Most students have all had horrible group project experiences.
Often times these group projects start as early elementary school grades and are
still found in many college classes. It seems to me that group projects done
solely in class are helpful to students’ learning and development of social
skills like learning about cooperation. This is especially true when done in
elementary school grades when these skills are being developed, and students
need to have these kinds of experiences to further their growth. When they are
assigned to be worked on mostly outside the classroom, problems arise.
Throughout my years of schooling, I have had many awful group project
experiences that I will not soon forget due to the horror of them.
The problems in each group vary, but there are some
common issues. One is that people often cannot agree on times or dates to meet.
Another is that if those dates are agreed upon, people often do not show up.
Then there is the issue of group members not working well together. One issue pertaining
to this is when one or more group members are not pulling their weight. There
are also problems with group members arguing, or not staying focused because
they are very talkative. Since middle school I remember the worst group
projects were ones that required us to make videos. While this was a creative
assignment, looking back I do not remember learning anything new about the
topics of our projects. I also remember the stress of not having a video
camera, and then finding one but not having it hook up correctly to the
television in the classroom, or the dvd not working. These problems occurred throughout
high school, while we did a Romeo and Juliet video group project and a Spanish one
once every year. Every college group project outside of the classroom has been
a mess, mainly due to some group members not showing up for meetings, or not
putting in enough effort.
I just do not think that the benefits of group work
outside the classroom outweigh the problems that come along with them. I think
it makes more sense for teachers and professors to assign group work in the
classroom. This still allows for collaborative work, without adding all the
complications that are bound to haunt a group throughout the assignment. Keep
the group work contained inside the four walls of the classroom, and eliminate
the stress.
I disagree. As stressful as group projects can be, I feel they are very beneficial. Having students work on projects together outside of class prepare them for the future. There are many jobs in which you will need to work with somebody, and compromise on times to meet and the amount of work each member does. In addition, some projects are simply too large for one person. For example, in my student teaching practicum, my junior class did a performance project to show interpretations of "Hamlet". The performances could not have been done with one person.
ReplyDeleteAs you go through life, you will discover that there are people you are able to "work with", and people you must "work around". College is a relatively safe space to learn how to discern the difference between the two types of people, and learn how to accomplish tasks with both sorts.
ReplyDeleteWhich is good, if you view college as a place to learn life skills, and not just to pass enough classes to get a piece of paper.
I agree with Jackie O's last paragraph. Group projects are better in a classroom. When you are in high school or lower, meeting up outside of school is not too big of a deal. But in college, everyone has very different things going on. Carl it does benefit life, but when someone has a career it is easier to make compromises unless you go to school while working (which is not the case for a majority of people.) Group projects are appropriate in a classroom. Things can get done and that is the time when everyone can meet for sure. Otherwise there is no guarantee of it getting done successfully.
ReplyDeleteI could not agree more with this post. I always said that group work doesn't build my social skills it just makes me loathe incompetent and unreliable people. However, Carl Hommel makes a good point- in college we are more or less on the same playing field. I guess we should consider group work/projects as training for a post-college career.
ReplyDeleteI have my own horror stories about group projects in school, and yes, I would prefer not to do them, but I do think that the professors have their reasons for having us do them. You won't always enjoy having to work with other people, maybe you prefer to work alone, but that's not how the real world works. Some people won't pull their weight, some people won't show up to the meetings... the work still needs to get done. I agree with Carl, some people you work with, some you work around. In the end, it still teaches you something!
ReplyDeleteI think the idea of group projects on there own makes sense as a way of preparing students for working as part of a team to complete a collective goal. However, this would only happen if things always went completely smoothly. In many of my own experiences, I have seen group work be a complete waste of time, with the group members choosing to discuss unrelated content instead of focusing on the task at hand. Unless the instructor is able to make sure this isn't going to happen, I agree that overall group work isn't the most effective way to do things.
ReplyDelete