Assessing employability through reflective diaries on teamwork

1. Assessing employability through reflective diaries on teamwork • CEC 202 A Sense of Place • School of English • Second Year Approved Module

2. Objectives • Building relationships with key organisations in the tourism/ heritage sectors • Providing innovative solutions to problems faced by these organisations • Giving students the opportunity to engage with these organisations in order to appreciate the ways in which research can be applied in the ‘real world’ • Giving students an insight into the problems and challenges faced by these organisations • Providing the opportunity for students to acquire key skills in teamwork and presentation.

3. Problem or Opportunity? • Uncertain outcome of project: fear of failure • Group work with unfamiliar colleagues • Different cultures/ working practices • Communication (with group/ external partners)

4. Tools • Belbin team role descriptors • Weekly journal • Longer reflective journal at half-way and end

5. For the reflective journals, you should look back on the project at the half-way stage and after completion. At the half-way stage, you should reflect on your initial self-assessment using the Belbin team role analysis and discuss whether your experience has changed your ideas on this. You should also reflect on the skills that you have developed. In each case, it's a good idea to give a specific example of something you did that illustrates this. You can also give your thoughts on how the team is working together and how the project is going. For the final reflective journal, much the same, except you can reflect on the final output and on how the presentation was received.

6. Belbin Team Role Descriptors • Students evaluate themselves at the beginning of the module • As a team, they discuss these and allocate roles/ jobs accordingly • Students learn to appreciate different personalities/ different skills • All role types have good and bad points!

7. Weekly Journal • Students reflect on their experience • Builds awareness of skills development • Allows them to learn from problems and mistakes • Enables rapid intervention in case of problems • Longer reflective journals at two key points • ‘This is like therapy’!

8. Self-awareness Where do I start? The last couple of weeks have brought out a lot of qualities in me, that I thought I was not capable of…. As previously being a shy individual, I had never thought that I could communicate with members of the community with confidence. However the best part of it was representing the University of Sheffield. It was a great pride to say that you’re a student from the University of Sheffield who is carrying out a campaign to save X

9. In the initial self-assessment, I described myself, according to Belbin’s Team Roles, as a Teamworker, as I thought of myself as one of the people in the group, who help it to run smoothly and identify the work that needs to be done and who can do each job…. However, now that we are half way into the assignment, I feel that I have become more of a Monitor Evaluator as I think that I am quite good at weighing up the team’s options and what we have to do as a group, as I think some of the girls’ strengths lie in their creativity, whereas I think I am better at assigning jobs to people or ways that things can be done. Developing awareness

10. Firstly I felt upset and annoyed as it feels like all our hard work has been dismissed and we have no end result to show for all the work that we undertook. As a group we have worked for over 50 hours on this project and due to the lack of communication between the external agents we have not been able to produce a viable end product. It has been disheartening that we tried so hard to effectively communicate with all the bodies involved, yet they inferred that it was our fault and they did not appreciate the work, time and effort we have given to this project. Troubleshooting

11. On a personal note, I believe that our group has demonstrated a high level of professionalism and we have worked very well together as a team. Each individual has taken an active role over the project and we have also been able to create friendships and working relationships with one another easily. Although I have found this week stressful and disconcerting, I have enjoyed working as part of a group as I feel that I have not had enough opportunities to do this in other areas of my degree programme. Troubleshooting

12. the project has provided me with numerous transferable skills which will be welcomed in my modules next year and in many workplaces. I feel like our work is actually worthwhile in the community. Our input is helping towards making improvements for local people, which provides me with a great sense of satisfaction. Feedback Making team decisions, listening to the opinions of others, dividing up tasks and trusting everyone to do their fair share are all transferable skills which employers look for in a potential employee who will be working in a team environment. I feel I have contributed to a good cause and done something more meaningful and helpful to others than writing essays about novels and poetry.

13. Practicalities • Rapid response essential: set a time to read and answer journals • Intervention: suggest solutions, react appropriately • MOLE not USpace: journals confidential • Not every entry is assessed: only the 2 reflective journals + best two of the rest