Evaluation in the whole group
One of the most difficult processes for a moderator is to conduct the evaluation process in the full group of participants.
When and how to evaluate the whole group?
Such an evaluation can be planned once or twice during the entire exchange, depending on the group’s feelings: do they like this form, how much it allows everyone to join in the discussion and whether we can draw valuable conclusions during it. It is worth spending about an hour (depending on the size of the group) for this type of discussion, preferably in the afternoon, but not in the evening – a discussion of this type requires full concentration and a lot energy from the participants 🙂 The organizer and national leaders choose the topic evaluation. It is worth devoting a full-group conversation to only a few of the most important topics – e.g. the form of conducting activities, or the atmosphere in workshop groups. We can use previously selected methods:
WORK METHOD PROPOSAL
Ask each person to say how they feel about the chosen topic by describing their mood with a genre scene (e.g. I feel like being with my grandma while picking mushrooms) and justifying their answer.
WORK METHOD PROPOSAL
Place the chosen object in the center of the room, e.g. a chair. Make out loud statements related to the topic being evaluated, such as “I work very well in my group” and ask participants to stand as close to the chair as they agree with the statement (if they feel unwell in the group, they should stand as far away from the chair as possible). Each time, let the group take a moment to look at the room and realize how their colleagues are feeling.
With a high culture of group discussion, it is also possible to give up the established methods of work and moderate the participants’ free conversation, trying to draw as many conclusions as possible from the listened statements.
Why is it worth conducting this form of evaluation?
When national leaders choose the topic of the evaluation appropriately and all participants engage in the discussion, each of us will be able to read the comments of the whole group directly. This form of discussion also allows for confrontation in case of doubts or misunderstandings – it is both an opportunity and a threat from the perspective of the moderator (remember the culture of the discussion; you can allow participants to exchange opinions to clarify a complicated matter, but not allow it to lead to aggression). When we all participate in an evaluation, we do not need to share our knowledge, as in the case of national and group evaluations, which makes it easy to avoid understatements and misunderstandings.