In most classes, teachers assign projects that require students to collaborate together. In these projects, members of the group are either given specific work or they team up and discuss what each member should contribute.
Members are expected to put effort into their part of the project because teachers grade the group as a whole on how much effort the team puts in overall, or on grade each of the members individually on how much they contributed to the project. An article from The Hechinger Report stated, “Almost 90 percent of the students responded that they had learned through collaboration in their math and English classes.”
Teachers give out these assignments as it allows them to give students more complex tasks, see how students use their skills, allow peer editing, and reduce the time of having to grade. American & World History teacher Shaundra Gutierrez assigns group projects often, she explained why she chooses to give them out, “It’s good for students to socialize with each other, get to know new students, and they can pull each others like strengths and weaknesses to get, you know, the assignment done.”
Although these are just some of the positives of giving out group projects, there are also difficulties that come with it. The difficulties can include having to see how one or more students take on the weight of the entire project while the other students choose to not participate leading to unfair grades in the group. Another reason is the management of chaos that comes with working as a team, as some students may go off track and lack contribution to the group effort. There is also the risk of conflict between some people in the group.
With some students there is a split opinion between whether or not they deem group projects a beneficial part of education. The students who believe it helps them prepare for the future often mention learning and experiencing things such as communication and collaboration with other individuals as well as diverse perspectives. Junior Arpita Singh explained, “They are beneficial in the sense that it helps make the work easy if everybody does the work, and not just that, if you’re confused on anything you can always ask a group member and they can help you with that.”
Although, some students argue that the work given to them is something that is stressful for students and takes a toll on how they perform in or out of school. Some examples include, an unbalanced workload distributed to each member, the stress of having to schedule a meeting on how they are going to plan out the project, and miscommunication between group members.
Senior Rafad Rezah claimed, “I prefer working alone because I feel like I know I can depend on myself and I know what to put in my work and I know how the quality of the work is gonna turn out.”
Even though group projects can be difficult, realistically it is still an important asset for students to learn. Understanding everyone’s shared knowledge and different opinions can have a positive outcome on the quality of work produced. Knowing how to collaborate with one another to be successful in both school and professional settings is a useful skill to learn early on as it is very common in higher workplaces.
