Resource Allocation Workshop – 19/09/17

After our first lecture on “Values: Self, Society and Professions” we were all intrigued to find out what our workshop would entail. As we arrived we were split into 5 different groups, I was in group 2, each group was given their own envelope.

My group’s envelope contained:

• Coloured paper
• Scissors
• Sticky notes
• Coloured pens
• Rubber bands
• Paper clips
• Sellotape

You could tell from the size difference of the envelopes that some were different however I didn’t realise how different the packs all were from each other. To begin with we were asked to come up with a product that would be helpful to a new university student and present our idea to the rest of the group. My group decided to come up with a colour co-ordinated time table for your modules and elective. We decided on this because as a group we all found working the timetable very difficult to do. As well as the timetable we decided to make a hints and tips sheet for the new student on how to work “My Dundee”. Group 1 pitched their idea first and this is when we realised we all had pretty similar ideas.

As we were presenting our ideas to lecturer she was really interested in group 1 and 2. As the group went on she became less interested and seemed as if she wasn’t paying them any attention. As a group we picked up on this and we weren’t sure if it was part of the task or if she generally had lost interest.  Since we had never met the lecturer before it made it very difficult to judge her character.

To create our makeshift timetable we used one of the girls in my group’s actual timetable as a model. We colour co-ordinated each module and created a key to make it easy to use. Our hints and tips sheet for “My Dundee” was colourful as we felt this would make it more appealing to a new student.

Presenting our completed products to the rest of the class is when we realised that not everyone had a fair amount of resources. Again as we went around the groups the lecturer had a great interest for group 1 and 2’s products. Asking questions and giving praise. As we got to the last group it just seemed liked she really didn’t care and gave them no praise at all.

To finish off the task the lecturer gave us all a score on how good she thought our products were. Considering the groups all had similar ideas they were all scored differently; group one receiving the highest and group five receiving the lowest. The lecturer asked for feedback on what we felt about our scores. Groups one and two were pretty happy with their scores receiving 9/10 and 8/10. However groups four and five were not happy as they felt they had to be more creative and resourceful to create their products as they were given so little resources. They also felt that they should have been given more praise as they had to work a lot harder to come up with an idea as they didn’t have nearly as much help from the lecturer or the pack that they were given. The lecturer explained that the task was developed to show us the oppression that some children go through at school.

This then lead us on to a discussion about the differences in all children and how this can cause some to be treated differently.  This task has helped open my eyes to see that not everyone has the same, but when it comes to school everyone should be treated with kindness, fairness and respect. The background of a child should not implicate their education; they have the same rights as everyone else. This task has really opened my eyes as to how a teacher should be a constant figure to all children in their class.