Kirk Rose summarizes his experience working in a group of six other students over the course of a semester. He found that the group worked well together once they moved past the initial forming stage and each took on roles that suited their strengths. Kirk's role involved doing research, and he learned he needs to speak up more in group discussions. The group encountered some challenges integrating a new member but was ultimately cohesive. Kirk felt the dialogue event the group planned was a success and taught him about forms of sexism he was previously unaware of. Through this project, Kirk gained insight into small group dynamics and now better understands how to contribute as an effective group member.

1. Kirk Rose
Sexism
Throughout the semester I got the opportunity to work some really great people. In my
group I had the pleasure of working with Julia Pfahnl, Nicolas Meyers, Suzanne Omar, Brandy
Maldonado, Ana Kieu and Bret Hardwick-Renner. I really learned a lot from all of them during
my time in the group. I enjoyed working with Julia because she seemed to always have insight
on whatever topic we were talking about. I also liked how she kept the team focused and
encouraged group members to contribute if they were keeping quite. Another group member who
took on more of a facilitator role was Bret. He was always on top of assigning group members
with task to accomplish, along with accomplishing his own tasks. He also had a lot to contribute
during group discussion, which to me made our discussion go smoother. What I mean by that is
his insight on topics made other group members comfortable with sharing their ideas. Nick
played a big role in planning our dialogue event and recruiting people to come. He also planned
out our group meetings and kind of organized our group discussions. On top of that he always
contributed good content to the discussions and finished his tasks on time. Suzanne also helped
out Nick with the planning and organizing discussions. Suzanne also contributed a lot to
discussion and was not afraid to share her thoughts. Ana and Brandy were more of the
researchers in the group. Whenever there was a task that asked for research they were the first to
jump on those topics. During group discussion they, along with me, were the group members
who needed to be nudged to speak up and contribute during discussions. I pretty much filled in
where needed. If I was need for organizing things for upcoming discussions. Sometimes they
need me to help out with research, which was something I felt I was good at. Overall I feel our
group was assembled perfectly because we all brought our own strengths to the groups, and were
able to grow and improve our weaknesses by working with each other.

2. When our group formed we started out in the forming stage. Here is when we learned
each other names and learned a little bit about each other. I feel during this stage we were not as
productive as we could have been. During this stage we were trying to get a feel for how each
other work, and what person would be best used in what role. Also during this stage it was more
of us just sitting around looking at each other. I felt this happened because we were trying to get
comfortable around new group members. After we started getting used to being around each
other and talking to one another things started to pick up. It was almost like we skipped the
storming phase at first. Once Ana was added to our group that’s when we got into the storming
phase. I’m positive this had nothing to do with Ana personally, but some of the group members
did not really want another group member. This kind of created so controversy in the group and
we had to work things out. Like I said it did not really have anything to do with Ana personally, I
feel like the problem arose because we already had six group members and now we were getting
a seventh. Once we figured out how to make seven people work evenly in our group we moved
right into the norming and performing phases. During the norming phase we were working to get
everyone on the same page again since we got side tracked with the addition of one more person.
Here is when we started to split up the work so everyone had a role in the project. Also during
this norming phase is where I started to see some cohesion in our group. This is when all of us
stepped up and made sure to do our part in contributing and making sure things got done on time.
We never really had anyone who failed to do a task they were assigned to do, and I did not really
see anyone who tried to take over the group and be the supreme ruler. This made us all feel like
our contributions to the group mattered. For this group to work so good like it did, we really
needed to be cohesive and work together as a team.

3. Now during the performing phase is where we really started to see things come together.
My role in particular was not a very big one but I felt like my part was just as important as the
rest. I feel as a part of this group I always tried to do my best work and have it done by the time
we agreed on as a group. My role in the group was kind was more of doing some of the research
on topics. One topic I had to research was how sexism affected men. I also feel that when I had
something to say I wasn’t afraid to speak up and say what’s on my mind. While I did that I feel I
didn’t do it enough. I felt I was one of the quitter members in our group. If there was one thing I
would like to see myself improve on in group projects is speaking up more often instead of when
people probe me too. I would also like to see myself take on more of a facilitator role. I’m the
kind of person who just likes to sit and listen rather than talk himself so I feel the facilitator role
in a group would be best suited for me. But I learned the importance of working in small groups
during this phase. During this phase I learned that we all possess strengths we can share with the
group and learn from each other. This is stated perfectly by Dobao in his article “learners can
contribute their strengths to the group and, because no two learners share the same knowledge
and strengths, the group can achieve a level of performance that is beyond each individual
learner’s level of competence” (pg. 515). By working in groups it allows us to learn from each
other, on topics that are similar but we all share different view points on.
My group members all played a role in making our dialogue event go as smoothly as it
did. Like I said earlier I feel at the started we all were trying to feel each other out before we
opened up to one another. Once that happened people started taking on their respective role I
explained earlier. I feel we all worked good together, and no one let someone slack off. We never
had the slacker problem because we knew the rest of the group would get on us for slacking. If
there were any problems in our group it was figuring out how to make sure all seven people in

4. the group had even roles. To me it was hard enough to figure it out with six people, but seven
made it even tougher. One suggestion would be to have group meetings outside of class. We
always tried to meet after class, and while we got things accomplished I still feel it was all messy
because we didn’t give ourselves enough time to talk things over. If we would have agreed to
meet at a time other than after class we could have made things clearer. Overall I don’t feel we
had many problems in our group and everything went pretty smoothly.
When it comes to the dialogue event itself I feel it was a success. The impact it had on me
was I learned some new ways to think about sexism. I never really considered sexism against
men but now that in know what it is I can think of example of it that I’ve seen before. It also
allowed me to meet some new people who I would have not otherwise met. I’m not sure of the
impacts our event will have on our SJSU community. The hope is that the people who attended
our event learned something, and those people are willing to share what they learned to other
people. This will help people understand sexism still happens and something needs to be done.
My hope is that someday sexism will not exist anymore, and women and men can be thought of
and treated as equal. To help ensure this happens we need to teach kids about it at a young age. I
also feel like it will started happening less and less once older generations pass on. I feel the
older people are stuck in their ways and don’t really see a need to change their ways at this point
in their lives. Once we can accomplish these things we will started to see a decrease in sexism.
During this assignment I learned a lot of things about small groups and the ways that
communication goes on in them. The different phases that groups go through in order to get to
know each other and accomplish task is something I had never thought of before. I also learned
how to conduct and mediate a discussion with a controversial topic. Learning these skills will
help me in the future with problem solving or if I come across any problems with future group

5. work. Working with the group members I got to be paired with really showed me how functional
a small group can be if everyone works as a unit. I used to not like to work in groups, but having
a better understanding of how they work and having such great groupmate has changed my mind.
Reference
Dobao, A. F. (2014). Vocabulary learning in collaborative tasks: A comparison of pair and
small group work. Language Teaching Research, 18(4), 497-520