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Adaptation of Students According to Individual styles in First year of Architecture

(Case study)

 

Autor: Omar Eduardo Cañete Islas

Universidad de Valparaíso, UV

ocanetei00@yahoo.es

Valparaíso, Chile

 

Abstract

The challenge and contribution in this proposal is to apply, through self-report techniques, both a classification of the primary and secondary style of coping, in a context of group performance of first year students of the architecture degree at the University of Valparaiso, in the framework of self- regulation criteria and objectives promoted by the University through the Academic Division Unit.

 

          Keywords: architecture; learning; creativity; group work.

 

 

 

Adaptación de Alumnos según estilos de Afrontamiento Individual al Primer año de la Carrera de Arquitectura

(Estudio de caso)

 

Resumen

El desafío y aporte en esta propuesta es aplicar, mediante técnicas de auto reporte, tanto una clasificación del estilo primario y secundario de afrontamiento, en un contexto de desempeño grupal de alumnos de primer año de la carrera de arquitectura de la Universidad de Valparaíso, en el   marco de los criterios y objetivos de autorregulación promovidos por la Universidad a través de la Unidad de división Académica.  Con esto, se espera obtener medidas cuantitativas y cualitativas de la evolución individual y cambios en los procesos de autorregulación del aprendizaje, asociado a la experiencia de trabajo grupal.

 

          Palabras clave: arquitectura; aprendizaje; creatividad; trabajo grupal.

 

 

 

“ELENA: ... And for her it is said that love is a child, being so often deceived in the choice. And as naughty boys perjure their games, so rapacious love is perjured everywhere; for before seeing Demetrius Hermia's eyes swore to me on her knees, which was only mine; the more he barely felt the warmth of his presence, his oaths were undone like hail in the sun ... ". (A Midsummer Night's Dream; William Shakespeare).

 

1. Record

For some years, the University of Valparaíso has arranged the implementation of cross-sectional courses of self-regulation of the study for first-year students of all their careers. This is both in order to provide tools to adapt to university life, as well as to avoid increasing levels of desertion due to problems of academic adaptation, such as the interest of creating a certain seal or formative profile in their students. In the case of the School and Architecture career, this process has had some peculiarities and difficulties, for reasons such as:

1. The need to encourage a creative profile on the part of the students.

 

2. The need, therefore, for each student to develop their own discovery process of potential, and not just a passive learning of content.

 

3. The difficulty encountered by students in carrying out group assignments, where each one can contribute creatively to the solution of collective assignments.

 

4. Up to a point, it has been found that the previous points conflict, since creative development appears as an element perceived mainly as an individual feature.

 

5. The above is reinforced, as the students who enter are over 100 to 120 students per year, which hinders individual evaluations and follow-ups. This results in unexpected levels of competition, in the discussion of creative ideas, and how they are put into play by the team, to bring them to a successful conclusion.

 

2. Theoretical framework

Within the framework of interpersonal relationships, conflict is defined as a dynamic process that occurs between people who suffer negative emotional reactions when perceiving discrepancies and interference in the achievement of their objectives.

 

The negative perception of the experience, the lack of skills to identify emotions and the inability to face communication assertively, in short, the styles of coping that the person has to manage discrepancies are determinants in the evolution and outcome of the conflict, authors as Piorno (2012), they say that the styles directly influence the appearance or decrease of phenomena such as conflict, the loss of team confidence, the weakening of the social network and the failure to achieve work objectives. . This reality of the environment is presented as a stressful element that has a negative impact on the professional satisfaction of the professional, which can affect the subsystems and the overall system of the organization.

 

Accordingly, job satisfaction has been defined as a positive or pleasant emotional state resulting from the subjective perception of the experiences that predisposes the person to an attitude towards work. In this line, it has been shown that staff dissatisfaction is negatively correlated with the productivity expressed by absenteeism, turnover, the increase in patient complaints and the deterioration in the achievement of objectives, reverberating in the indirect costs that must be borne by the organization. From this perspective and from the Theory of Double Interests designed by Kilmann (1974-1977), the line of research of this work is sustained.

