English Language Office

Teacher Development Workshops and Presentations

Recognizing Different Working Styles and How They Interact
By Eve Chambers – Senior English Language Fellow

Conference presentation-American University, Cairo
January 15, 2008

ABSTRACT

The objectives of this session are as follows:

• Recognize the importance of understanding different perspectives and skills in a work setting.
  
• Understand the concepts of cultural assumptions and stereotyping.
  

As an introduction, four different working styles will be described, namely, Action, Process, People, and Idea. Participants will then be asked to identify their own style from these four styles. They will then be placed into homogenous groups according to their working styles. In the groups they will be given 15 minutes to perform a task together and produce results to later share with the whole “class”.  The task is to work together with their group and draw a poster illustrating their ideal vacation.

After 15 minutes, all groups will stop work and put their posters up on the wall. At this point the whole audience will be asked to observe the posters for differences and similarities (which are usually quite noticeable.) Each group will then choose a spokesperson to explain their poster to the rest of the whole class. Differences will then be discussed, as well as the process followed by the group in making the poster, the quality of their poster, and the length of time it took them to complete the task. The presenter will end by pointing out the advantages and disadvantages of each working style and how they compliment each other.