Reflections | Stonecap

I felt that throughout my period working together as a group in this project, I have learned the importance of working together. It is clear that we are passionate about this topic and are eager to research and provide feasible solutions to improve a teacher's welfare. I can truly see the sincerity each of us has as we aim to make a difference in these teacher's working life even if we were just students. However, there are times where it was hard for some of us to learn how to prioritize our school work and personal commitments. Hence, it was hard to get some members to commit to this project. However, we were able to work it out by talking and understanding each other's view. Throughout this research, I was surprised by how many people can have a different perspective on the same topic. I always felt that improving a teacher's welfare can be easily solved; but, it takes time and resources only which is why it was never really done. However, after researching this topic for a few months, it made realised that there were challenges in enhancing an educator's welfare. This gave me a new insight on this topic; everyone is unique and different, so will their needs. Hence, it is hard to cater to each need and tackling it. As such, when coming to a recommendation, we had to plan it in a way where it caters to most of the teachers. Overall, I am happy with our project and its outcome as I felt that I have truly learned a lot from it.

Alvina Lim

From this project, I learnt that it is important to compromise and communicate with each other in order to move forward in terms of project progress. While it was fulfilling that the are others who share the same passion and are eager to work towards it, I feel that one way that things could have been improved is cultivating a sense of open-mindedness and understanding one another. When things got rough and deadlines getting closer, tensions increased and everyone felt that it was impossible to meet with each other due to clashing schedules. Instead, we should have talked with each other and explained why some things could not be done a certain way or by a certain time. Nonetheless, things worked out and I am extremely happy for being able to be a part of this team, pursuing this particular topic.

Sharina Zuraidah

With this topic chosen, my group had differing views on the welfare of teachers. They formed their thoughts based on their recent internship. With that, my group was able to lay out the common ideas along with distinguishing varied opinions on the topic. As this was the first time being grouped with unfamiliar members, I was shy to express my thoughts on certain ideas. Over time, I was able to come out of my comfort zone and convey my viewpoints. I felt that communicating with my group were an essential aspect of the project.

I believe that every suggestion made by the members were essentially incorporated into our action plan and recommendations. With different working styles, this collaboration has helped me realized the various strengths of each person and how our strengths can be integrated together to deliver an effective and efficient final project. We also had disagreements on trivial matters such as managing the website and even rushing to finish the work as we crunch for time. These have helped with my personal development in terms of accommodating to different working styles and handling conflicts. I learned that collaboration and teamwork require a mix of interpersonal, problem solving, and communication skills needed for a group to work together towards a common goal. That was the biggest strength in the group when it comes to collaborating. Overall, this group has enabled me to go beyond my limits and expand my thoughts on various issues. I can confidently say that my group has brought out the best in me.

Aishwaria Susan

Over this project I think I learnt the importance of a team being on the same page together. By clearly setting our expectations of this project at the start we could have made all our meet ups and discussions much more meaningful and productive. Another thing that we could have done to improve our interactions was by being more transparent with our struggles with the work assigned to us. Our group lacked clear communication and I believe that if we would have voiced out our concerns more we could have helped our team feel more accomplished in the end. On the other hand I believe that overall, the team worked well together. We had our ups and downs but at the end of the day I believe we are proud of our work and excited to see what the future may hold.

Caleb

GROUP

REFLECTION

Initially, our group felt that the teacher’s welfare can be easily solved and managed as you only had to satisfy the teacher’s needs. We wondered why would the teacher’s welfare still be neglected despite how easy and quick it can be solved. However, after months of research, we realised that to cater to a teacher’s welfare is not as simple as we thought it was. Especially when there are a large number of people involved in it. We then understood that every teacher has a different need or struggle that is unique towards them; thus, the method and solution used to help solve the teacher’s problem is also personalised to them.

As such, we then understood that a teacher’s welfare is personalised and unique to the individual. Which explains why it may be a hard decision to make a for a team leader such as a principal to decide what kind of welfare would better suit the majority of their teachers.

Through this research, we learned to be more open-minded and appreciative of our superiors such as the principal. As they do care and try to help and ensure that the teacher’s needs are met. However, it is also dependent on the teacher to voice their concerns out so that the appropriate measures can be taken to improve their welfare. Our group has also learnt to do effective research on a topic together as a team.