Jen:
I see others have helped flush out an approach to managing this scenario. As a course director you are in a tough (and common) position when asked to mediate a team dispute. In fact, disputes are a natural part of teaming (form>storm>norm>perform). If you chose to intervene, you often don't know all of the facts and the dispute can resurface later. If you leave the team alone, it may stay stuck storming. Overall this kind of problem impacts student and faculty buy-in to TBL, which might be critical if you are an early adopter at your institution. In larger classes, the rate of dispute tends to go up and your job gets a lot harder if you don't have a strategy.
Students are not trained in teamwork skills. Some are miserably underprepared to be a teammate, but the world is full of team experiences. Ultimately, you would like the students to work out conflict amongst themselves and grow in their teamwork and interpersonal skills. An approach to consider with your next TBL course is to consider spending 30-45 minutes during the first week (while teaming is still safe and fun) to ask the students to create a team contract by reflecting on past teamwork and expectations, agreeing on ground rules for working together, and pre-planning resolution strategies to overcome disputes.
Attached is a contract used by some TBL'ers that I presented at TBLC a few years ago. It is pretty self-explanatory.
Hope this helps,
Will Ofstad, Pharm.D., BCPS, CDE
Assistant Dean for Education
Office: (559) 374-2230
[log in to unmask]
Team-Based Learning Collaborative
Member and Certified Consultant-Trainer
www.teambasedlearning.org
California Health Sciences University
www.chsu.org
120 N. Clovis Avenue
Clovis, CA 93612
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Topics of the day:
1. helping students address interpersonal conflict - question
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Date: Mon, 27 Feb 2017 05:24:02 +0000
From: Jen Wrye <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: helping students address interpersonal conflict - question
Hi list,
I'm still a newbie!, and, I've got my first interpersonal conflict. As background, I teach a course with only two groups: one has 5 members and the other has 4. During a class last week, "Tina" kind of stormed out of class abruptly at the break. Her teammates (and I) asked her if she was ok. She said she was annoyed and left upset. "Ramona" emailed Tina to check in. In that message Ramona admitted she can be direct in her approach, was humble and expressed hope they can get back on track.
Tina responded:
"My issue was with you. The reason why I said nothing is beacause at that moment I had nothing nice to say so it is best to reframe myself, thats the way I was taught. I also did not wish to express my thoughts when I was quite annoyed with your overbearing attitude, I find it quite trying at times and try to ignore it beause it is a part of your nature, but it was just to much to cope with on Tuesday."
Romona has shared this. She's upset and feels that they're at an impasse. Ramona is talking about not coming back and/or figuring out an alternative to the current team situation. Midterm feedback is due on Tuesday at the midterm. Ramona doesn't want to exchange feedback with Tina.
I've emailed Tina a generic, 'how are you' but haven't heard back yet. I'm considering talking with Ramona who reached out, to help her to work through why Tina's message upset her and to problem solve her response. Tina's message was certainly direct, but also in line with what Ramona wrote about herself.
I'm wondering if this is an advisable approach. I don't want to meddle, but move them toward a resolution. I certainly don't want to reconstitute all of the teams or reconfigure the course for a slighted student. Incidentally, both students are mature (early 40s and late 50s).
Any thoughts or other ideas are appreciated. I'm already VERY grateful for this listserv.
Thanks kindly,
Jen
Jen Wrye, PhD
Instructor, Department of Humanities & Social Sciences North Island College
2300 Ryan Road
Courtenay, BC V9N 8N6
(250) 334-5030
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I'm grateful to live in the traditional, unceded territories of the K'ómoks First Nation.
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