Abhi's E-portfolio

One thing I have noticed while working in a group is that each individual’s performance is enhanced due to collaboration with others. Before exploring further, let’s look at a concept called social facilitation that can help explain the previous statement in a much simpler way. Taught in my Sociology 101 class, social facilitation is a concept that states that an individual’s performance is enhanced in the presence of others. This concept seems is evident in situations involving group work. This phenomenon leads to overall better efficiency and produces a more desired outcome. Working in a group makes everyone accountable for doing their part. Working in a group promotes interaction among group members which also leads to better communication. Throughout my college career, I have seen this within the classroom (WTC) concept being applied to the beyond the classroom experiences that I have been a part of.

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A classic example of this concept would be taking part in community service. I was involved in the completion of several service projects in the USC community. One recent example is when I signed up to volunteer at a park where the planting of artificial grass was needed in order to prevent soil erosion. While in the process of implementing carpet, I each student, be accountable for their own work. Not only were they making sure to do their part, but the presence of other people motivated them to take on more responsibilities. This increase in individual performance leads to increase in overall efficiency. This increase in efficiency lead to the completion of the project earlier than expected. Here, we see that individual success is enhanced by group contributions.

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Another example would be when I took part in a project at Children’s Center

at USC. The project involved weeding, digging, pruning, and shoveling compost

into wheelbarrows and spreading out the plants. The main goal was to make

the natural classroom for students as aesthetic as possible. During the project,

I remember not only did I finish my part earlier, but I went and joined my other

colleagues to assist them in their own work. The project started out with people

doing individual work but became group work quickly once the volunteers were

done with their part. This goes back to what I said about first being accountable

for your own work and then taking on more responsibilities. Since each

volunteer’s performance was enhanced, not only were the tasks assigned

completed but additional work was done to make the natural classroom as feasible as possible. Again, each individual’s success  enhanced by group contributions lead to better outcome. This is a classic example of linking what I learned within the classroom to the beyond the classroom experience. In a given community, social facilitation is noticeable day in and day out.

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Being a Supplemental Instruction (SI) leader, this concept was applicable most of the time. My SI sessions were always geared towards promoting group work. One day, I remember I had around 15 people attend my SI session, and so it was optimal to split everyone up into groups of three. Each group was given the task to complete a worksheet in a given amount of time. One of the group members was required to come up to the board and work out one of the problems. During the process of working out problems, I saw strong cooperation within each group and between the groups. I saw one student, who usually struggles with the problems working alone, provide an explanation of the answer to other students. This tells me that a student’s performance does actually increase being in a group. I also observed people who were previously having a hard time with the problems come up with the solution quickly through group work. This goes back to increase in performance in the presence of the others. Both the community service and the SI experiences reinforced my understanding of the concept of social facilitation in that it made me realize how the concepts we learn in classroom manifest  into real-life application.

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This concept can also be applied to my future profession. As a future physician, I will be held accountable as a part of a healthcare team. Not only will I be accountable, but my performance may also be increased because of the team-oriented collaboration. Working as a team is better for us because not only will there be increase in workplace efficiency but the quality of care provided to the patient may also increase. The drive to do more will constantly improve the quality of patient-care, and as a result patients are more will be satisfied with the healthcare that they receive.  

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