It was fun watching classmates deciding what to do with the test results. First, I didnt believe that professor Kurpis really let us decide what to do with the test because usually even if professors curve, they themselves come up with a decision. So I thought it was some kind of a jock. But after 20 minutes of waiting, I realized that the professor really let us do whatever we wanted to do with the test results. I personally "used" the accommodation way to handle this decision making conflict. I simply allowed others to come up with the decision because i was satisfied with my results. I only needed a curve applied to my my grade in order to get an A, and it was already decided that we want a curve in the beginning of the class. So i thought i should let other people who got lower grades to decide what is the best for them.The most widely used method for handling decision making conflicts was the compromise. Our emerged leaders were trying to come up with one best final decision that would benefit everybody. I saw some people were using avoidance way :) and avoid or withdraw from the process. They thought because of different opinions and preferences the class is not going to come up with one proposition that everyone will like. Some even tried to leave :) I think the class overall succeeded in this decision making process and came with with one final proposition that everyone liked. The only suggestion i would give is to listen more carefully to everybody's opinions. there were some people who had great ideas that were not considered at all. Also, i think we should have just voted on every option at the beginning of the class to get the results sooner (what we only realized we should do at the end).
The withdrawal and accommodation methods were the most evident decision made of some students. Yes it a compromise was made at the end, but it was due to desperation and lack of time I think we could have done better with more time and preparation.
ReplyDeleteI think that the people who were trying to lead the process did a good job in being impartial and try to listen to all ideas that were flying around. However, the reason why not many people's ideas got in their attention is the chaos that was in the classroom. And in my opinion we could have manage it better and be more organized with our proposals and people who weren't willing to compromise on anything making the rest of students beg for their vote had a lack of accommodation.
ReplyDeleteI also think that the main leaders did a great job. Without them then everything would've been twice as chaotic. I feel that a reason why opinions were'nt getting heard was because people would just scream out ideas all together. We should have been a bit more organized, but with the time that we had and excitement of being able to make our own decision, i think we did a decent job
ReplyDeleteI took the same approach, accomodation. All I wanted was to apply the curve to my grade and that was it. I also for the most part let the others fight over the little perks they wanted on the next test. But by observing I came to a different conclusion then you. Yes most of the people had taken the accomodation and collaboration approach, that's just because most people fall into the norm, not extremes. But I think the only reason we were successful was because the desperation and the lack of time, that forced us to finally come together. It's also the pressure that if we disagreed we were going to lose everything, so the success of the proposal was not due to good planning in decision-making process, it was because the class was put in a do or die situation. We had to many people thinking themselves as leaders trying to run the show, we spent more time yelling over each other then actual progress towards coming to an decision. But in our defense, seeing that it was a large class and we were unaware it was an assignment, it wasn't to bad.
ReplyDeleteIn my point of view, the discussion was not quite successful. There were many good ideas penetrating to the core of our problem, the low average, but eventually they were ignored. I received a horrible grade, thus I really appreciate this huge curve; however, i think we should have done better on our decision making process.
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