Reflective Journal Group Work

The theory I am going to relate this weeks group work to is effective communication strategies and developing and maintaining positive relationships. Effective communication starts with being a good listener and showing an interest in what is being said.It is also not talking over the speaker and giving everyone a chance to speak.

90% of communication is non verbal, so it is important to think about body language, tone of voice,posture,facial expressions and eye contact.
It is also important that you face the speaker close enough to hear and watch for non-verbal behavior.

In our group we always make sure we seat ourselves around a table so we can all face and hear each other.I have found that everybody contributes more and nobody feels left out while seated this way.I noticed this week while looking at everyone in our group that all our group members were sitting in an open position. One of the difficulties we had this week was that we stayed in our classroom for group work .There were two other groups that also stayed. There was a lot of noise,people moving around and coming in and out of the classroom.I found it very hard to concentrate and to hear what was being said.Another member of our group also commented that they found it difficult as well.

Reflecting back we should have moved to an empty classroom where all of our attention is on our group and not the distractions going on around us.I believe we could have worked a lot more effectively if we had moved.

I feel that all the members in our group have a very positive relationship with each other.We have developed this positive relationship early on in our group work.In our group members have always listened to each other and let everyone have their say on our decisions.We respect each other and are open to different ideas.We acknowledge good work with encouragement and praise.It shows that you appreciate the work that has been carried out.

So