 

This author identifies five styles to deal with situations that are likely to unleash a conflict and that underlie two fundamental characteristics: assertiveness and cooperation. This author establishes that people choose different styles to face conflicts based on two primary interests: self-interest and interest for others, being independent of each other and varying their intensity in a range from weak to strong. Self-interest refers to the degree to which the parties to the conflict focus on their own needs, interests, values ​​and beliefs; while interest in others refers to the extent to which the parties to the conflict focus on the needs, interests, values ​​and beliefs of their opponents. The above is summarized in the following table:

Table 1. Coping Styles, according to the Thomas Kilmann Model.

SEE IN THE ORIGINAL VERSION

Source: Kilmann, (1974), Own Development, (2016).

 

The challenge and contribution in this proposal is to apply, through self-report techniques, both a classification of the primary and secondary coping style, in a context of group performance of first-year students of architecture at the University of Valparaíso, in the framework of self-regulation criteria and objectives promoted by the University through the Academic Division Unit.

 

3. Methodology

Based on the aforementioned framework, the students were asked, based on self-report techniques, guided by specific questions, to conduct a review and self-assessment of the personal coping style that each one developed during the semester in teamwork. of the workshop, where they had to coordinate to make a general proposal. Based on these narratives, a mixed case study was developed, post-factum, both quantitative and qualitative based on an analysis of the content of the stories obtained, which were tabulated according to the description each one made of their experience. The results are then presented, both from the point of view of a descriptive statistic and of contents in relation to the coping styles perceived in their work in workshop groups.

 

4. Results:

4.1. Descriptive Statistics and Content Analysis: Of the 83 cases evaluated, the sample composition of the students by sex and their respective evolution of coping styles is as follows:

 

Summary table. Evolution of primary and secondary styles.

SEE IN THE ORIGINAL VERSION

Source: Own Development (2016).

 

4.2. Evolution of Coping Styles in the Semester.

4.2.1. Collaborative style.

4.2.1.1. Descriptive Analysis: From the point of view of the perceived evolution, 43 cases are described where students are predominantly described as collaborators, of which only 27 remain in their style, without being forced to change it during the semester. The rest, given their group experience, was forced to develop complementary adaptation strategies: a). 12 cases where, due to conflicts in the group, the students had to develop more competitive styles, b). 12 cases where, due to conflicts in the group, the students had to develop more avoidant styles, c). 12 cases where for good teamwork, the students assumed more accommodating strategies and styles, d). 7 cases where by conjunctures, they perceived that they had to develop negotiating styles.

 

4.2.1.2. Qualitative Content Analysis: One of the subgroups that is observed, is the evolution of groups with collaborative type dynamics, is the step or transit towards complacent modes of coping within the group. This is the case of the following student:

- In my group I felt comfortable at first, I contributed what was necessary and I attended all the meetings, from time to time I helped a classmate and once or twice I did some correction that I thought was pertinent. Later problems arose in the team because not everyone showed up, which made me demotivate a bit of the group and as a result I did not contribute as much and I took the role of following the majority…

 

Dentro de esta misma evolución complementaria, desde lo colaborativo a lo complaciente, narraciones como las del siguiente alumno:

- My adaptation in the group was very good, nobody interposed on another, and that allowed me to contribute in the best way. In addition, by sharing the same interests and presenting the willingness to help, the group's environment was optimal (...). The role I assumed in my group was between passive and cooperative, although I do not like to expose my ideas, I learned to express all those that seemed transcendental to me and to cooperate with the jobs that they asked me to do.

 

It is also interesting to analyze cases of students, who initially show themselves to be collaborators, but to the extent that they have a negative experience or find it difficult to integrate their ideas, they decide to withdraw:

- At first I wanted to do what I could best, as far as I'm concerned, and collaborate with everything, I have imagination and I'm not so bad at drawing, but when I realized that others' ideas were not similar to mine, I pretended to go with the flow and do what they thought was better, since their ideas were good and I did not find mine to be better. This made me dependent on what they asked me to do and not be a subject that gives their opinion to the group, much less correct ideas that I believed wrong, throughout the works I began to seem increasingly tedious to contribute to the group, each Once I was more irresponsible, less worried and contributing, and negative for the group, as well as the vision they have of me, as a result I got a bad poster of my own and the dislike towards me on the part of my group ...

