By the time that you are reading this post, the research project will be coming to an end soon and all that is left is to do up any last amendments and compilation before the submission date. With that, I would like to share with you some aspects of the positive experience that I derived from doing the research project with my group members, Gary and Yun Nian:
1) Firstly, I have to admit that research is not as easy as it seems because there are so many different features and details that one has to pay close attention to while doing the project. For example, you have to come up with a potential research topic at the start and then think about the problem statement, hypothesis for the research and the purpose statement. After which, you have to think about how you want to conduct the research through a survey and then collate the data before analyzing them and doing the write-up. Hence, a great deal of time and effort has to be committed to all these tasks and it was a good thing that everyone was quite a good team player as we divided up the tasks to do so as to be able to finish the report on time.
2) In order to be a good team player, I believe that good communication skills were needed so as to be able to forge good interpersonal relationships with each other. For example, being an active and good listener while other group members voiced out their views is a sign of respect and acknowledgement to the person who is talking as it shows that the person does play an important role in contributing to the group. In addition, effective communication can prevent the onset of conflict as we are able to prevent misunderstandings and clashes of views. Hence, it was a good thing that all of us were able to demonstrate good communication skills and ensured smooth teamwork throughout the entire process.
3) Empathy is also important in the sense that since all of us came from different majors, we would definitely have different commitments and time constraints. For me, I remembered that when I was doing the literature review section, I needed more time to read through all the journal articles as I had a test coming up and another assignment due, thus I was glad that both Gary and Yun Nian were understanding and kind enough to give me more time to finish up that section. In addition, they also helped me to locate some other sources of information which might be useful so as to reduce my burden. Hence we can see that being empathetic is able to further strengthen the team spirit and enhance the productivity of the group.
4) Being versatile and pro-active are also important factors that can contribute to the success of the group because if everyone is nonchalant and stubborn, things will not be done effectively and efficiently as each individual is only concerned with his/her part and not willing to help other group members. This once again corresponds to being a good team player because in a group, everyone has to co-operate and work well with each other or else risk the failure of the group in the end. Having said that, I was quite glad that all of us had the voluntary spirit to help out with each other in completing the various tasks when faced with difficulties such as time constraints, difficulty of the subject, managing and organizing the group, etc. Our group had definitely gone through thick and thin together in finishing this research project.
Hopefully, the same esprit de corps and good teamwork bond that we fostered during the research project can make the subsequent oral presentation a positive experience as well…
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3 comments:
YES! I am so glad all that hard work and effort is going to come to an end. I bet the outcome would be awesome.
Anyways, I agree with you that having mates that understand your situation is important in a group. Yes, all of us have exams but sometimes, its best that every group mate take an initiative to ask the rest whether they can cope with the task assigned as well as their studying. Some individual may choose to suffer in silence and carry the burden since they feel that telling their mates that they have an upcoming exams would meant that they are not carrying their share of workload. Sometimes, it takes the rest to ask whether they are ok with it.
Hi, Zhi Lian, it is so true that research is hard and time consuming! I spent most of my time on research also.I think your group's topic is really interesting, so you must be happy in finding out more in the research.
It is so fortunate to have cooperative and understanding groupmates. I can see that all of you have been very open minded to each other. You were able to speak out the problems you were facing and asked for help and understanding, while your groupmates were also very understanding. Having open communication is important in enhancing the more efficient work.
Thank you Zhilian, for this detailed reflection which showed a lot of thought put into the post. I'm very glad to hear that there was "esprit de corps" and "good teamwork bond" among group members. It's wonderful to know that your group members did not just allow you more time to finish your share of the work but in fact helped you by providing you with additional sources to look at!
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