I wanted to post on the idea of group projects considering we are about to present on Wednesday. Fortunately, my group works well together, but not every experience is going to end up that way. Therefore, if I say anything negative, it is relating to past experience, not the current group teaching we are participating in.
The idea of group projects actually falls hand-in-hand with the topic of our current presentation: peer review. Both of these activities require teamwork that does not always exist. Just as in peer review, members of the group do not always participate at an equal level. There will always be a slacker, there will always be an overachiever, and there will always be the student that does not care either way. I, personally, have always been the overachiever, but recently I pondered upon a new idea.
I was sitting in one of my classes, and we were told to form groups. Of course, I started off offering my input and being the recorder, but then I sat back and realized that I was doing everything while everyone else just sat there really. I became more than frustrated, and now I am sitting here wondering if I should just become the slacker. It seems a lot easier, don't you think?
Although I am thinking about stepping back and becoming the underachiever, I know that I never will. Fortunately or unfortunately, I enjoy getting good grades, and if my group is suffering, I will always pick up the slack. However, there are still students that would prefer to be carried along. So as teachers, how do we handle this? Is it the right idea to have one of each catagory in a group? Or should we put all the slackers in one group, the ones who don't really care in another, and the overachievers in the next? I actually have no idea. So please, someone tell me what a teacher should do to erase this problem in group work!!! No, seriously, please....let me know. :)
*~*TaRa*~*
2 comments:
The best way I have always heard to ensure that every group member participates in the work is to assign each group member a specific task and have them turn their work in. However, the problem with this is that it makes group work much more involved than the teacher sometimes wants it to be, or at least I think so. In fact, it kind of turns everything into a group project, rather than just group work. So I think, as teachers, we are going to either have to get rid of just random group work in our classes in favor of group projects, decide that everyone not participating doesn't bother us that badly and continue on as normal, or be everywhere at once to look over peoples' shoulders and make sure they are contributing. I know there are other ways of "making sure" everyone participates without assigning them all something seperate to do, but in my opinion things like making the kids assign everyone in their group a grade only works if the kids don't like each other and are willing to be honest, and even then you'll get a bunch of bad grades when perhaps they weren't earned. I really know what you mean about the whole issue though - I was always the one who got stuck doing everything too, sometimes unwittingly, but usually I knew that's what was going on and it drove me crazy.
Ok...so I'm definitely with you in this one. I have NO IDEA how to eliminate this problem and, unfortunately, I was the one in most group work giving 115% while everyone else gave about 20%.
I know that teachers like to split up the groups so that everyone has a "fair chance" of getting a good grade, but I don't necessarily think that is the best way. I found that group work always ended up best when we got to pick our groups. (maybe this was just for me.) I always picked people that I knew would work really hard, and we always ended up with acceptional results and we all put in the same amount of work. I think that this might even work to encourage the other students to put more effort into what they do. Everyone always fights over who gets grouped with the 'smart kids'...maybe when they realize that it is up to the 'smart kid' whether they want to work with the slackers or not, they will realize that they should put in a little more effort so the smart kid wants to work with them...I don't know if that makes any sense, but I saw this happen a lot in my high school.
I don't know if there is any real way of ensuring that everyone works equally hard. A lot of teachers do group evalutations, where your peers tell the teacher how they feel the group contributed...but its hard to tell whether the students are honest in those. I suppose it will just be a game of trial and error with each class. If only there was a simpler way, right?
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