Chapter Five: Practical work
Phenomenology and Text Analysis
In this exercise we will consider the phenomenon of smoking. The method we will use is textual analysis.
Imagine you have gone through a set of documents consisting of medical reports, historical records,
journal articles advertisements, etc. You have extracted 20 facts.
Now organise these sentences into a branching tree diagram.
Tip: You may have to make your own additional links as in the example below.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
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20.
Smoking causes cancer.
It is considered good for the nerves.
Smoking can become a habit.
It cures loneliness
Children were taught how to smoke.
Advertising does not help.
It is expensive.
It causes bronchitis and heart complaints.
It can poison the system.
It is something to do with the hands.
Young people begin to smoke for different reasons.
It can seriously damage your health.
The arguments against smoking are forceful.
It unites young people.
Tobacco cured stomach ailments.
In the 17th century smoking was thought beneficial.
Today its value is a social one.
As a habit it is difficult to give up.
Nicotine stains the hands and causes halitosis.
It also produces a shortness of breath.
Then
Smoking
Now
After the session you may view the model answer here: https://youtu.be/I92lA5j1gqs
Case study and Interviews
In this exercise we will select a specific case, and we will interview that case.
Select the person in your group whose surname comes first alphabetically to be the case.
Now, as a group, interview that person to see if you can find out why that person chose to do this
qualification. Use the six required questions: Who? What? Where? When? Why? and How?
In your case study try to find out what is typical of this person in terms of selecting this course, and also
what is unusual.
During the interview, make some keywords, and afterwards put them into two columns, Typical and
Unusual.
Ethnography and Participant observation
In this exercise we will form a quick “Tribe” and observe the tribe moving through Tuckman’s stages of
group development. You will be a participant observer in the process and will be required to do a small
passage of reflective writing at the end of the discussion. Form a group of six and do the following
exercise.
Your group of six are in charge of space travel. A major comet is about to hit the earth. There is a very
high probability that the whole world will be destroyed. Fortunately a space shuttle, equipped to
survive for more than four years in deep space is ready to take off. The problem is that there are ten
people who have done the necessary courses to go on the trip, but the shuttle can only hold six. Your
group has to decide which six of the following ten people you will allow to go. Remember that if you do
not reach your decision in 20 minutes, the shuttle will no longer be able to take off in time to avoid the
collision impact on earth. The only information you have about the potential space travelers who may
have to restart the human race, is contained in the table below.
Take two minutes select your six candidates
Then, in your group try to find the six people who must go. Try to convince the group of your
candidates. The “winner” is the one whose selection is closest to what the group had decided.
Pay particular attention to your feelings when someone disagrees with you.
Try to see if some people dominate the group.
Are there people who are completely tuned out and not participating?
Description
You
Gp
Bookkeeper, 32years old.
His wife, 6 months pregnant
5th year medical student HIV+
Hollywood actress, singer and dancer, female
Springbok rugby player
Biochemist, female, 53 years old
Rabbi
Technikon Engineering student
Professor of History, male
Policeman with a gun. They cannot be separated.
At the end of the meeting indicate your percentage of satisfaction that the group had made the correct
decision. _____________%
Now go through your notes and see if you can find evidence of the group moving through
Tuckman's stages of group development – Wikipedia.
Grounded theory and Focus Group
In this exercise we will consider a situation where we do not have all the information at our disposal,
and thus we use a focus group to reach a common understanding. For this exercise elect one member
to act as the facilitator.
Now go through the same exercise as before with the people who should go onto the space shuttle, but
this time, use the “Six thinking hat” methodology:
As a group, under the guidance of the facilitator, use the spreadsheet below, and go through the whole
group, one hat at a time and rate each person as 0 no reason for them to go, 1 should possibly go, 3
MUST definitely go.
First rate every person using white hat thinking (facts and figures), then red hat thinking (emotions),
then yellow hat thinking (best case scenario, optimistic) then black hat thinking (worst case scenario,
pessimistic) and then green (out of the box thinking 0 what if…). Once you have finished the green hat,
check the totals in the spreadsheet to find out who the top six candidates are, then go through the list
to see if it is indeed workable, or if you may have left out all the women, or all the men. THEN, look at
the blue hat column and see if you need to add a score to someone there for the sake of balance.
When you have done all that, compare the results to your previous table and indicate how many people
were selected for BOTH groups. THEN indicate how satisfied you are that the group has made the
correct decision.
Number of people who were selected in both cases ___________
My level of satisfaction that the group has made the correct decision _________%
How many people in the group preferred method 1 _________ and how many preferred the six thinking
hat method? ________
SixThinkingHats.xlsx
So what have you learnt about using Six Thinking Hats as a method to assist in group decision making?