1. Learning strategies in PBL Team skills and Conflict management
Lars Peter Jensen

2. What is ’learning’?
Yes, it’s actually true – you can get a degree by repeating everything the teacher says.

3. Learning Environment - traditional teachers and textbooks as main learning resources

4. Teaching = Learning ?

5. Effectivity of educational formats (after Bales)
5 %
10 %
Lecture
Reading
Audiovisual
Demonstration
Discussion group
Practice
Teaching others
Average
retention
20 %
30 %
50 %
75 %
80 %

6. Experience based learning
Test
Generalization
Reflection
Experience
Learning is the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experiences David Kolb
Learning is a function of the activity, context, and culture in which it normally occurs, thus it is situated
- Jean Lave & Etienne Wenger
Kolb’s learning cirkel, with the word of John Cowan’s (Cowan 1998).

7. How much are you aware of your learning?
Preferred method
Strength
Weaknesses
How much are you aware of the changing process of your learning?
Exercise: Close your eyes and .....

8. Learning styles
Individuals’ different ways of taking in and processing information
- Richard Felder

12. How do you do reading?
Some people… sometimes…

13. Factors Influencing Learning Styles
Before entering the University
Native ability (IQ)
Background (past experiences)
At the University
Learning environment
e.g. match between learning style and teaching style

14. Purpose of Testing Learning Style
To know about yourself - ‘in which way a student is smart’ rather than ‘whether this student is smart or not’
To help learners to develop learning strategies and improve their learning by balancing it.
To work with our teaching style to match and maximize student learning
But not to
Divide people into a set category as blood types – instead, it is just measuring height or weight along some point in life

15. Different learning styles 1
Active Learners
Retain and understand information best by doing something active
Like discussion or applying it or explaining it to others
‘let’s try it out and see how it works’
Like group work
Reflective Learners
Think about it quietly before talk
Let’s think it through first
Prefer working alone quietly
It is hard for both learning types sitting through lectures without getting to do anything physical but taking notes, particularly hard for active learners.
Everybody is sometimes active and sometimes reflective.
Your preference for one category or the other may be strong, moderate, or mild.

16. Different learning styles 2
Sensing Learners
Tend to like facts
Like solving problems by well-established methods and dislike complications and surprises
Be patient with details and good at memorizing facts and doing hands-on work
More practical and careful
don’t like courses that have no apparent connection to the real world
Intuitive Learners
Prefer discovering possibilities and relationships
Like innovation and dislike repetition
Be better at grasping new concepts and more comfortable with abstractions and mathematical formulations
Work faster and more imaginative
Don’t like courses that involve a lot of memorization and routine calculation
Everybody is sometimes sensing and sometimes intuitive.
Your preference for one category or the other may be strong, moderate, or mild.

17. Different learning styles 3
Visual Learners
Remember best what they see - ‘Show me’
Pictures
Diagrams
Sketches
schematics
Flow charts
plots
Verbal learners
Getting more out of words - ‘Explain it to me’
Spoken words
Written words
Everybody is both visual and verbal. Preferring one does not mean that you don’t learn in the other way. Your preference for one category or the other may be strong, moderate, or mild.

18. Different learning styles 4
Sequential Learners
Gain understanding in linear steps
Follow logical stepwise paths in finding solutions
Feel comfortable explaining things
Global Learners
Learning in large jumps, absorbing materials almost randomly without seeing connections, and suddenly ‘get it’. Need big picture to function
Solve complex problems quickly or put things together in novel ways once they have grasped the big picture
Feel difficult to explain
Which is your preference? Your preference for one category or the other may be strong, moderate, or mild.

19. The learning styles of the 493 students divided into strong, moderate and mild preferences, AAU, 2003 (Kolmos & Holgaard 2008)
Strong
(-)
Moderate
Mild
(+)
Active(-)/Reflective(+) 68
137
157 84 42 5
Sensitive(-)/Intuitive(+) 38
126
154 98 53 24
Visual (-)/Verbal (+)
118
197
112 55 10 1
Sequential(-)/Global(+) 70
144
177 81 16

20. Summary All types of learners are needed in every profession
All learning styles needs to be addressed and satisfied in teaching
Now take Felders learning style test (ILS):

21. Break for 30 minutes

22. Cooperation and Conflict - Two sides of same coin
© SLP-gruppen, Aalborg Universitet

23. Good teams are collections of differences and companies would like to get cross-functional teams
How can a team benefit a project?
How can a team damage a project?
Complementary skills
Taking one’s own purpose
Challenges
Team project
Using too much time
A forum for discussion and reflection
Domination by an individual
Wider perspectives
Slipping into conformity and groupthink
Motivation and supports
Learning opportunities

24. How clear, relevant and realistic is your goal?

25. Have you done team building excise?

26. How do you conduct meetings?

27. The team performance curve
High performing team
Do more
At the best level
Real team
Complementary skills
Committed to common goals and working approaches
Good social environment
Working group
Interact with each other
Share informaiton, experiences
Help each other
Do not share a common goal
Potential team
Try to set up clear goals
Try to collaborate
Try to share work
But a long way to go…
No shared goal
Do not know how to collaborate
Personal conflict
No interest in joining forces
Weak group
Pseudo team

