficient conclusion.
ReplyDeleteHaha I thought our decision making process was pretty effective but you pointed out a lot of valid weaknesses. Similarly I'm usually passive (not quiet) but when it effects my grade, I can get a little controlling in a situation. I do agree with you that a few people dominated the conversation and the decision making and it's not fair that everyone didn't have a chance to voice their opinions. We could have been a bit more organized.
ReplyDeleteYah. I was against the “multiple multiple” choice until someone clarified the benefit by having it. I think our professor was the one whom officially made an option of an extra credit essay.
ReplyDeleteI also was pretty quiet because I didnt really know how to jump in since the discussion wasn'treally that organized. I did like however the attempt those two students made to try and make the process more organized by getting up infront of the class. But at least we got something at the end.
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