Peace And Conflict group project reflection

Peace and Conflict Group Project Reflection

Vivienne Lam 10R

Evaluation of project plan and process

The strengths of our plan were that it was well presented and well structured. We split the plan into particular sections that make up the process of this group project. We also listed all the sub questions that we had to answer through our research and the information board. On the other hand, our plan definitely had weaknesses. When we first put together the plan, we thought of making a video to go along with the information board. So we made time for the video in our timeframe. The video was going to be interviews with teachers and students about their views on bullying. However when we started working on the research, we realized our time was running out and our video would be very rushed and low quality if we had to make one. Instead we decided to concentrate on making the information board the best it could be, therefore not doing the video. We also skipped over the case studies in our presentation because somehow members of my group didn’t really research the case study enough in order to provide information. That was definitely a letdown because that would have added more evidence of how bullying affects others. I thought that despite the weaknesses in the plan, it was a good solid plan that guided us through the process of this group project.

The strengths of the process were that we worked quite well together and we listened to each other’s ideas. We were clear on what needed working on after every week and were constantly analyzing our own work to see if it was in enough detail. We didn’t have any arguments during the process, which was definitely one of the strengths because we didn’t waste any time arguing. We also found an inspirational video when we were researching the topic of bullying which used in the outcome. 

If I had to improve our plan, I would plan more time for the case studies research and to spread the workload a bit more evenly amongst the members in our group because some of us like Alsha and I did much more work than some of the others. The others could have taken on more responsibilities regarding answering the sub questions. I would also add more visuals on the plan so we could visualize how the outcome would look like, which will give us a target to work towards.

Evaluation of Project Outcome

The information board fulfilled most of the objectives we wanted to convey. We answered all the sub questions we had. However, we didn’t fulfill the case studies part of the plan. It was aesthetically pleasing and received many great comments from other students who came to look at our information board during the exhibition.

The successes of our information board were that it was packed with good information from many different perspectives and sources. The board had graphs and statistics that were valid, the information were balanced out by the inspirational video and the visuals. The title on the information board was very eye-catching which draws people in to read more about the research we’ve done. Another favourable outcome from our board was that we elaborated a lot on the different impacts that bullying does to people, which was what our key question was asking. It was very good that we stuck to our main question and answered it to the best of our abilities. We also had the survey results and quotes from those responses showing how Island School teachers and students think about bullying. We were very satisfied with how the results we got were very honest and gave us numerous ideas about how it impacts a victim of this horrible act. Collecting information through people who have actually have been through this is definitely the most reliable way. This was what made our information board so reliable and emphasizes on the realness of this issue.

The failures of our outcomes were that it was structured very clearly; therefore it was a little hard to find the information that related to each heading. This was due to the fact that we ran out of time right before the exhibition because we didn’t cut out the information beforehand. We didn’t plan the layout of the presentation well enough before we put everything on. Our information board lacked the sources also known as the bibliography, which was a printing mistake that shouldn’t have happened. From this experience, I learned that you should prepare everything before the presentation well and thorough because you never know exactly how much time you would have. Time management is definitely a skill that is developed through experience.

Evaluation of my contribution

Throughout this group project, I have been an active part of the group because I was the group leader so I had the responsibility to keep everyone on track and to get everyone to contribute equally. We were able to make progress because I took on the leadership role within my group. I knew that I had to keep everyone focused in order for us to successfully finish the information board. I definitely felt like I pushed everyone to do the best of their ability, which lead to our very successful outcome.  I also used my skills as a photographer to capture photos of my group members working during the process of the research and the creation of the information board. This was a interesting approach to adding visuals to our presentation because many people would not consider taking photos during the process, which made our information board more unique and personal. Even though I was keeping my group on track throughout the process, I still had lessons where we all slacked off a little which made us lose a lot of valuable time. If we didn’t waste that time doing other things that we weren’t suppose to then we could have made our information board even better.

The difficulties for working as a group were definitely trying to distribute the jobs evenly, so that everyone can pull their weight. Trusting that everyone will contribute was definitely a hard thing to do. That is why we had to recap every week to reflect on our progress and decide what needs more work.

The benefits of working as a group were that we could divide up the workload and split the jobs according to everyone’s strengths and weaknesses. Making an information board on your own would be very difficult and take way longer.  This way using the specialization of the jobs we could each concentrate on a certain section of the information board and could put in much more effort and detail.

What I’ve learned from this project

I learned a lot about conflict through this project. This was because we could choose our own topic to learn more about. Given this freedom really made me more proactive to learn about the topic. I was very intrigued by the fact that there are many types of conflict, such as inner conflict, arguments, bullying, abuse and war. All of them should be taken seriously and dealt with. The impact that conflict has on people can go a long way and if not treated well it will affect someone psychologically for the rest of their life.