Rodriegus,
so true. We've all been burned by bad group experiences, so I try to help them by establishing roles & clear expectations.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
A challenge of having students work in groups is the few that do the work and on the others side those who are not great contributors. I like the example (energy sources)where the project is general and each participant takes a specific point. This can be graded as a group and an individual grade.
One of the biggest challenges of having everyone work in groups is to get all students to
particpate in the group. Also just getting the
students motivated in working in groups because oftentimes they have had bad experiences.
Dawn,
I would argue that these were not well designed group projects. Those that are truly well designed with intentionality given to the grading typically have good success.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
In my experience as an instructor and a mother of children that have had numberous group assignments is largely negative. There always seem to be one or two people who do most of the work, several who do a little bit, and one or more that does almost nothing. I only use group assignments for less important assignments.
One of the biggest challenges is that there may be a few students thinking they can get by with very little input/work. Those students will be quickly identified by their peers and then inturn will be better at input.
Floyd,
this is a great point & we have to remember that students in groups does not mean we can go do whatever we want. We must be engaged!
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
Angelica,
I really like this idea as it helps all evaluate & also each role to know what is expected of them.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
Challenges of Using Students Groups
by: Floyd Mitchell Raines
I used to hate this form of activity when I was in college. It would seem that one or two members of the group would do all the work and the others would just benefit from the others labor. As an Instructor I can see the beauty of this form of teaching and have focused on staying close to each group and monitoring the performance of each student to make sure that work is shared and equal input is given by all.
Rubrics are so helpful! I suggest giving a rubric per group role (i.e. scribe, researcher, etc.) as well as an overall group evaluation to gain the group's impression of their team members' participation. I average the individual team member's rubric with their eval for their final grade.
I like to randomly assign groups and use a student assessment of the group and who did what work.
I find the social things the students learn interesting.
When a group ends up with students that generally do not tend to stay on task, they often understand how frustrating it can be to try when I try to get them to focus.
A group made of those who generally are wallflowers find that someone has to step up, offer suggestions and develop leadership skills.
A group of those who all want to be in charge have to work through letting others be in charge and not getting everything done their way.
Sandy,
yes & helping our students to work in these situations is vital as many jobs are now team based.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
Reginald,
yes, I like to use a group evaluation/assessment where the members grade one another. This can help with this challenge.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
keeping everyone involved and making sure they share the workload
Of course you will always come across those students who don't pull their own weight in a group. Or maybe those personality types that don't quite get along. This may hinder the progress of the work in the group.
The biggest challenge of students work in a group is you are going to have member not do their work equally. This leads to alot frustration among the rest of the group, because they feel like this is not equal distribution. One way to solve this is reward those completed the group assignment, and give a lower grade to ones who did not perform up to par.
We have students "rotate" tasks within an assigned group to be sure that the work is not all done by one student.
I notice students working in small groups usually have at least one student that does not pull their weight and not doing their fair share of the work. I found that to be true in groups of 3's and 4's.
There are two personality types that make group work challenging: one is the student who wants to do everything because they feel that the other students won't do as good of a job; the other type of student is the one who doesn't participate at all or who provides little substance and lots of excuses. As as instructor creating groups, I try to include one person from the first category in each group since I know they are natural leaders and I hope they will be open to involvement from other members of the group. I try to not include more than one student from the second category. They may or may not participate at all (even with encouragement and motivation) and it's not fair to put that stress on the other group members. Losing one student from the group is manageable and I try to prepare the group members to manage their own dynamics and be prepared themselves if one of their group members doesn't contribute. If the number of students not participating goes higher then it becomes difficult for everyone. If it occurs often then perhaps the assignment should be reconsidered in terms of its difficulty or perhaps the students at that course level may not have the skills necessary yet to succeed in a group assignment.
Jerrod,
sometimes having clearly defined roles designated by the instructor can really help to balance the workload for everyone.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
