The know-it-all: An example of a dominant individual in a working group

Abstract

Activities in the learning require students to communicate, collaborate, create material, and review each other´s work in their group. Working in a group can be very challenging for some people because of dominant behavior disruption group dynamics. In this study, social dominance and particularly “the know-it-all” who acts knowledgeable and who dismisses the opinions, comments, or suggestions of others, is discussed and how resulting problems effects the group dynamic. A case study about a dominant “know-it-all” student in a laboratory practical class group work is described in the report. Different groups were compared and the general disruptive effects were indicated on know-it-all in group dynamics. Results show that dominant individuals consistently attained high levels of influence to other group members, and controlled the group with a low tolerance for correction and contradiction. The other group members’ work can be misinterpreted as free-riders if agreeing to everything with the know-it-all’s suggestions without proper discussion and participation. The achievement of the intended learning outcomes when the group dynamics are disrupted can be severely affected, diminishing the knowledge transfer between teacher-student. The cultural background, learning environment and first experiences in the career can have a huge impact on the way that that each individual deal with group dynamics. The report presents solutions from a teacher’s perspective to the two different categories of the know-it-all: The true know-it-all and the think-they-know-it-all. In the former example the teacher can talk individually with the person acknowledging the student´s deep knowledge but explaining how the other students are effected. In the latter example the teacher´s role is monitoring the students learning by asking questions and if students feels oppressed or personally offended by the know-it-all engage in a circular response discussion.