This week I took part in my first workshop for the values module. Before the workshop I started I was keen to find out what a university workshop was like and what the lectures had in store for us. When Derek announced the task and provided us with a brown envolope I had lots of ideas going around my head and couldn’t wait to begin discussing different ideas with my group. When we saw our materials we decided the best option was to make a personalised guided for new students; we were all very happy with our idea and couldn’t wait to hear what the other groups had planned. However when the other groups started announcing their ideas it was clear to us that we didn’t have the same number of resources as everyone else, some groups had more and another unfortunately had less!

After the discussion we began making our personalised guide out of the little materials that we had and when it was finished we were all very pleased with ourselves. But this happiness did not last long after we seen the praise the first 2 groups were getting for their idea and we were asked if we had copied ours from group one! We were then even more disheartened when we were given a score of 4. Being given such negative feedback made us all feel very disappointed in ourselves and our work; it also make us think that Derek didn’t like us!

When Derek told us it was all just an act we were very relieved but we understood the importance of the task. Taking part in this, and being one of the groups experiencing the negative feedback, showed me how you cannot expect the same standard of results from everyone if not everyone has the same amount of resources to create their result with. This workshop was very valuable and made me realise just how important inclusion and equality are in the classroom.

This was a lesson I will not forget.