 

In another case, an initially collaborative style becomes avoidant and even indifferent to the dissolution of the group: Finally, the group began to disarm, its ties were disfigured by individual differences that at first did not influence group performance, but that in the long run they ended up destroying and affecting collective performance.

 

In another group, an evolution was observed from collaborative features to competitive styles, such as those of the following student:

- In my group I felt at first very supported with them, we all got along well, we saw that in the future we were going to have good jobs, not like the other groups that nobody knew who I was with, we were united. But as more group work went on, nobody took the initiative to be able to do the work, there were always excuses to start a job, it was very difficult to get together. I still felt super annoyed in the sense that she looked like mom behind everyone together with another partner, I wanted to be able to develop the works well, but I felt that they did not want to be.

 

Finally, it also highlights the experience of students who, assuming initial collaborative attitudes as the main strategy of insertion within the group, were validated as negotiating leaders:

- At the beginning, like any group, there are always people who do not agree with our rhythm and who do not want to work, even so, some tried to help, and those who did not, were leaving the group alone. I felt comfortable knowing that among all of them there is great respect in terms of my opinions, times of work and organization (...). I feel that when we see when there is a moment of chaos, it is time to act and respect each of the opinions leading to one that leaves us all satisfied. I feel that arguing without reason does not get anywhere and only delays us.

 

4.3. Avoidant style:

4.3.1. Descriptive Analysis: 17 students are perceived with a predominantly avoidant style, of which, given their group experience, they developed complementary adaptation strategies: a). 9 students, given a group experience, manages to integrate collaboratively, b). 4 students facing difficulties and situations assume negotiating style, c). 4 students, given difficulties in the group, feel compelled to develop more individualistic competitive styles.

 

4.3.2. Qualitative Content Analysis: In practice, it seems that this group has a greater degree of flexibility to assume various complementary roles, highlighting the collaborative style within the group, which is shown in the following description:

- During the group work of this semester I learned to work in different ways. In the beginning I did not like the idea of ​​working together with other people, but I learned to do it, since I had other situations and past experiences in which some worked more than others and well, that's how it was ...

 

Similar is the case of a student who describes similar basic situation, but with greater degrees of and evolution toward more complacent forms of coping and adaptation:

- In my group during the semester, I felt "without pain or glory", I always wanted to stand out a little more, show more my ideas and my way of working, that until last year I found it quite efficient, but to be working with my This semester group has filled me with a lot of insecurities, always within the group I never really got involved, in discussions the same thing, I just stood aside.

 

Also highlight some cases, such as the following, where from a rather avoidant initial attitude, the student manages to move to more negotiating roles, assuming a more negotiating role within the group, in order to address the differences that arise within the group:

- At first, my role within the work group was passive. I think that this happened because the group was formed when we were entering the race, without much experience or confidence with the rest of the team members. I contributed with ideas, but perhaps without being convincing enough (...). At that time, I think that my role became conciliatory, seeking to end armed conflicts based on differences of opinion and getting the best out of both positions, in order to aspire to a satisfactory outcome.

 

They also highlight styles that are described as avoidant, associated with traits of personal shyness, develop collaborative styles, styles and negotiation modes as complementary variants:

- In the group in which I work, I felt very comfortable and in a certain part with a conciliatory role, since it always tended to that we agreed and that we all benefit from what we were doing. Although at the beginning, I only listened to what others said and followed the decisions made by the other members of the group, since my personality, when confronted with unknown people, is hidden a little and makes me very shy.

 

4.4. Competitive Styles:

4.4.1. Descriptive Analysis: In the third term, 6 cases of students perceived as predominantly competitive, of which, given their group experience, they developed complementary adaptation strategies: a). 4 students describing themselves as competitive, and given good experience of group work, developed collaborative styles, b). 1 student describing himself as competitive, given the bad group experience, becomes avoidant in his contact with the group, and c). 1 competitive student, who then assumes negotiating style in the group.

