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Professional communication Writing report in a team and reflection on P0 experiences Lars Peter Jensen Agenda • • • • Communication Report writing Peer review Reflection on P0 experience Communication - a definition - from ancient Latin: communis - ”common” - sharing, making commonly known Merriam-Webster: ( www.m-w.com ) a: to convey knowledge of or information about : make known <communicate a story> b: to reveal by clear signs <his fear communicated itself to his friends> to transmit information, thought, or feeling so that it is satisfactorily received or understood c: Ways of communication One-on-one Few-on-few One-on-many Two-way ’Multi-way’ One-way Discussion Group discussion Presentation Letters, e-mail Working papers Notes for a course Participants Characteristic Oral Written Tools for communication analysis in the group Three tools: 1) Quantitative - drawing communication diagrams 2) Qualitative/quantitative - logging type and number of contributions from group members 3) Relative – matching individual group member’s assessment of the process 1. Quantitative Communication diagram, to be filled by an observer after finishing 2. Qualitative/quantitative Three types of contributions: • Contributions furthering discussion • Contributions improving ’climate’ • Contributions blocking discussion Contributions furthering discussion • • • • • • Make proposals Search for information via questions Give information Summing up the discussion Elaborate and further develop ideas Test own and others’ understanding of the topic under discussion Contributions improving ’climate’ • • • • • • Praise and encourage others Support others in being listened to Follow and support ideas of others Openly express change of opinion Show openness Listen actively Contributions blocking discussion • • • • • Disagree without constructive alternatives Attack proposals of others Defend own proposals aggressively Speaking all the time without listening Talk about other subjects Qualitative/quantitative Stud. 1 Futhering discussion Improving ’climate’ Blocking discussion To be filled by an observer Stud. 2 Stud. 3 Stud. 4 Stud. 5 Stud. 6 3. Relative - matching After the discussion: • Assessing the process individually • Matching the individual group members’ assessment • Discussing major mismatches Report writing Before writing (the group): • Preparation: receiver, message, outline • Brainstorm: e.g.. Post-it Writing (individually): • Go for it : write without criticism – one headline at a time (in arbitrary order) • Structure – structure the writing, creating overview and consistency • Edit – make the writing easy to read After writing (the group or others) Review Report writing Two essential ingredients of academic writing • Organization – Title, abstract, introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion, acknowledgement, references, (appendix) • appropriate language within the organization Report writing • Title – the fewest possible words that adequately describe the content of the paper • Abstract – state the principle objectives and scope of the investigation – describe the methodology employed – Summarize the results – State the principal conclusions Report writing • Introduction – Present the nature and scope of the problem investigated – Review of the pertinent literature – Methods of investigation – Principle results of the investigation – Definition of any specialized terms or abbreviations A ‘why and what for (4)’ method Why is the topic of interest? What (1) is the background on the previous solutions, if any? What (2) is the background on potential solutions? What (3) was attempted in the present effort (research project)? What (4) will be presented in this paper? Report writing • Materials and methods – – – – Exact technical specifications and quantities, source or methods of preparation Details of methods Do not put any results • Results – ‘big picture’ - describe the methodology employed – Data – representative instead of repetitive data – Meaningful statistics Report writing • Discussions – Present the principles, relationships, and generalizations shown by the results – Point out any exceptions or any lack of correlation, and define unsettled points – Show how your results and interpretations agree (or contrast) with previously published work – Discuss the theoretical implications of your work as well as any possible practical applications – State your conclusions clearly – Summarize your evidence for each conclusion Report writing References and quotations: http://wwwlib.murdoch.edu.au/find/citation/ 1. The Harvard method (Jensen, 2001a:21) 2. By numbers [2] Literature is the listed alphabetic (1) or numbered (2). We have to know all possible information's to be able to find the quoted source: Books: Author(s), year, title, publisher, ISBN or ISSN no. Journals: As above + name of journal, number and date Internet: URL and date for downloading Persons: Name, title, company Appendix Appropriate Language • • • • • • • Simple Precise Concrete Neutral Sensible Logical Understandable Peer review Why ? • To evaluate the work • To find mistakes and to identify if something is missing • To check whether it is understandable Peer review How and When ? • Written or oral • At a group meeting • After everybody have read the writing and have prepared individual comments to it Peer review Valuable criticism • Be kind – be motivating for the group member, avoiding offending • Be concrete – providing alternatives and suggestions • Be constructive – aiming at improvement • Be critical – professionally but not personally Peer review Elements: • Misspelling, misprint and other corrections in the proofs. (might be noted directly in the document) • Logical errors, misunderstandings, poor formulations, technical mistakes etc. that makes the understanding difficult or impossible for the reader. • Good points, well structured, clear overview, interesting angle, well documented, clear illustrations etc. Break for 15 minutes Reflection and learning 1. 