About Group Facilitation and Using this Guide
You can download the complete guide as a printable (PDF) file.
The task for team members to work on in their notebooks and to develop as a team is to clarify the problem statement and to develop your own statement in a format that helps you to move forward with the design task. The emphasis in this stage is to clarify all the issues and possible meanings associated with the task.
A group member will take the role of facilitator for the group activities during this phase. This guide is for the facilitator to use during the meeting. The facilitator should still be a participant in the process.
Another group member needs to take the role of scribe, and to prepare minutes of the meeting. See the guide for preparing meeting minutes.
Note: all students should have considered Chapter 3 of ‘Engineering by Design’, and developed a problem statement of their own in their Engineer’s Notebook. Carry out a quick check to see if the group members are prepared and ready for the activity. If most members are not prepared, the group should consider and agree on what needs to be done, and schedule another meeting.
Ask each member in turn to present their problem statement. Make sure that each person is encouraged and listened to fairly. Don't try to judge the response at this stage.
Ask clarification questions if the problem statements are not clear. Such questions may be:
Ask the group to give brief feedback on each person's statement. Start with the positive aspects before any critique is made, for example:
Arrange for the group to split into four subgroups of two or three. If you are a student acting as facilitator you will need to join a subgroup. Each subgroup is to select a different statement – one that was not written by a member of that subgroup. Ask each subgroup to do the four parts of the statement/restatement technique on their problem statement. The technique is specified in section 3.2.2 and table 3.1 of the text. Discuss the process first to ensure that everybody is clear. Ask the subgroup members to note the results of their discussions in their notebooks. Set a time for this task, such as 10 or 15 minutes.
Bring the whole group back together to reconsider the project brief. Set up a whiteboard, sheet of paper or computer file, using the columns below, to help the group members to structure and analyse the brief. Ask each subgroup to feedback the main ideas that arose from the analysis, and the resulting problem restatement. Keep questions brief at this point, such as asking for a clarification or a justification. Examples are:
Use this to consider the implications of selected statements.
Note: the column headings are based on the Statement-Restatement technique in the text book. The headings may not be meaningful without a study of the technique in the text book.
Real Problem |
Constraints |
Goals |
Key learning issues |
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Use this structured analysis to develop the group’s statement. This should be a comprehensive statement, taking account of the issues identified using the Statement/Restatement technique. Discuss how a statement could be written that includes all the major points. Try to reach agreement on one statement. Possible questions are:
Finish the design phase by identifying what you need to learn to be ready for the next phase. Review the ‘Key learning Issues’ column to identify what needs to be learned. Agree on an action plan to follow these up.