Group Reflection
When it came to doing group work in ELS our task was to perform a mock police interview and mock trial. My group consisted of 5 students all with different roles within the legal process. As the defendant my aim was to persuade the mock jury that I was not guilty of the offence of dangerous driving. Working with my team was a very important part of the process to develop sound arguments to persuade the jury to acquit me. The art of persuasion helped me a lot with this as I have already developed skills in persuasion, negotiating and public speaking.
I have discovered a lot about myself through this group work. I never thought of myself as a leader, but I rapidly established my role as the leader within the group. With this role I was the main …show more content…
person to organise meetings and lead discussions.
I planned out what we had to do in the time frame and then assigned each person their work. We all conducted our research thoroughly individually as well as in a team together. Negotiating skills learnt in AOP helped me particularly when contributing and discussing ideas with my group and agreeing on the best solution.
It gave me the opportunity to develop my communication skills by speaking out and trying to get my view across to other members of the group.
However, there was one member that was a bit quieter and a bit hesitant to join in with discussions. Next time I would try to encourage all members to contribute ensuring everyone made an equal contribution. I will do this by giving the chance to everyone to speak, listening and respecting other people’s ideas, because other people’s contributions are always valuable and significant to group work.
Our arguments were structured by analysing the specification of the crime and breaking it down into areas of law and important facts to look at together. My largest responsibility was getting to grip with the facts of the case and developing a story that went along with the defence argument. Which was clearly successful as the jury decided in our favour to acquit me.
I had a fairly good group, we all did the required reading and preparation and helped each other with our roles, as some roles required more work than others. However, I did find the dynamics of the group challenging at times, but this has helped me become aware of my strengths and weaknesses. Such as coming to grips with my role and trying not to overpower other people’s
ideas.
Before the mock trial we all finalised our arguments and discussions to co-ordinate everything together. However we did not rehearse our scripts, which I believe would have been beneficial. Next time I would definitely persuade the group to practice a few times before the real thing as we would have all been more confident in the court room and looked more professional. So this is a thing to improve on in the future.
I have discovered a lot about myself through this group work. I never thought of myself as a leader, but I rapidly established my role as the leader within the group. With this role I was the main …show more content…
person to organise meetings and lead discussions.
I planned out what we had to do in the time frame and then assigned each person their work. We all conducted our research thoroughly individually as well as in a team together. Negotiating skills learnt in AOP helped me particularly when contributing and discussing ideas with my group and agreeing on the best solution.
It gave me the opportunity to develop my communication skills by speaking out and trying to get my view across to other members of the group.
However, there was one member that was a bit quieter and a bit hesitant to join in with discussions. Next time I would try to encourage all members to contribute ensuring everyone made an equal contribution. I will do this by giving the chance to everyone to speak, listening and respecting other people’s ideas, because other people’s contributions are always valuable and significant to group work.
Our arguments were structured by analysing the specification of the crime and breaking it down into areas of law and important facts to look at together. My largest responsibility was getting to grip with the facts of the case and developing a story that went along with the defence argument. Which was clearly successful as the jury decided in our favour to acquit me.
I had a fairly good group, we all did the required reading and preparation and helped each other with our roles, as some roles required more work than others. However, I did find the dynamics of the group challenging at times, but this has helped me become aware of my strengths and weaknesses. Such as coming to grips with my role and trying not to overpower other people’s
ideas.
Before the mock trial we all finalised our arguments and discussions to co-ordinate everything together. However we did not rehearse our scripts, which I believe would have been beneficial. Next time I would definitely persuade the group to practice a few times before the real thing as we would have all been more confident in the court room and looked more professional. So this is a thing to improve on in the future.