I can remember when I was a freshman taking ENGL 318 - Argumentation and Reports that we had to work on a group paper as part of the requirements for the class. The professor had made it clear from the very first lecture that our grade would consists entirely of our performance on the group report. We were required to first write a one paragraph suggestion of the type of report we would like to work on and then we were to turn those in the professor who would group them according to shared interests. Needless to say I submitted my suggestion for something related to the sciences since it was my major. I specified that I would like to work on something to do with medical science or applied biology. Unfortunately, as I was later to find out, I was just about the only science major in the class.

On the day when we were to pick groups for the report I found myself all alone. Apparently no one in the class of 30 students had any shared interest in the sciences. As students started to assemble into groups I found myself wondering how would I be able to resolve this predicament. I decided to approach one group and asked them if I would be could join. To my surprise they told me "no" because they really didn't want any more people in their group, even though they only had three and most groups had at least four students. So now I was the only one left in the class who hadn't joined a group. When the professor came along and saw that I hadn't joined a group she became angry with me inspite of my reasons I had given her. In the end she put me into the same group that had just rejected me and in which I had no common interest with whatsoever, a group who had decided to work on a project dealing with sports trading cards and comic books.

Needless to say my induction into this group presented a whole new array of problems. For one thing no one in the group really wanted me to be in it and I really didn't want to work with a group doing a report on something I perceived as very "unscientific". In our first group meeting I noticed that the other members were tacitly ignoring my suggestions and input for the report. I decided that I was not going to let this kind of behavior continue and so told the group outright that either they would take me seriously and give me the respect I deserved or that I would not participate at all which would mean that we would all get poor grades in the course. After that we all reached an understanding that inspite of our circumstances we were all in the same boat together would have to learn to deal with one another if we were to accomplish this project.

After our first couple meetings we started running into additional problems. We didn't seem to have any real direction and to that end we spent our meeting just kinda floundering and not making any real progress. In addition, some group members were constantly tardy and unprepared. Finally we decided to set aside one of our group meeting s and come up with a set of criteria and standards to hold each other accountable. We divided up subtopics within our project and assigned tasks to individuals. After that our group became much more productive and actually started accomplishing some of the goals we had set out to do.

As the quarter progressed our group encountered yet another problem that proved to almost derail all of our collective efforts. The issue of communication with one another and with the group as a whole began to break down. Once again we as a group had to set aside some special time and begin to address our communication skills. Although we hadn't realized it at the time one of biggest problems is that we really didn't listen to one another and so were creating unnecessary confusion. We decided to exchange phone numbers and e-mail addresses and decided that if we needed to communicate something to the entire group that we would notify all of its members and not just one or two. We also decided to increase the frequency of our group meetings if for nothing else just to exchange messages and give progress reports.

I'm happy to say that in the end we were able to present our report to the class and received a good grade. Of course that didn't mean that the group all came together masterfully at the end, but we were able to go from what seemed like a hopeless situation and put aside our own biases and dislikes and work together and get the project done. And as far as that class was concerned, that's what really counted.

Concepts covered in PSY 204

1. Assertiveness Behavior: Asserting my concerns to the group
2. Group Facilitation Skills: Assigning tasks to members
3. Group Dynamics: Issues of personality conflicts
4. Resolving Small Group Problems: Coming together to address group issues
5. Communication Skills: Deciding to actively listen to one another