Teamwork is something which requires the contribution of all members of the team in order to work. Good team work requires contribution, communication, and preparedness of the material so as to be effective and efficient during a group activity. I have learned a lot about teamwork in my courses in Agnes, especially from my physics classes. This semester, my group and I have done a good job in creating a good team environment.
I have always known that teamwork is something which requires the contribution of all its team members, and I was able to see that in my team. Sometimes it is intimidating to share ideas in a group in the fear of being wrong. However, in my group, I was not afraid to ask questions and be wrong because these were learning experiences for me and the rest of my group. We were able to clarify and get a better understanding of our material through our confusion. So if someone was confused, another member would step up and explain and clarify, ultimately helping the rest of the group understand the topic.
I have learned that as I have been working in groups, I have gotten better at communicating and working together with my group. When in groups, it is easy to stay quiet and not voice an opinion in the fear of being wrong. However, from my group experiences, although I might be a bit hesitant to express my confusion, my group members have been very supportive and tried to better help me understand the material and clear up my confusion. I also try to ask questions so that we as a group can move forward and consider other ways to look at a problem. When asking clarifying questions, it helped us work out some of the kinks in our understanding of the topics and helped another team member, who understood the topic, to teach the rest of the group and clarify some things.
From the Catme surveys, my teammates have said that I am good at creating a good visual for understanding, whether it is writing notes on the board or creating diagrams. Since I am a visual learner, i believe that this helps me understand things more clearly, and in turn helps the group as a whole.
From the feedback that I have received from my team members, I will make sure that I always voice my opinion, even if it is a question to clarify my confusion. I want to work on my contribution skills, and make sure that I am a good asset to the group and provide my input. I want to keep working on starting to prepare for the group work and group discussions so that I know what is going on in the class and am able to contribute to my full potential.
When comparing my ratings to the ratings that I have received from my group members, I feel that I am underestimating my contributions to the group. At times I have believed that I do not contribute so much to the group discussions or am confused a lot of the time, however when looking at my group members’ comments, I see that my questions also help them clear misunderstandings of the topic and can help us get on the right track. My group members had also stated that I do a good job trying to keep the discussion flowing and on track, which I do believe that I try to do.
I hope to use my teamwork skills in the future to be a good team member. I know that when I am put into a group, it is important that I contribute my ideas and questions even when I am a bit hesitant to do so. This will be the only way to clear up any confusion about the material. I will continue to try and communicate with my team members so as to let them know what is going on and have a better understanding within the group. Finally, I will always make sure that I am prepared for the group. Preparedness is key to having a good team.I will use these team skills and apply it in the future to my career as well as to build better relationships. The key skills that I took for teamwork is contribution, communication, and preparedness which will help in any situation.
