The Advocates' Child Studies Blog

Blog Assignment During the past 8 weeks, you and your colleagues forged a collaborative learning community; you shared information and insights with each other and supported each other. As you prepare to move on into your specializations, take a minute and think about how your colleagues have supported you, how you have supported them, and what you wish for your colleagues as they continue on their professional path. If you wish, share your contact information so you can stay in touch and continue to encourage and support each other as you move through the program. Generally speaking, I appreciate the insights and information I have received from undertaking this noble course. By taking this course, I had to form a collaborative learning community with my peers. The collaborative learning community was significant in facilitating the deliberations of the discussion assignments in this course.  The discussion assignments involved in the analyzing of certain characteristics of ...

Bruce Tuckman introduced and identified the five stages of a team development. These steps are the forming stage, storming the stage, norming stage, performing stage, and adjourning stage in that chronological order. Furthermore, these steps usually apply universally to all teams/groups regardless of the team members’ demographics, purpose, location, goals, and cultures. In the forming stage, the team is just starting to come together and is characterized by anxiety and uncertainty. In storming, the group is characterized by considerable opposition and conflict. In the norming stage, the group's activities become a unified component. In the performing stage, there is usually high productivity, and the members are supportive, competent, supportive, and loyal. In the adjourning stage, the group needs to have fulfilled its goals; the group is to be closed on a positive note, but members usually feel uncertain and insecure about the future. The adjourning phase is characteristic...

Think about any disagreements or conflicts, you have recently experienced or are currently experiencing at work with a supervisor or colleague, or someone in your personal life. Share at least two strategies you have learned about that might help you manage or resolve the conflict more productively, and why these strategies might be effective. For example, could you suggest a compromise? Could you look for a broader range of solutions to your disagreement? Could you use some of the principles of nonviolent communication or the 3 R's to better help you resolve this conflict? As expected, I have encountered various disagreements and conflicts in my endeavors and dispositions. Differences of opinion and clashing goals are inevitable in any relationship or rapport. In particular, I have had occasional disagreements with my colleague at work due to varying viewpoints and different personalities. Nevertheless, my colleague and I have never let the small conflicts we have es...

Blog Assignment For your blog, this week, think about the similarities and differences between how you evaluated yourself as a communicator and how others evaluated you. What is the one thing that surprised you the most? Why? What did other insights about communication you gain this week? Choose at least two to share with others through your blog and consider how each might inform your professional work and personal life. There are differences and similarities between how I evaluated myself and how others evaluated me so as to discover my communication skills, styles, and dispositions. The scores for the verbal aggressiveness scale in my self-evaluation and evaluation by others seem to be in agreement. Other people and I believe that I do maintain a proper balance between respect and consideration for others’ perspectives without degrading them. Also, in my debate with other people, I focus on discussing the issue at hand rather than discussing the person having the contrary opini...