Looking back on that day, I feel that we, as a group, didn't do too poorly in terms of reaching a final decision. Reaching a consensus is difficult to do when there are many members with different wants. The main issue at hand was whether there should be an essay on the next exam and how much it should be worth. I think the class was too focused on the details of the next exam that we failed to think of a way to help those that scored poorly. I myself didn't do too hot so I was thinking of ways to boost my own grade: I had the idea that we lower the worth of the first exam and increase the worth of the second. However, the idea was shot down by those who scored high. After that, there wasn't much discussion about the first exam because we had already decided as a group that we wanted both a curve and extra credit. I was much happier just with the curve and wasn't too focused on methods to boost it even higher.
I fall into the category of a "compromiser" because of what was at stake (the curve and extra credit). I felt that if we had a lot of dissonance, we might lose everything and I couldn't afford that. Most of us couldn't anyway...
I feel that the discussion was led by those that scored high because when the suggestion was bought up to lower the worth of the first exam, it was immediately rejected... I'm surprised that no one spoke up for it seeing that the class average was so low in the first place. But increasing the worth of the second exam would mean studying/pressure for the 2nd exam.
I think the most people fell in the avoidance category because it seemed that there were only a handful of people that spoke up constantly (and those were mostly the compete-to-win type). I saw a lot of people clicking away on their laptops/cellphones and others commenting on how pointless this activity was and how they wanted to go home.
The idea of splitting the class into groups did come to mind but I dismissed it because if two groups of people had completely polar ideas, there would be even more chaos than we had that day. An argument between two people is better than a war between two groups of people. I do see where the professor is coming from though, because if we were split into groups, more people would have been involved and more ideas would have been discussed. But like many said, we didn't have much time to discuss anyway.
I am just glad that we agreed on something and that the class voted unanimously on the final proposal. The reason we were so focused on the essay is because many of us lost a lot of points on the essay portion alone. I myself lost the most points on that portion. For this reason, this was the main topic of discussion. Personally I'm opened to an essay as long as I know the topic beforehand... but I guess we didn't agree on that provision.
