Developing Conflict Management Skills (Constructivist Lesson)
Target Audience: Non-academic employees of the board
Description: This lesson plan is the first of three for offered to those at our board who are graduates of our Leadership program (approximately 60 participants). The program was offered to all non-academic staff (i.e. administrative, secretarial, maintenance staff). The focus of the program is to develop the problem solving and collaborative skills of our employees to help us work together toward a common goal (#sharedinterest). Initially, this course was developed as a 3 hour face-to-face professional development session. It is modified here into a flipped-classroom model to allow our employees to complete some of the tasks on their own time (#learnercentred) and to allow the facilitator to elicit prior knowledge (#priorknowledge) in preparation for the group activities. The participants will then meet in-class do discuss the results and problem-solve with their peers regarding some of the real-world challenges they have encountered (#activelearning, #interaction, #realistic). The final section of the in-service will include reflection (#reflection) on what they have learned and how they will apply it in the future.
| Eliciting Prior Knowledge
(#priorknowledge, #learnercentred) |
Session 1
(on-line) |
Provide a brief written description of the course on-line and ask participants to complete an survey of what contributes to conflict in the workplace, provide a recent example of a conflict they have encountered (no identifying details) |
| Session 2
(on-line) |
Complete the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Questionnaire | |
| Creating Cognitive Dissonance
(#cognitivedissonance, #activelearning, #interaction, #realistic) |
Session 3
(face-to-face) |
Come together and discuss the results as a group |
| Session 3
(face-to-face) |
Break into groups based on the results and problem-solve selected examples collected in Session 1 | |
| Application of the Knowledge with Feedback
(#interaction, #activelearning, #perception, #sharedinterest) |
Session 4
(face-to-face) |
Present the results as a group to the rest of the participants, generating a discussion with all |
| Reflection on Learning & Assessment
(#reflection, #learnercentred) |
Session 5
(face-to-face) |
Discuss as a group how they will use what they have learned about their own and others’ conflict management style in the workplace |
| Session 6
(on-line) |
Have students complete a questionnaire on what they learned and evaluating the session |
Activities
Session 1 – Online Questionnaire
Time: Approximately 10 minutes
Participants will be asked to read a brief description of the session and complete a questionnaire about what they believe contributes to conflict in the workplace. They will be asked to provide an example (leaving out identifying details) of a conflict they have recently encountered in the workplace (#priorknowledge, #learnercentred, #realistic). The participants will be assured that the examples they provide will be used as examples but the identifying details will be omitted, thus ensuring confidentiality. These ideas and examples will be used by the facilitator in the introduction opening the face-to-face sessions.
Session 2 – Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Questionnaire
Time: Approximately 10 minutes
Participants will be asked to complete a short, A or B statement questionnaire (30 questions) where they will be asked to select their most probable response to a workplace situation (#perception, #learnercentred, #realistic). They will be given their score on-line which will identify their dominant conflict management style and will be asked to bring their results to the face-to-face session. The facilitator will review the results prior to the session and tailor the in-class activities to build on the information gathered.
Session 3 – Results of the Questionnaire Discussion
Time: Approximately 15-20 minutes
Learners will discuss what they identified as contributors to workplace conflict. They will be asked to share whether they agree with the results of the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Questionnaire and what they learned about themselves by completing it (#cognitivedissonance, #perception, #activelearning, #learnercentred). They will be given materials on how to approach different styles of conflict management.
Session 4 – Real-World Examples and How To Approach Them
Time: Approximately 30 minutes
Learners will be separated into groups according to their conflict management style and given a real-world example to determine how they will approach solving the problem. (#activelearning, #cognitivedissonance, #realistic, #learnercentred, #interaction) They will be asked how they would deal with the situation if they were faced with another individual with a different conflict management style. Will work in their groups to prepare a presentation about the problem they are faced with as well as their action plan to solve the issue.
Session 5 – Present the Results of Their Solution
Time: Approximately 20 minutes
Learners will be asked to present their solution to the remaining groups. (#activelearning, #sharedinterest, #interaction) This will generate a discussion, guided by the facilitator, about perceptions (#perception) and individual approaches to workplace problems (#realistic). The facilitator, encouraging learner feedback as well, will guide the participants about the different approaches outlined and refer back to the handout about how to positively approach the situation and/or conflict management style. (#sharedinterest)
Session 6 – Reflection and Feedback on the Session
Time: Approximately 10 minutes
The participants will be asked to submit a final questionnaire summarizing what they learned, how they will use what they learned in their working lives and if they felt the session was valuable in developing skills in conflict management. (#reflection, #realistic, #learnercentred)
Assessment
This professional development session utilized the constructivist approach in developing interpretive and critical learning as well as Field’s political and ontological level of learning. The professional development lesson’s aim was to create knowledge and understanding of the perspectives of others, and how to positively manage interaction in order to work on a common workplace goal. They are asked to provide prior knowledge through the on-line questionnaires, thus giving the facilitator an idea of participants’ current knowledge in order to create cognitive dissonance to achieve new knowledge. Cognitive dissonance is achieved through discussion the learners’ results from the questionnaire. Their perspective of the results, if not in line with their current view of themselves, will create cognitive dissonance as well as the results of their peers, they may not have thought of a certain peer as utilizing that type of conflict management style. While they are not working together to create a new blog or wiki page, the group work using real world examples will provide them with another problem and give them a chance to apply the new learning while prompting feedback from their peers as well as the facilitator. And the final closing discussion, reflecting on how they will draw on this new perspective in the workplace is a good reflection tool to finalize the constructivist learning session. This will be reinforced with the on-line questionnaire as well.