RedLeader
Bluelight Crew
Groupwork.
We've all had to work as part of a group at some point, either in our academic careers or in our professions. To some, this is a blessing, as it can seem like you may be able to get away with working less, get paired up with your crush, be grouped with the whiz kid, produce an even better end result, etc. But to others, it's a form of torture. You feel like you are no longer solely responsible for your personal assessment, you might get paired up with slackers, or it might just clash with a more introverted personality.
Clearly there are teachers who abuse the idea of groupwork for their own benefits. Partition a class of students into groups of three or four, and you'll end up only having to grade a fraction of the amount of work you otherwise might have had to grade if each student was assessed individually.
But then you have the argument that groupwork is essentially preparing students for real-world situations, where one will likely be forced to professionally work on a team at some point. Such projects, even if challenging to seem fair to some, in the end are just showcasing the realities of life, helping people learn to work with others sooner than later. In certain fields, especially ones such as business or marketing, this makes the most rational sense.
Being rather introverted, I never really liked groupwork all that much. Both, again, because I am shy. And also, not to boast, but I often ended up doing more than my fraction of the effort, so as to try and "save" my group. And this took up my time and caused for much frustration. But most of all, I objected to the fact that more often than not, grades were given identically across a group, and the teacher was usually so far removed from the internal efforts/organization of the group that identical grades made the most sense.
Now don't get me wrong. Don't think that just because I kind of cringe at the suggestion of groupwork, means that I don't understand the positivies of it (such as those I listed above). I am not, in theory, against groupwork (In fact, I think it's necessary for several fields). What I wish, though, would be that teachers would pay more attention to each individual effort within the group, and assign unique (or at least partially unique) grades to each member. I mean in the worst case scenereo, someone's perfect GPA could be blown by a bad group project, even if this person did everything in his or her will to try and carry the group.
We are paying for University, whereas we would be paid to work a job. To me, if I am paying for an education, I want as little roadblocks standing between me and doing my absolute best in the program(s) as possible. And I've hit a few of them before in bad group situations
I think that if a teacher truly wants to prepare students for the teamwork element of a future job, the teacher should act more like a team supervisor than a client being sold a product. To the potential client, it's VERY difficult to assess each individual effort through one presentation or one paper. A supervisor, on the other hand, knows the team-members that s/he supervisies just well enough to assess each on an individual level. Again, too many teacher's I've come across take the easy way out, and just want to act like the potential client.
Supervisors get paid, whereas potential clients often are shopping around on their own tab. If I am going to be putting money into the pockets of my teachers via tuition costs, I want them to take the form of (good) supervisors.
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So let this thread be about teamwork - Do you like/dislike it? Do you think it should be included in the classroom always, sometimes, or never? If it is included, how should it best be assessed? Etc.
Also, to those graduates who are now employed and work (at least) sometimes in team enviornments, did the groupwork experiences you had in during your education prove effective in how you work with a team in your profession? In retrospect, what did you find most helpful? What would you wish would have been different?
We've all had to work as part of a group at some point, either in our academic careers or in our professions. To some, this is a blessing, as it can seem like you may be able to get away with working less, get paired up with your crush, be grouped with the whiz kid, produce an even better end result, etc. But to others, it's a form of torture. You feel like you are no longer solely responsible for your personal assessment, you might get paired up with slackers, or it might just clash with a more introverted personality.
Clearly there are teachers who abuse the idea of groupwork for their own benefits. Partition a class of students into groups of three or four, and you'll end up only having to grade a fraction of the amount of work you otherwise might have had to grade if each student was assessed individually.
But then you have the argument that groupwork is essentially preparing students for real-world situations, where one will likely be forced to professionally work on a team at some point. Such projects, even if challenging to seem fair to some, in the end are just showcasing the realities of life, helping people learn to work with others sooner than later. In certain fields, especially ones such as business or marketing, this makes the most rational sense.
Being rather introverted, I never really liked groupwork all that much. Both, again, because I am shy. And also, not to boast, but I often ended up doing more than my fraction of the effort, so as to try and "save" my group. And this took up my time and caused for much frustration. But most of all, I objected to the fact that more often than not, grades were given identically across a group, and the teacher was usually so far removed from the internal efforts/organization of the group that identical grades made the most sense.
Now don't get me wrong. Don't think that just because I kind of cringe at the suggestion of groupwork, means that I don't understand the positivies of it (such as those I listed above). I am not, in theory, against groupwork (In fact, I think it's necessary for several fields). What I wish, though, would be that teachers would pay more attention to each individual effort within the group, and assign unique (or at least partially unique) grades to each member. I mean in the worst case scenereo, someone's perfect GPA could be blown by a bad group project, even if this person did everything in his or her will to try and carry the group.
We are paying for University, whereas we would be paid to work a job. To me, if I am paying for an education, I want as little roadblocks standing between me and doing my absolute best in the program(s) as possible. And I've hit a few of them before in bad group situations
I think that if a teacher truly wants to prepare students for the teamwork element of a future job, the teacher should act more like a team supervisor than a client being sold a product. To the potential client, it's VERY difficult to assess each individual effort through one presentation or one paper. A supervisor, on the other hand, knows the team-members that s/he supervisies just well enough to assess each on an individual level. Again, too many teacher's I've come across take the easy way out, and just want to act like the potential client.
Supervisors get paid, whereas potential clients often are shopping around on their own tab. If I am going to be putting money into the pockets of my teachers via tuition costs, I want them to take the form of (good) supervisors.
--
So let this thread be about teamwork - Do you like/dislike it? Do you think it should be included in the classroom always, sometimes, or never? If it is included, how should it best be assessed? Etc.
Also, to those graduates who are now employed and work (at least) sometimes in team enviornments, did the groupwork experiences you had in during your education prove effective in how you work with a team in your profession? In retrospect, what did you find most helpful? What would you wish would have been different?
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