Depiction of Disability in Print Advertisements and Television Commercials
Portrayal of Disability in Popular Films
Note: For this assignment I reviewed the 2012 film, The Sessions. A trailer for the film is below.
COLLABORATION
Learning the skills for effective collaboration will help students succeed in school, careers, communities, and their families. Modern technology, such as live internet meetings, screen sharing, and the ability for multiple people to work simultaneously on the same document and see each other's changes, are useful collaboration tools. Students should become proficient in them. However, the main skills that students must learn for effective collaboration are interpersonal skills and organizational skills. The skills for effective collaborative skills don't come naturally to everyone. Collaboration must be modeled and taught by teachers and adults. The article, 20 Collaborative learning tips and strategies for teachers, provides useful strategies for teaching students to collaborate and setting up effective collaboration opportunities for students.
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Although all 20 tips are useful, I think tip 4, "Build trust and promote open communication" is the most critical, because teams are most effective when the team members feel completely safe to say what they really think and feel.
The article, 20 Collaborative learning tips and strategies for teachers, provides useful strategies for teaching students to collaborate and setting up effective collaboration opportunities for students.
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Although all 20 tips are useful, I think tip 4, "Build trust and promote open communication" is the most critical, because teams are most effective when the team members feel completely safe to say what they really think and feel.
This idea, that psychological safety is critical to successful teams was demonstrated by a study conducted at Google, to identify what factors made for successful teams. The study was conducted over two years. More than 200 interviews were conducted with Google employees working in more than 180 different teams. Data on over 250 attributes of the teams were collected and analyzed. When
Google began the study they thought they would find that there was an ideal mixture of individual traits and skills in the team members that would ensure a successful team. That isn't what they found!
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The study showed that who is on a team matters less than how the team members interact with each other, structure their work and view their own and each other's contributions. Google summarized what they learned in the graphic below.
Google found that psychological safety was by far the most important factor for creating a successful team. Google summarized psychological safety as, "Team members feel safe to take risks and be vulnerable in front of each other." I would summarize psychological safety as, "Team members feel safe to say what they really think and feel."
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How do we teach that to students? By modeling it in our classrooms. By revealing our own vulnerability. By showing that we don't have to be right. By not only listening to every student, but also creating a classroom culture in which we seek every student's ideas, and no one is ever made to feel embarrassment or humiliation. By admitting when we were wrong and thanking the person who taught us a better idea.
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More information on the Google study can be found in, The five keys to a successful Google team, and a 2015 Associated Press news article.