28. The Group Process Maturity The initial phase Conflicts Honeymoon
Clear goals and role
Mutual respect
Clear communication
of facts and feelings
Constructive criticism
Consensus
The initial phase
Uncertainty
Vague norms and roles
Power struggles
Conflicts
Divide /rule
Alliances
Management
Honeymoon
“Nice” communication
Unity and generosity
Idealization
Integration
Crystallization of roles
Sub-groups
Deeper communication
We - feeling
(Lenneer-Axelson and Thylefors 1993) 28

29. Conflicts – WHAT? WHY? HOW?
WHAT? Behaviour exhibited by one (or more) person(s) which bothers another (or other) person(s) and/or prevents them from doing something they would like to do.
WHY? Disagreement, “bad chemistry”, fight about power, lack of respect, cultural insensitivity e.g..
HOW? It is easy to start a conflict – but it might be hard to solve it satisfactorily!.

30. How to spot a conflict
Very loud discussion in stead of dialogue – nobody is trying to understand each other
Very long arguing but no decisions
Goes ‘for the man’ not ’for the ball’
Postulate in stead of reasoning
Formation of cliques
Talk about people behind their backs
REMEMBER: Deal with conflicts,
the sooner the better !!!

31. Conflict staircase
7. Polarisation 6. Open hostility 5. Magnifying the enemy 4. Dialogue is given up 3. The problem escalates 2. Personification 1. Disagreement
Development
Learning
Closer relations

32. The conflict is escalating or decreasing
Escalating language
YOU-language
Interruptions
Indifferent
Leading questions
Reproach
Abstractions
Focus on the past
Person-oriented
See problems and obstructions
Relaxing language
I-language
Listens
Interested
Open questions
Expressing intention
Concrete
Focus on the now and future
Case-Oriented
View options

33. Types of Reaction
Avoidens
Aggressions
Openness

34. Personal conflict behaviour
Goal
Relations
Important
Not important
Smooth things out
Confronting
Forcing
Avoiding
Compromising

35. Personal conflict behaviour
Profile
Characteristic individual behaviour
Avoidance
’drawing’
Avoid, deny, ignore, turn away.
Adjusting
’smooth things out’
Forthcoming, abandon personal goals, relations to others is more important.
Win/loose
‘forcing’
Dominating, aggressive, want to win, demonstrates power.
Compromising
’do compromises’
All shall gain something – there is different ways to do things, compromises.
Problem solving
’confronting’
Acceptance of conflicts. Everybody's needs are legitimate and important. Respect for personal relations. Make allowances

36. Preventing Conflicts ”Prevention is better than cure”
- also when it concerns conflicts in a group!!
”Remember that the sooner a conflict is identified and handled, the less dramatic it is.
Prevention of conflicts builds on mutual understanding and respect for diversity.

37. Preventing Conflicts Conflicts are best prevented by:
Self Reflection: See the individual in your opponent and separate the person from the case
Knowing and understanding expectations, opinions and feelings - your own as well as those of others (dialogue, I-languages)
Agreeing on rules, roles and relations in the group, (co-operation agreement)
Evaluating your group co-operation regularly (’hot chair’, team health profile).

38. Evaluating personal relations: The ’Hot chair’
Every 2-3 weeks group members evaluate each other one at a time according to the following rules:
The person in the ‘hot chair’ is not allowed to comment, she/he is supposed to listen to the constructive and loyal criticism of other group members
All the others have to give positive and negative feedback e.g. Two things they like about the person’s behaviour within the group, and two things they don't like

39. Evaluating personal relations: The ’Hot chair’
Feedback must:
Describe behaviour – not interpret motives
Express your own feelings directly – not indirectly
Be specific – not general
Only address issues which can be changed
Make room for change
Be non-judgmental
Only be given when asked for/agreed upon – not uninvited
Be motivated by a wish to help others – not to hurt

40. A good advices to remember !!
Be towards others as you wish them to be towards you!!
Try it on yourself

41. Take care of the conflict
Meet the conflict - do not ignore it.
Take a look at conflict stairs - how far the conflict has evolved.
Identify yourself with your opponent and his situation.
Talk to each other - and not about each other.
Do not present your opinion as fact in conversation.
Put the conflict behind you.
Evaluate conflict solution after a while.

42. Remember: Conflicts arises !!!
It is your choice whether they shall lead to positive or negative results.
It depends upon whether your mental frame is positive or negative !
What do you read here?
OPPORTUNITYISNOWHERE
OPPORTUNITY IS NOWHERE
OPPORTUNITY IS NOW HERE

43. Exercises in group room
Finish Felders Learning style test (ILS):
Discuss with your group members: How can you improve learning from each other based on your results from the learning style test (Index of Learning Style)
Take a Team Healt Test and discuss the results: