Dr. Katie Bradford
CMS 354: Conflict Resolution
Fall 2024
Why PBL?
In developing the project-based learning content, I engaged with work-world professionals to hear their stories of actual workplace conflicts. I realized the variety and prevalence of conflict present in the workplace and wanted to share that with my students so they likewise would see that conflict is everywhere. With PBL, we have created a course that is an authentic learning experience, one that connects students with problems they will encounter in the work world that cause people to feel perplexed and anxious.
Many people avoid conflict. Something I have learned from teaching this course is the importance of looking for solutions by engaging with others, asking questions to generate understanding, and listening well – and the wonderful gift of clear communication, mutual understanding, and changed relationships that can result from learning and employing these skills.
In short, PBL led me to become even more cognizant of the relevance and meaning of my instruction and course design to students’ lives well beyond their classroom experiences in college.
Katie E. Bradford, PhD
Lecturer, Communication Studies
I found the project effective in reinforcing what we learned in class. Without the project, I would likely not have retained as much from the class because I would not have been actively applying those ideas as much... Even now, I can recall what we learned in class much more quickly by thinking about what we did for our project and the ideas that went into it rather than just trying to remember the concepts themselves.
The Launch
Problem Statement and Driving Questions
Problem statement: Conflict in the workplace leads to loss of time, resources, and relationships. How can we as future professionals effectively resolve workplace conflicts?
Driving questions:
• Why do conflicts occur?
• What strategies and skills help us resolve conflict?
Launch Activity
On Launch Day, a panel of six professionals came to campus to present conflict cases from their workplaces, including a pediatric medical practice, a public high school, a community bank, a grants firm, a national eyeglasses retailer, and a lobbying firm. Next, Dr. Bradford assigned students to teams, one team per conflict case, based on information she had collected about their college majors and career aspirations. Student teams spent the last ten minutes of Launch Day with their “professional,” an initial opportunity to discuss the conflict case and to receive a written case description.
Need-to-Knows
A core aspect of PBL allows for student to identify prior knowledge related to the course content and what remains to be discovered.
Students identified the following need-to-knows:
• How conflict develops, escalates, and resolves
• Team collaboration and communication skills
• Time management skills
• Research specific to their conflict case
• Digital tools knowledge for creation of final product
• Public speaking and presentation skills
It was very insightful to get exposure to real-world conflicts as it made what we did feel more meaningful knowing that the conflicts we were trying to resolve actually occurred.
Active Learning
Sustained Inquiry
Students studied conflict, systematically analyzed examples, and practiced conflict resolution strategies through readings, written reflections, skits, discussions, activities, a book club presentation, and a written case study. Students worked in teams to apply theory and strategies learned in the course to a real conflict situation from the professional work world. Students wrote professional emails to connect with their workplace stakeholder, conducted needed research, identified and explained relevant course constructs, applied an ethical perspective, and proposed a feasible solution via a workplace-like presentation.
Student Choice and Voice
Students chose conflict data to analyze and interpret for their own Case Study assignment. They signed up to participate in a Book Club team, thus choosing a book chapter to cover and a presentation date.
For the Team Project, students wrote a Team Contract to establish their team’s ethical code of conduct and working agreements. They selected team member roles, scheduled team meetings and created meeting goals, used Microsoft Copilot to brainstorm initial solution ideas, and collaborated to select and develop a product solution for their given workplace conflict. Finally, they had freedom in the design and organization of the final presentation.
Feedback Loops
Students completed reading comprehension checks and written reading responses to check their knowledge of course concepts. In their teams, they wrote a team contract, constructed professional email messages to the instructor and their professional stakeholder, had two “check-in” meetings with the instructor, and practiced their presentation draft with one other team in a peer-review assignment. Through these assignments, students received ongoing feedback from the instructor, teaching assistant, and their peers.
This class taught me the importance of collaboration and communication within a professional setting.
The Learning Product
Final Product
Students developed their product that aimed to prevent their given workplace conflict from escalating, to equip those in the workplace with skills or knowledge for resolving or mitigating the conflict, and for conflict management in general.
The final product aligned with all four course learning outcomes: (1) Explain why conflicts happen, persist, and grow; (2) Analyze and evaluate conflict in communication; (3) Apply tactics, strategies, and skills to help resolve conflicts, and (4) Create a conflict-resolution product for a real-world client.
Opportunities to Improve
Dr. Bradford provided instruction and practice on team meetings, team member roles, professional email communication, effective presentation skills, and oral citing of sources (Click on the heading "Opportunities to Improve."). One class day featured a workshop with six stations where students checked for required content and worked on aspects of presentations often overlooked or requiring more practice (citing sources, meeting audience needs, presentation software logistics). One week prior to the final presentation day, teams paired up and performed their draft presentation for each other. Teams used an evaluation form, and this feedback guided the teams’ revision work for the following week’s final presentations.
Criteria for Success
To produce the final product, students completed a team contract, professional email messages to Dr. Bradford and their professional stakeholder, update meetings with the instructor, a presentation script with planned transitions among speakers, and a final slide deck.
I enjoyed coming to a product solution and seeing how real-world conflicts can be solved in various ways. I also enjoyed being able to present for my guest who introduced the conflict and getting their feedback.
Final Presentations
Final Presentations
Student teams delivered an 8- to 10-minute professional, workplace-like presentation.
The audience members included their classmates, the professional stakeholders, and several Moody College instructors and administrators. Each presentation was followed by a 5-minute Q&A period in which students interacted with audience members.
During the presentations, audience members completed a one-page guided evaluation form developed by Dr. Bradford to support student growth as they received feedback from a variety of perspectives.
Presentation Assessment
The presentation rubric included these criteria:
• Describes the professional workplace conflict situation
• Identifies and explains three relevant course constructs
• Applies an ethical perspective
• Proposes and details a feasible solution to the conflict
• Considers and addresses audience stakeholders’ knowledge and concerns
• Includes oral citations of sources, including any use of AI
• Engages the audience with a visual component
• Exemplifies effective communication in delivery
Final Reflections
Dr. Bradford provided teams with a written summary of their strengths and areas for improvement, including all comments she compiled from the evaluation forms collected from stakeholders, classmates, and Moody College guests.
To provide greater closure to the semester-long project and in response to student feedback she collected, Dr. Bradford added a Final Reflection assignment to the Spring 2025 course. Each student writes a one-page reflection about the team project experience, including an assessment of team members’ contributions stated as a percentage of the total work required.
This project allowed my team and me to actually apply our new knowledge to see what did and did not work. We navigated five different perspectives to compromise and create a final product... This real-world application gave me a deeper understanding of conflict resolution. I learned what I can and cannot control in conflict situations, how to incorporate my communications knowledge with my business background, and how to pivot when your plan does not work out.