 

4.4.2. Qualitative Content Analysis: The style that appears as most described, and that appears as a complementary form in its evolution, during the semester, is the collaborative style, which, I do not cease to be exempt from complexities and group reality, as well as the emotional and personal costs of assuming . It is the argument of the following case:

- Try as much as possible to contribute and collaborate to make it work, and although sometimes I prefer to give my arm to twist to avoid problems, I think it was not the most appropriate since I usually try to reach a consensus with the ideas of the other members, this is what has happened lately ...

 

Similar situation is written by another student, in a more disagreeable way, belonging to a different group:

- I tend to work better alone, and my group experience at the beginning was uncomfortable, difficult, de-motivating, stressful, distressing, but as time passed, the relationship with some of my classmates improved, which allowed more communication and closeness. I help in part to improve teamwork, but even so we have not managed to blend 100%.

 

We must also highlight the avoidant style as a complementary mode to the competitive style. In this case, the student is aware of the difficulty of working as a team, which means more collaborative ways, so the work is oriented towards a more efficient form of individual performance:

- For me teamwork is difficult because I am used to working alone because it is much easier than having to agree on who does something in a group or does not always work, so when I work in a group I try to do it with people who have the same approach when it comes to work. For example, doing things for me and sometimes I can not understand some colleagues who do things at the last minute or who put problems to work.

 

4.5. Negotiating Style.

4.5.1. Descriptive Analysis: Fourth, 10 students are perceived as having negotiating styles, from which, given their group experience, they developed complementary adaptation strategies, such as: a). 8 of them, in good group experience, is complemented by competing styles, b). 1 of them, given bad group experience, retracts and becomes avoidant with the group, and c). 1 of them assumes a negotiating role in the face of conflicts.

 

4.5.2. Content Analysis: From the analysis of graph and table, a certain naturalness is inferred in the evolution and complementarity of this type of group coping style, with collaborative forms, even in situations and conflicting situations, which try to resolve by recovering group confidence -laboratory, before the imposition. Take the following story:

- At the beginning of my work with my group, they were all very shy and nobody tried to make their opinion known, it was difficult to start without someone on their own initiative being able to tell us how they wanted us to do the job. As I was the one who tried to make the comments of others flow and tried to reconcile the opinions, they took me as a reference to decide for the rest on fundamental things for our work. I would not say that my position was authoritarian because my colleagues gave it to me because I felt that within the group I was responsible.

 

In another case associated with a different group, a student refers to a dynamic that complements the predominant negotiating style, with an avoidant style: my performance, rather my role within the group is to listen to everyone, and especially their ideas and try to reconcile in common agreement…

 

4.6. Complacent Style.

4.6.1. Descriptive Analysis: In fifth term, 10 students are perceived with complacent styles, of which, given their group experience, they developed complementary adaptation strategies: a). 5 developed competitive styles, before group conflicts, b). 3 developed collaborative styles, c). 1 developed a complementary negotiating style before group conflicts, d). 1 developed a complementary avoidant style in the face of group conflicts.

 

4.6.2. Content Analysis: As noted, a typical situation within this type of style was the development of competitive and individualistic adaptation strategies, given the difficulty of integrating or not being identified with the dominant proposals, such as the following case:

- In group work I have always been like a worker, I do not care much about being a leader because I like equality (...). but in our group there was a supreme leader with a voice for everything, but me and a similar partner ended up doing the work alone because they following the leader did not do well, (Because of this) my role within the group was opposition because as only the leader had opinion and decision inside, I opposed giving my opinion.

 

Another student, from another work group, describes a similar general pattern of initial adaptation that evolves into more individualistic forms with competitive features. In this regard, the student indicates that:

- When XXXX assumed the role of leader, I am afraid that he went beyond being the spokesman as he began to give orders and also, well, we did the work and apparently the formula worked, we got good grades, therefore we follow that organic work (in my erroneous opinion) and our colleagues just obeyed orders and did not develop a venture and creativity that our career requires us.

 

Also highlights the description of an evolution that complements a complacent style with collaborative strategies: During the semester my position in the group was complacent, I preferred in the great majority of cases to yield to the ideas of others to avoid discussions and to occupy that time in developing work faster.

