Did you just carry out group work in your course? Have you handed in the work to the instructor? Often after completing a group work assignment, the instructor may require you to write an essay on critical reflection on the group presentation.
This assignment on providing a critical reflection on group presentation should contain certain elements. Also, your essay on critical reflection on the group’s presentation should follow a presentation reflection form for you to obtain good grades.
The structure of the essay on critical reflection on the group’s presentation is that it starts as a general reflection of group activities and then narrows to your group’s specifics. The seven steps that you need to follow when writing a critical reflection on group presentation essay are as follows:
Explain personal reflection on group therapy
Definitions will always be a good way to start your reflective essay on group work presentation examples. Defining terms in your essay ensures that the reader is aware of what you are talking about. You should never assume that a reader knows the meaning of the key terms in your essay.
Also, a term can have more than one meaning. You want to ensure that you and the reader are aware of the meaning you are referring to. In this essay on critical reflection on the group’s presentation, the key term is reflection.
Critical reflection on the group’s assignment refers to the act of thinking about an event or act that happened and reviewing it so you can do it better next time.
In your essay on critical reflection on the group’s assignment, the event you will be reflecting on is the group work presentation. Therefore in your essay on class presentation reflection, you must highlight what happened during group work, and how you intend to do it better.
Critical Reflection on Group Presentation: Give the benefits of group work
Since you have handled the group work assignment, did you think about the reasons behind the assigning? In this section, you should highlight the different benefits that students can accrue from group work and what group work helps you achieve. Some of the benefits you can highlight are:
Better communication skills
Individual assignments target to sharpen one’s writing skills. However, when handling a group work assignment, team members have to work on communication skills alongside writing skills. The communication skills that are critical when carrying out a group work assignment are active listening, talking when given a chance, speaking up when you have an idea and compromising your ideas for the sake of the other members.
Helps members learn how to manage conflict
Conflict is inevitable whenever there are more people undertaking a task, and a group work assignment is no different. Different people have varying ideas and opinions, and that may be ground to create disagreements. However, team members will learn to manage conflict and disagreement when they have a common goal they want to accomplish.
Explores multiple perspectives
When there are different people giving their unique contribution, one can see the different perspectives that a subject has based on their individual reflection. The discussion amongst team members helps team members view the assignment subject in different angles.
Multiple perspectives to a subject makes the problem solution easier and more effective. You are likely to score more on a group work assignment than you would on an individual assignment.
Allows each member to contribute their unique skill
Every team member has skills that are unique to them. A group can make the most out of the different unique skills for best results. One team member’s strength makes up for another’s weakness. As a result, the final product of the group work assignment is of the best standard.
Take, for instance, a team member who is good at research can help with research work for the group assignment, while a member who is good at technology can help prepare the group presentation.
Explain the challenges you faced
Group work is not exempt from its fair share of challenges, and there is no doubt that you encountered one or more of these. Some of the challenges that team members face when tackling group work include:
Time-consuming
A group project has different stages that it must undergo before its completion. It is important that the project follows the steps systematically. In each step, every group member should agree on the results before the group can proceed to the step.
As such, group work may take more time than you planned for. Improper planning of the group work can lead to late delivery of the group assignment, which is punishable.
Breakdown in communication
This problem may be experienced by students who take online classes and have to hold online discussions with the other team members. In this case, you may email a team member for their input, and they take time to reply to you.
Late replies would mean that the online discussion takes longer than it should. Regular communication is an important element for the success of group work, but some group members can let the group down.
Joyriders
You may find that some people may undertake more work than others when handling a group work assignment. This is an inevitable challenge, and every group must devise ways to curb this challenge. Every individual should chip in their contribution, which is essential for the group to accomplish its goals. Delegation of tasks is the solution to this problem as it ensures everyone has a role to play.
Conflict in learning styles
Students learn in diverse ways. Some students are best at grasping concepts during lecture time, while others need to study on either own before or after the lecture.
When handling group work, different students need to put their heads together and tackle a single assignment. Conflict will be inevitable in this case and may frustrate some group members.
Focus on specifics
In this next section, you need to narrow down to the specifics of your group work. You will need to highlight the specific benefits that working in a group offered and the challenges experienced. Were there team members who were absent in your meeting?
Did you tackle the tasks in good time? Did you encounter any communication breakdown? Did you build professional relations? Did you see the assignment subject from different angles? Did you cover much work in your course content?
One important thing to keep in mind when writing down the specifics is that you should express your ideas in the first person. Also, you are giving your point of view on issues, and you would not need any citations. However, these two elements could differ if the assignment guidelines tell you to do otherwise.
Describe the group performance
Here, you can break down the group functioned and the different things that you carried out as a group for the realization of the group work. Mention any strategy you found helpful, any technology that you implemented, and any helpful references you made.
It is expected that you made changes as you progressed with the project for smooth running. Remember to indicate these changes and any details no matter how minute it is as it played a part in accomplishing the group’s goals.
At this juncture, you can describe the different roles that each individual undertook in the team. According to Belbin, there are 9 different roles that team members can take up when they are in a team. Each role is unique to the individual. All these roles work harmoniously to see that the group meets its set objectives smoothly.
Belbin personality test and team roles for a reflective essay
A team is only as effective as the team members. The members of a team should assume different roles which are suitable depending on the personality types of the team members. The roles members take up should consider their strengths and weaknesses.
Group Presentation Example
That way, people can take up tasks according to their strengths. Below is a description of the 9 Belbin team roles that one can use to define the roles of team members for effective group work.
Belbin personality test
The Belbin personality test gets its name from its inventor—Meredith Beldin. Beldin came up with an inventory test when undertaking a study at Henley Management College.
The purpose of the study was to identify different roles that individuals can assume when in a team. Team participants should measure their traits through the test and evaluate their behaviors.
After that, the team members should receive feedback from other observers. They can then compare the two findings. Results from the study show that there are nine roles that a team member can take up.
In some cases, you can find that one individual is suited to handle more than one role, depending on the character traits they possess. However, as long as you include the different roles in a team, you are set to have a well-balanced team.
Belbin team roles
Belbin team roles refer to descriptions of duties that individuals in a team can take up. These roles fall into three major categories: people-oriented roles, action-oriented roles, and thought-oriented roles. The nine roles are as follows:
Thought-oriented roles
The plant
This category of people get their name as they are the members who bring about progress and growth in a team. These individuals are creative in that they come up with new ideas and ways of doing things.
They are also free-thinkers, and that is the reason why they prefer to work alone. Although one may argue that this trait disqualifies them from being useful in a team, they are valuable in a team. The plants are responsible for innovating solutions and concepts that propel a team’s effort.
The specialist
Any team member with expert knowledge in a certain field is referred to as a specialist. These team members have in-depth knowledge of certain subjects. As such, specialists are useful when a task in teamwork involves their area of expertise. The knowledge that specialists have is not something other team members have.
And hence, they are assets to the team. At first, it may seem challenging to have such a person on the team. Their willingness to contribute in their area of expertise saves the team a lot of work in researching a new field.
The monitor evaluator
These individuals arrive at decisions based on rational thinking and pure fact instead of instinct and emotions. These individuals are serious and often excel in strategic planning and critical thinking.
Whenever there is a challenge, a monitor evaluator will consider multiple angles of the problem and come up with a suitable solution. The individuals are loners and will only be active when there is a challenge.
People-oriented
The resource investigator
These are team members who are extroverts and are great at networking. They are flexible and will explore new developments and opportunities. They may not necessarily come up with new ideas, but may pick ideas from other team members. Once they find out new opportunities, resource investigators bring them to the team and use them to further the progress of the group work.
The team worker
Team workers are also extroverts and have friendly dispositions. These people are good listeners and help a team to function as a unit. These are the kind that will step in to help a team member when he or she has a large workload.
Team workers are versatile and will interact well with different people regardless of their trait. Team workers are good at establishing oneness in the team and solving any issues that may arise among team members in the team.
The coordinator
These are mature individuals in a team who possess strong communication and interpersonal skills. Coordinators use a more democratic approach to leadership where they value open communication in the team. Coordinators believe that the contribution of each individual is critical to the accomplishment of an organization’s goals.
They will thus push individuals to meet their uniquely set objectives. Also, coordinators have the ability to identify talents and abilities within a team. They will then assign personal duties depending on the strengths of an individual.
Action-oriented
The shaper
Shapers are individuals who are generally born as leaders. They are extroverts and will push themselves and other team members to deliver results. They are driven and have the ability to motivate other team members.
These individuals are not shaken by any challenge that may come their way. They remain positive throughout with the goals they need to achieve in mind. Also, these individuals will challenge any existing norms to carry out tasks with the aim of creating new goals and strategies.
The finisher
These individuals are also known as completers. They are introverts who check the progress of a team’s performance in stages to ensure that a team is meeting its goals. These individuals are perfectionists and thus pay attention even to the minute details of a team’s work.
This ability helps them spot any errors and mistakes that a team may make and jeopardise the final results. This group of people acknowledge that they are perfectionists and often do not expect the team members to be perfectionists. The finishers are essential members of a team as they see that the team delivers high-quality work.
The implementer
These individuals value order and structure highly. Therefore, they are practical in their operations and will create solid plans from ideas. These individuals are disciplined and will set aside their personal interests to meet the needs of the team.
Although they follow an established way of doing things, these people are open to embrace new ideas as long as they will obtain positive results. These individuals serve as the backbone of an organization as they must see to it that the team’s goals turn to tangible success.
Explore the lessons learnt and what you would do differently the next time
The above sections entailed the reflection of the group work and performance. Your reflective essay on collaboration is incomplete without highlighting the lessons you learnt from the reflection.
The lessons you picked will guide you into the action plan you should take when you have a group task next. This is a critical section as it reveals the importance of critical reflection on a group assignment.
Some of the ideas you can use in this section include:
- Will you set deadlines earlier?
- Will you use a different channel of communication?
- Will you seek external help?
- How will you manage conflict better?
Like the above section, this section is unique to your group’s work. You may feel that you do did a perfect job on the group work. Regardless, there is always something that you could have done better when given a chance to do it again.
There you go, those are key steps you need to follow when writing a critical reflection on the group’s presentation. Your performance on a reflective essay on simulation will influence your grades, and you need to get it right.
You can also check out UKessays.com for student project reflection examples and more guidelines and tips on how to handle such a task. Besides that, Kessays offers legit homework help for your reflective essay on group work example and will come in handy when you need high-quality and timely work.
