Communication_and_Collaboration_Strategy_Paper

Taking the Multiple Pathways to Learning and Personality Spectrum assessments was a definite eye opener to how diverse learning can be for different people. Understanding why conflicts arise between students, coworkers, families, and friends when each person is trying to learn new things together is easier after realizing how many different ways people can learn. This paper will discuss strategies for communicating effectively among a group of people using learning styles and personality types. Learning styles are,”your mind’s particular way of taking in and processing information” (Carter, Bishop, & Kravits, 2007) many people do so differently. The three learning styles I am going to develop a strategy for effective communication and collaboration among the selected learning styles will be bodily/ kinesthetic, interpersonal, and visual spatial. These learning styles were chosen from a set of eight intelligences created by a Harvard University professor in 1983. This professor, Howard Gardner, feels everyone has each one though some people are better developed in certain intelligence areas. The bodily- kinesthetic intelligence is a hands- on approach to learning and retaining information through senses and the act of doing (Carter, Bishop, & Kravits, 2007). This intelligence can make learning a creative experience, though in an online setting, challenging. A strategy for a bodily- kinesthetic learner to help on a collaborative project could be to have this person create 3-d representations of the information which needs to be retained and have him or her transfer the representation to an online format using Excel and creating 3-D graphs. The interpersonal intelligence is a persons’ ability to connect with other people, and noticing the things which motivate them, if their moods change and make sure they take another persons’ feelings into consideration (Carter, Bishop, & Kravits, 2007). This type of person would make a great team leader because he or she would be able to connect with each person in a group no matter what was going on in his or her life at the time whether it is good or not so good. A visual- spatial intelligence means to learn by seeing images interlinking information with maps, charts, lists or designs; anything that can be looked at instead of only reading words would work (Carter, Bishop, & Kravits, 2007). This type of learner would do exemplary collaborating with a group of people by creating lists or charts so he or she can check items off as they are completed. Another idea would be to have this person do portions of assignments which require visual aids such as Power Point presentations or graphs or charts. The three different personality types I am going to develop a strategy for effective communication and collaboration among the selected personality types will be; organizer, thinker, and giver. An organizer type of personality would be an excellent final- draft collaborator /proof- reader. This person could keep track of what or how much needs to be done by a certain time to stay on track. A thinker could be the go to person if issues arise while working on a collaborative project. These personalities are problem solvers (Carter, Bishop, & Kravits, 2007) by nature so would be a grand choice for someone to make sure all tasks are completed only once to cut down on the time it will take to submit assignments. A giver likes to boost the confidence in others to help them do above and beyond what a person thinks he or she can accomplish (Carter, Bishop, & Kravits, 2007). This person would be great at doing a double check at the end of a collaborative assignment to be sure all criterion is met on an assignment. Making sure everyone in a collaborative team assignment understands that everyone has different learning types and personalities is key to communication in the group. By knowing how each person learns other can find a common way to communicate and work together without having problems arise. References Carter, C., Bishop, J., & Kravits, S. (2007). Keys to College Studying: Becoming An Active Thinker (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall