Katie
My heart goes out to you - this part of TBL is no fun. I have had only
one similar experience and, as with most things, everything ended up being
okay in the end.
First and foremost, the students who came to you are probably hoping that
you will move the other student to a different team, or that you will 100%
side with them, creating an uncomfortable power dynamic between the
teammates and between you and the students. They may also be hoping that
you will lower the other student's grade. None of these things need to
happen.
I think one of the worst things you could do would be to rearrange teams.
So I hope you don't choose to do that. In my case, I had a chat with each
of the offending parties, and basically said that they would remain in the
same team for the whole semester, so it would behoove them for the sake of
their sanity and for their grades to reach a truce or a compromise with
each other. I explained that in the workplace, a similar situation may
arise, and learning the skills to deal with it effectively will be
extremely important, both personally and professionally. I reminded them
that their peer evaluations were worth a large portion of their grade (in
my classes it ranges from 17-20%) so it would be smart, if they wanted to
pass the class, to make adjustments to their own temperaments and ways of
doing things (i.e. completing the application exercises) but also to be
honest on the peer evaluations. I have never "touched" a peer evaluation -
that is, I have never changed someone's peer evaluation score.
I would reassure the worried students that you will be monitoring (I assume
you walk around the class during application exercises) the situation but
that they are also responsible for making the team work well together - the
team's success does not depend on everyone being happy and getting along
together all of the time; it depends on teammates to show maturity and
respect when disagreements arise. After chatting with both parties, I also
reminded them to arrive at the next class with a clean slate. Gossipping
and moaning and complaining about it to others (also known as
co-ruminating) would only make the situation worse.
In my case, after I had the conversation and one of the students got dinged
pretty badly on her peer evaluation, she changed her behavior and her
teammates were also less hostile. It was amazing, actually - they handled
it better than I expected.
Anyway, hope this helps some. Good luck!
Meghan Gillette
Doctoral Candidate
Human Development and Family Studies
Iowa State University
On Wed, Sep 11, 2013 at 11:05 AM, Katie Alexander <
[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Hi everyone,
>
> I have a dysfunctional team and I'd like some advice. We just finished our
> first application exercise of the semester. Four out of five team members
> approached me after class to talk about one of their team members. They
> are frustrated because this team member immediately dismisses everything
> they say. He went ahead and reported during the application exercise with
> the answer he wanted rather than what the rest of the team came to
> consensus on. After that he stopped contributing completely and remained
> silent for the rest of class with his head on the desk (the other team
> members must have ostracized him). Apparently his behavior is already
> extreme and this is the third week of class. I'd like to intervene
> immediately and create a positive experience for everyone involved and
> make sure all students are respecting the contributions of others. Any
> suggestions?
>
> Best,
> Katie
>
> Katherine Alexander, PhD
> Assistant Professor, Psychology Department
> Founders Hall: 431
> Office Hours: Tues/Thurs 10-12, Wed 11:30-12:30 & by appointment
>
> College of Mount Saint Vincent
> 6301 Riverdale Avenue
> Riverdale, NY 10471
>
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