Group projects: Some love ’em, some hate ’em
PHS students often work in groups to complete assignments.
March 29, 2018
The lovely group projects. Teachers usually once a year will give out an assignment that consists of you and other students in the class. Some students love them while others hate them. I am one of the people who dislike group projects.
In group work there are three types of people: those who do the majority of the work; those who do enough to say they “helped” but they didn’t really do anything; and finally, those who do nothing and allow the “smart” people to do the work; yet they still take credit.
Some teachers, however, find group work to be a productive process.
“I find them effective if everybody in the group is working, particularly if everybody in the group gets an individual grade,” English teacher Mr. Bob Hunt said. “If people can speak with each other it’s a good way to gain interest. Also I think that often times students like to discuss things, not just with the teacher lecturing.”
Mr. Hunt has a fair point yes; students enjoy discussing among themselves rather than being lectured. But if you expect the students to actually discuss the book or project you’re expecting a lot. There are few students who actually discuss the book, but most of the discussions consist of the latest gossip.
If you get to pick your own groups then it’s your own fault if you get a bad group because you’re choosing your consequences.
— Kadden Abraham
A non-scientific poll conducted by The Prowl showed how students feel about group projects. A total of 26 people voted; 16 people voted for, “I hate it because I end up doing all the work.” nine people voted for, “I can take it or leave it.” And one person voted for, “I love it because someone else ends up doing the work.”
Obviously the majority has a great dislike towards group projects.
Teachers tend to say that you need group work skills for your future. But the group projects they give out help nobody. We don’t really learn through group work. What we do learn is who broke up with whom, or what everybody’s weekend plans are. Nothing is gained out of them because it’s not like the slackers work anymore; if anything, it makes them work less.
“I feel double sided,” freshman Kadden Abraham said. “If you get to pick your own groups then it’s your own fault if you get a bad group because you’re choosing your consequences. If you don’t get to choose then that’s when you end up doing all the work,”
This is what’s frustrating to many who actually do take the time to do the work. It causes us to be stressed out. You want to get that “A,” but it’s not fair for you to have to do the majority of the work.
“It’s not worthwhile in high school, because the slackers will slack off in high school, but in college they want that further education,” Abraham said.
It’s also not fair when it comes time to turn in or present the project. Everybody takes credit for the final product that they may or may not have helped create.
Then there’s the fact that you try and cooperate with the others in your group. You set a time and place to: make the poster, create the PowerPoint or record the video. But then no matter what there’s always the student that bails., claiming, “Oh, I can’t make it tonight. I have something going on.” Or “I have sports, I can’t attend. Just do it without me.”
In high school it’s not like you want to tattle on the kids who don’t work because frankly that’s childish and the teacher will most likely tell you to work it out.
The thing is they get away with it. Until college they get through high school relying on others to do the work for them in projects. And their good at it.
This is what gets to me most is that they are able to wing their way through group projects. They don’t do an inch worth of work and then when it comes down to presenting they manage to get an A.
Sadly being in honors classes doesn’t help. You’d think that by being in a higher level class you wouldn’t have to worry about an issue such as this. But it’s just the opposite. People in honors classes are just as bad as being in a general class. They still expect people to do the work for them.
I and many other students have witnessed this first hand.
They expect me to do the work, they take credit, and, “Hey look at that they went from a D to a C.”
Group projects allow the lay-abouts to slack off even more.
But there comes a point when you just want to put an end to it. When the teacher announces that you will be starting a group project you want to not worry about doing it all yourself. You want to be able to pick a partner or group and feel satisfied.
Brandon Preator • Apr 6, 2018 at 9:47 am
Nice article! It seems you have some personal experience with this; that always makes what you write more credible. I will say, just because you get to college, or an actual job, that doesn’t change human character. You will ALWAYS have people wanting to get the same outcome (higher grade, equal pay, whatever) for less effort. Even in grad school (and I wasn’t a great student) I had other students piggy-backing off my work. Same excuses, “Sorry, I’m busy. I was confused by the instructions. I lost the instructions.” You name it. There were so many excuses. So, what is to be done? Hard to say, but you can’t change people. Group projects have their place, and there is always something to be learned. I like the idea of picking partners, but then there always seems to be the one person who gets ‘picked’ by someone else because they are too nice to say no, and they end up doing most of the work. Lots to think about, thanks!