In this Dear Abby edition, a girl is concerned about a group project she has in school. I have some bad memories of group projects from junior high and grade school. I didn't want my grade to depend on someone else's effort or competency. I liked contributing ideas, but I wasn't going to be very assertive about it – and thus I'd get overruled by stronger personalities, since at that age it was more about personalities rather than the ideas (and I'm well aware that some workplaces are like that). I didn't mind being part of a relay team in competitive swimming - everyone tried their hardest and it was really clear what each person contributed.
In contract to earlier schooling, I have fond memories of group projects in college.
What made the difference?
Choice.
My guess is that group projects in middle school and grade school are a matter of laziness – the teacher will have fewer projects to evaluate. The justification for them that is given is that people have to work together in the workforce, so this is good training.
But there's a huge difference from those classrooms and the workplace. Most kids do not choose their classmates, do not choose their teacher, do not choose their school, and often don't choose the subject matter. In contrast, we apply to work the jobs we do. Part of what we consider is what kind of work it is and the people with whom we'll be working. If it doesn't work out, it is possible to quit. Plus, we get paid to work. We pay for public schooling whether or not we use it.
College is voluntary, as are a lot of the classes taken in college. I liked the group projects with which I was involved in college, because it was a subject matter I chose, and all of the other people also chose that subject matter. And we were mature. It was hard work, but it was pleasant.
How about you? Do you have horror stories of group projects, either in the workplace or in school?
Monday, June 07, 2010
3 comments:
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Like you, I hated group projects when I was younger. I didn't like my grade to be reliant on someone else's often less than stellar work. That is just the control freak in me.
ReplyDeleteAs an educator, I will say that no, teachers do not do group projects because they are lazy. It's about promoting cooperative learning, building scaffolded learning for students of varying knowledge bases and helping to create the future corporate workers of this country. We need to teach students to be able to work well within a team and to be able to work with a wide range of individuals.
Teachers are getting better at this now by assigning responsibility within the group, and allowing students to have more choice in subject matter under a certain larger topic.
Snowflake, thanks for explaining the teacher's point of view. I appreciate it.
ReplyDeleteI should add that while I wasn't big on group projects in a situation where I had no choice but to be there, there is also a lot about the modern workplace I don't like (certain restrictions on employers, for one, that result in people being kept in that job who are difficult to work with)... so maybe those group dynamics I didn't like were right in line with today's workplace after all.
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