Cathrine Baek

05/08/14
TR 2-3:25PM
LDRS 1016
Dialogue: Reflection on Deliberative Democracy Forum


Our group facilitation revolved around the push for education equality for all
students. I am definitely passionate about this topic because, as a highly motivated
student, I have gained a lot of respect for the value of education. In my personal opinion,
I believe that this topic was very strategic for a group facilitation with the class because
everyone in the classroom has received an education, can relate to the topic, and will
most likely already have views developed about the topic of education. Having been in
school or a part of an alternative for almost two decades now, this topic of education gave
a lot of room for other students to share their views or opinions. One of our groups main
priorities included getting as much of the classmates engaged in the conversation and
giving them time to process and speak. Despite certain areas that we could definitely
improve on, overall I truly believe that the facilitation was a success, in terms of our
group goals that were set.

To dive a little deeper into my personal views regarding the topic of education,
over all the other solutions, I definitely support the Improving the Quality of Education
in Public Schools option. I just do not find funding and standardization of testing to be
practical options for a solution, nor do I really see much impact coming from them. In
regards to providing more funding to alternative school, I just find it too complicated
when it gets to where the money is going to come from and how it will be distributed
fairly. In regards to the standardization of testing, I think the problem arises when both
choices provide a lose-lose situation. Having standardized tests help to keep teachers on
track but limits their freedom to really teach the material because they focus on teaching
to the test. Getting rid of standardized testing helps to grant the teachers more freedom in
their curriculum, but leaves too much room for teachers to slack and students to not get
the information that they need. For those reasons, I believe that the improvement of the
quality of public schools is our only practical and most impacting option. Quality
improvement would take away the necessity for alternative schooling because the public
schools, that are accessible to every student, will have the ability to cater to the needs of
all the different kinds of students.

After the group discussion, my personal views were not changed. However, I do
recognize the fact that I tend to be strong-minded. However, to compensate for this, I
made an extra effort to keep my mind open. Other opinions did influence me and worked
to further affirm my personal view. A lot of classmates brought up the fact that funding
toward sending students to private schools would not really do much for those areas
where the public school system possesses a higher level of education. The same problems
came up when discussing the need for standardized testing. Thus, my view was, again,
affirmed and my personal opinion toward the quality improvement option was
strengthened.

From the outside, I believe that our team worked well and was able to construct a
group facilitation where all the members were engaged, active, and passionate about the
topic. However, the process was definitely rocky. Members disagreed with the topic, then
once it was settled, members disagreed about the different parts, once that was settled,
members disagreed with what part they wanted to research and the list goes on. I think it
was the fact that, especially in a room full of students who are accustomed to being a
leader, all of the members were very strong-minded and not afraid to speak up. There was
some conflict because, after all individual facilitations were conducted, each member was
already so used to making the call and sticking to their interests. Fortunately, the more
time we got together to discuss our options and share why or why not certain ideas would
or would not work, our family group was finally able to compromise on a topic and the
separation of the workload.

I felt the most engaged when we all finally decided on a topic and decided to just
move forward. We figured out that us disagreeing and being selfish was really starting to
get in the way of getting this project done. Once the matter was settled, we finally got to
come together and share our ideas about how to put together the issue guide. As we
realized that being cooperative and patient with one another allowed us to be ten times
more productive, we became so much more efficient as a group. I felt the most engaged
and it was a lot easier to really get into the project because we finally stopped disagreeing
and started helping each other out. We all shared ideas and gave advices to each other,
helping each other when one member would get stuck. The ideas kept flowing and
building off of each other at one point, during our second late night meeting at Deets,
and that is when I really began to enjoy the group facilitation that I previously lost
interest in.

When it comes to how the project itself was put together, I would say that our
group both collaborated and divvied up the project at the same time. We all separated our
research topic about the options and wrote our own summaries of what we had learned.
But we performed our research together and shared our summaries with each other as the
issue guide was put together. Each member shared their part and each of the other
members provided both complimentary and constructive feedback. I would definitely say
that the collaboration really benefitted us in writing the best summaries that we could
because sometimes, two minds are better than one.

Overall, I do believe that the facilitation was successful, in that, our main goal
was accomplished. We were able to lead a discussion where all the classmates were
engaged and willing to participate. I think that we did a good job explaining our topic and
relating to our classmates. However, there was also a definite need for improvement. I
think that we, as the facilitators, could have give more leeway to allow our fellow
classmates to think, process, and come up with possible solutions to the problem with
education by themselves. This would have really been interesting to see where the
discussion could possibly go, had the structure of the facilitation been more lose. I feel
like providing the solutions and the pros and cons for each of them really hindered the
thought process of the class. Because we provided the solutions, the discussion generally
stuck to those certain areas for discussion. That is the one thing that I really would
change about our facilitation for next time. But like I said, overall, I am proud of my
group because we were able to overcome the struggles of working in a group and conduct
a successful, from my perspective, facilitation.