 

5. Conclusions

They can be exposed in the following points:

5.1. The main base group, with which a significant percentage was identified as the primary coping style, was the collaborative style (52%), following the avoidant style (24), and complacent (12%), negotiator (8%) and competitive (7%).

 

5.2. The secondary complementary style undergoes significant variations, where it stands out that: the collaborative style presents 31%, followed by competitive (24%) and avoidant (18%), negotiating (16%) and complacent (11%) styles.

 

5.3. An important part of these secondary styles tends to assume competitive strategies (24%), to the extent that an individual feature is accentuated, or, persevering in more collaborative group strategies (32%), despite the group difficulties described- and to a lesser extent, even mediation or negotiation (11%).

 

5.4. On the other hand, narratively, highlights a broad group, which defines itself in general, as passive, and that in the narrative description oscillates between avoidant features (16%) and complacent (11%) that added 26%.

 

5.5. From the foregoing, the development of secondary styles stands out in the first order, in the following order: a). collaborator (32%), tends to be competitive (24%), avoidant (18%) and complacent (16%). It is suggested that, in competitive, complacent and avoidant styles, this evolution is influenced by processes of group deterioration -with the emergence of intra-group conflicts- or a subsequent self-dissociation to some degree or measure from them, forcing them to work for itself, in order to compensate for this gap, and assume an avoidant attitude.

 

6. Reflections and Final Synthesis.

The following points stand out:

6.1. It is clear from the content analysis, which for many students, is a complex and high emotional cost, adapting to group dynamics, in any of the coping styles they develop, as complementary to the primary and dominant personal. Thus, positive, this type of reflection instances stand out, where the students can incorporate levels of reflection and self-observation, avoiding that it generalizes merely from a good or bad individual experience in a group, stiffening their positions and losing flexibility before future individual and group experiences.

 

6.2. In particular, highlights the scarce spontaneous negotiating styles that can channel within the group, the differences. This suggests that if this trend continues in coming years, it may be necessary to incorporate guided strategies that promote mediating or negotiating roles in this regard.

 

6.3. There is also a spontaneous diminution regarding the competitive style as a primary mode, as a way to compensate for the integrative shortcomings and increasing degrees of effectiveness of the group.

 

6.4. Regarding individualistic styles, not only the competitive modes stand out, but also the avoidant and complacent ones. This suggests the potential increase of stressful reactions as a certain difficulty to negotiate or agree on ideas, which is compensated with the pragmatist sense oriented to the end. This dynamic where group work promotes competitive, avoidant or complacent styles undoubtedly entails a kind of paradox, because ideas are not solved or developed in groups, but by the demand of some over others, which implies significant degrees of personal stress, both for those who impose ideas, as for those who accept them willingly or complacently for pragmatic reasons linked to the need for efficiency and decision making.

 

7. References

Kilmann, T. (1974). Conflict and conflict management. Ed. Palo Alto. Kilmann, R.H. & Thomas, K.W. (1977). Developing a forced choice measure of conflict handling behavior: The “MODE” instrument. Educational and Psychological Measurement, In: Journal of Management 37: págs. 309-325.

 

Piorno, M. (2012). Estilos de afrontamiento al conflicto para la eficiencia organizativa en equipos de Enfermería de Atención Primaria. Tesis Magister en enfermería, España: Universidad de Barcelona. Recuperado de: http://diposit.ub.edu/dspace/bitstream/2445/32202/1/estilos.pdf

 

Shakespeare, William (1969). Sueño de Una Noche de Verano. En: Obras Selectas. Ed. BAC.

 

 

Omar Eduardo Cañete Islas

e-mail: ocanetei00@yahoo.es

 

Born in Chile Teacher School of Architecture. Universidad de Valparaíso, Chile. Master in Social Psychology. Professor of Architecture career from 2000 to date. Works on themes of form, territory and city, as well as creative processes. Various articles in specialty indexed journals.

 

The content of this manuscript is disseminated under a Creative Commons License Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International

 

- Original Version in Spanish -

DOI: https://doi.org/10.29394/Scientific.issn.2542-2987.2018.3.7.13.250-267