2. 3. 4. WHAT is reflection? WHY use reflection? HOW to reflect? Introduction to cross-group work WHAT is reflection? Examples of reflection: A student is reflecting when: • She notices that important information is missing in a text, thinks about possible reasons for leaving out the info and looks up the info in other places. • She realises that the given math exercise is different from the standard exercises in the book, identifies the difference and knows what to do differently. • He looks back at an overruled time plan, identifies the time-consuming activities and makes allowances for these kinds of activities in the next time schedule. WHAT is reflection NOT? Examples of lack of reflection: A student is NOT reflecting when: • He inserts numbers in a given formula and calculates a result without understanding the context • She re-formulates an explanation and passes it on without having understood it herself • He describes the time schedule for the P0project without noticing and commenting on the mismatch between planned and realised time consumption. WHAT is reflection? Oxford English Dictionary The action, on the part of surfaces, of throwing back light or heat (beams, etc.) falling upon them But also • The action of turning (back) or fixing the thoughts on some subject; meditation, deep or serious consideration. From the examples: • Notice • Think about • Look back at • Identify • Plan based on experience WHY use reflection? Engineers of today need methodological competencies, such as: Flexibility and capacity for change. Such competencies are closely connected with ’lifelong learning’ which can be achieved through awareness about learning processes. Awareness about learning processes can be achieved through reflection upon learning processes. HOW to reflect? Make conscious observations by asking questions: WHAT went well in P0? … and WHY did it go well? WHAT went wrong in P0? and WHY did it go wrong? The reflection is embedded in the WHY? questions Introduction to cross-group work 1. Start out with a round of presentation, giving name, P0-project topic and supervisor 2. Do a series of rounds describing how your project group organised the following: Project management, team work, co-operation with your supervisor. 3. Do a series of rounds of analysing and assessing your project process, taking your point of departure in the questions: WHAT went well in P0? … and WHY did it go well? WHAT went wrong in P0? WHY did it go wrong? Introduction to cross-group work (cont.) 4. From the answers to the above questions generalise in the following format: What we will continue to do in P1 What we will do differently and better in P1 What we will not do again 5. Give ’Good advice’ to yourself and your fellow students (and possibly also to your supervisors) aimed at improving the project work process in P1 6. Write down the ’Good advice’ for a presentation. …and now the cross-group work! – presentation at 11.00 Group 1 Group 2 Group 3 Catalin Gabriel Dincan Ioan Mosincat Mohammed Muhsen Jorge Alaman Alexandru Dumitru Zaharia Jose Angel Campo Daniel Diaz Gonzales Cam Pham Robert Diosi Catalin Gavriluta Rolando Andres Rodrigues Javier Fernandez Martinez Angel Fernandez Sarabia Wiktor Czerwinski Adam Wronski David Llorente Jakob Bærholm Glasdam Sergiu Viorel Spataru Joseph Adine Iulian Vranceanu Imanol Garriz Lorz Group 4 Tomasz Wakulski Bogdan-Ionut Craciun Aravazhi Anbarasu Claudia Georgiana Cojocaru Cosmin-Eugen Banceanu Tatiana Perez Soriano Jorge Alaman …and now the cross-group work! – presentation at 15.00 Group 1 Ingvar Jónsson Jacky Vandeputte Vlastimil Kriz Christophe Huguet Germán Corrales Madueno Laura Luque Sánchez Aitor Lizeaga Group 2 Osama Kalsoum Frantisek Bradac Alexander Dokovski Lucas Chavarría Gimenez Dereje Assefa Alexandru Daniel Tatomirescu Group 3 Jens Nørnberg Paaske Luminita Totu Hao Cai Ignacio Rodriguez Sandra Hermoso José Alberto Méndez Sánchez Farhood Hakhamanesti P0 Report The report should include: • • • The working process: – Which methods from the project organized learning course did you try? – Did they work? – Did you develop your own methods? P0 Report Questions for inspiration: • Planning and controlling the project – Did you use a time schedule? Did it help you? – How did you cope with leadership within the group? Did you have a leader? • Collaboration within the group (Team Work) – How did you split the work? – Did you use official meetings? What is the agenda for a meeting? How often? – What about the discipline in the group? Is everyone present all the time? – How did you communicate within the group? Was somebody talking all the time? – Was there anyone that never said anything? Did you use long time on discussing? • Communication with supervisor – How did you prepare a meeting with your supervisor? – What type of response did you get from your supervisor? – How did you remember what your supervisor said?