OP needs to learn the dynamics of working within a group. Do you know why most people get fired or marked for layoffs in corporate settings? It’s not for knowledge or technical incompetence. It’s mainly poor attitude, a lack of soft skills, and being perceived as a lone wolf.
Group Projection wrote:
They are less work for the teacher. That’s 90% of it
Definitely not it.
For labs in college or HS (chem, engineering, etc, for example), usually there is not enough gear, supplies, space, etc for every student.
For children, not every kid has the same at home support.
For presentation type projects it allows teams to do things in their wheelhouse and not do every part of the production alone.
Contrived group assignments can be aggravating though and I don't go out of my way to assign them.
I think they're dumb. However, I've only had two. One I was paired with people as smart as me and that was great - the work went by quickly and everybody was doing their part. I had another one where I was the smartest person, there were 2 people nearly as smart, and there were 2 dumba$$ses. I think the work was split 35/30/25/5/5. I didn't trust the dumb people to do well, so I did pretty much all of their work for them. Not surprisingly, the only thing they contributed (the length of a paragraph in a 10 page report) was the main thing dinged.
I got a 98, but the people who didn't work got like upper 70s / low 80s so it all worked out.
Group projects in college were a real easy way out for the instructor. I had 2 classes where at the beginning of the semester, we were assigned a topic that each group had to lecture on. So instructor or TA does nothing but sit and listen to the groups lecture. Students listening to the material had no idea what the instructor thought was important enough to be on the tests.
But the main issue for many of us though was that this was pre internet and pre cellphone. this was a commuter school and a lot of students had jobs and other non-school responsibilities so it was nearly impossible to get everyone together at the same time.
Then, like other posters have said, you always have the people doing the work and the rest sucking off of them.
I just never found group projects in school correlated in any way with working on projects in my job.
Easier to mark.
ban group projects now! wrote:
My teacher makes every f*cking assignment and activity into a group project. Every one. For no reason. 99% of our time is spent coordinating the group instead of actually accomplishing or learning anything. I can understand if it's a business class and the purpose of the assignment is to teach you to collaborate, but when he the subject being studied has nothing to do with collaboration, why do stupid fcking teachers make things into group projects? Just to be as nutty and irrational as possible?
I went through that. too many think they are in charge. Some just sit there and get the credit the entire group gets.
If you went individual, you'd see some real changes in people's motivation and participation.
This post was removed.
Group projects are a microcosm of life.
You probably won't be the smartest in the group or the dumbest in the group or the leader, but to be successful, you need to figure out how you can help the group be successful. If that's not possible, you have a more difficult task. You need to isolate yourself from the group's failure or try to make yourself appear successful, given the limitations of the group. Politicians have become masters of the latter, taking credit for their group's success and isolating themselves from theirs group's failures.
I found it helpful to think of group projects as an exercise in gaming the system.
Subconsciously, that's what most of the other players in the group are doing anyway. The dumb alpha guy wants to lead and won't listen to the smart girl. The smart girl gets frustrated and withdraws. The rest of the dumb guys just want to do as little as possible while someone else does the work. The smart geek has the right idea, but he doesn't have a clue how to present it to the rest of the group.
Remember, this is all happening somewhat subconsciously. By consciously remaining aware of what they are doing, you're in better position to consciously game the system. You can't push your ideas through, but you can quietly build a coalition with the smart girl and geeky guy and when the time is right and the alpha guy finally realizes his approach is going to fail, YOU can present their ideas. You don't have to worry about the losers. They just want to get a passing grade.
Now, if one of the losers is also the alpha, you've got problems. Welcome to the world of business!
OP posted this 9 years ago. If you are reading this, have you softened your stance on team work now that you are working in the real world?
Or, is your career stalled because you been fired and/or laid off multiple times?
ban group projects now! wrote:
My teacher makes every f*cking assignment and activity into a group project. Every one. For no reason. 99% of our time is spent coordinating the group instead of actually accomplishing or learning anything. I can understand if it's a business class and the purpose of the assignment is to teach you to collaborate, but when he the subject being studied has nothing to do with collaboration, why do stupid fcking teachers make things into group projects? Just to be as nutty and irrational as possible?
Yea, I think we all know its supposed to promote team work and all that. But the reality is given the emotional maturity of the average HS slacker, they can really bring things down for the motivated students who want to get all As. The group project I like, IF its just an exercise and everyone gets an A for completing the project. But otherwise the great students shouldn't be responsible for the crappy effort of the lowest common denominator. Its not the real world...because in the real world you would fire the person who does a crap job or isnt working. In HS they have a say in your grade!