Group Crit Session

[wb: 22/10/18]

 This week in our taught sessions we had a group crit session including some second year students where we were able to here 15 minute presentation on their projects as they move into the second year. The process involved hearing the presentation then a period for peer feedback and questions to be answered. I found this to be extremely useful in understanding how the course is delivered and how other students were structuring their research timelines. 

This session really reinforced to me how much collaboration and peer feedback was key to a succesful and well considered research project. Often classmates were able to identify areas overlooked or to help brainstorm new possibilites for the researcher to achieve their goals. To try and stimulate further reflection on how to collaborate more effectively with my peers I watched some TEDtalks on the subject. One that particularly stood out to me was Jim Tamm's presentation on collaboration and how to bring about effective collaboration particularly in public education.

Tamm's key point is that conflict often comes from a defensive reflex, and so I am going to try and implement this knowledge by decreasing my defensiveness and opening myself up to criticism and feedback as positive and not scary prospect. Tamm also suggests placing yourself in the other person's situation to better understand how they might be feeling vulnerable so our feedback is a positive not negative experience for them. One of the key examples he gives is that often defensiveness in education or the workplace is cause we fear feeling incompetent. I think this will be an important change for the way I approach the project as in the past I have often been too shy or defensive to seek outside feedback.