I am adding more group exercises and team skills in my classroom.
Communication, and working together are very important for the students to know.
Each of s have a particular skill and learning set, so the questions is how to get the best out of that skill set. By knowing , understand and utilizing that skill set is beneficial to any team project, but there must be a format/plan in place to execute the project and by collaborating and using our natural sill set ,appreciation of the others skills set in place can lead to a successful project conclusion.
Students active participation is a very important part of their learning processs.
Teamwork is a perfect training for what will be a common way of working once you're in la corporation, working in teams is a very important way of facing tasks.
In oreder to make sure everybody will do their part of work, the teacher should tell them that they will be evaluated individually for their work.
I have encouraged student interaction through group interaction and meeting one on one with each student at least once a term to enhance soft skills and communication. This also gives them confidence in dealing with each other and various ethnicities.
I have used a group rubric where group members grade each other and submit to myself the instructor. I then use those rubrics to provide a percentage of their individual grade on the primary project rubric. This has worked very well thus far.
