{"id":33617,"date":"2020-01-27t09:00:53","date_gmt":"2020-01-27t14:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/?p=33617"},"modified":"2020-01-22t14:55:50","modified_gmt":"2020-01-22t19:55:50","slug":"teaching-innovations-at-vanderbilt-heather-fedesco-and-consulting-groups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/2020\/01\/teaching-innovations-at-vanderbilt-heather-fedesco-and-consulting-groups\/","title":{"rendered":"teaching innovations at vanderbilt: heather fedesco and consulting groups"},"content":{"rendered":"

by faith rovenolt, cft undergraduate intern<\/em><\/p>\n

during spring 2020, the teaching innovations at vanderbilt blog series will highlight teaching innovations that cft staff have implemented and evaluated in their own courses. <\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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heather fedesco<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

most students can give an example from their own life from a group project gone wrong, but working in groups is often integral to many classes in college and builds an important set of skills. for students in dr. fedesco\u2019s hod 1300:\u00a0<\/strong>small group behavior course, working in groups is not only a part of the class but the focus. students form semester-long groups to work on presentations together and also to collect data on their own groups to understand group structure and processes. however, despite being in a class that teaches concepts and theory on group conflict, frustrations like any other class with group work still arise. to address this and also reinforce the course\u2019s content, fedesco created consulting groups, in which students from different groups came to together to redress conflict.<\/p>\n

group conflict stems from interpersonal issues and inequalities in project contributions\u2014real or perceived. that\u2019s why, after fedesco\u2019s students gave their first group presentation and therefore had probably come upon some group frustrations, she had students from different presentation groups form consulting groups of three or four. these groups met three times throughout the semester to discuss group issues.<\/p>\n

fedesco stressed the professionalism and confidentiality of these groups. students needed to be free to vent their frustrations safe with the knowledge that the information would not be shared beyond the group and without it devolving into gossip. these consulting groups therefore allowed students to:<\/p>\n