Reflection On Groups

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When I recall teachers telling my class to expect a group project, groans and lists of complaints ensue from students. After the initial acknowledgement of the incoming group project, these students begin to worry about the identity of their inevitable partners who will impact which direction their grade will be headed for. Throughout my school experience, teachers have favorably chosen group projects as a method of assigning a great deal of work. Furthermore, these projects are a lesser load on teachers to grade and they hope other students will find a way to enlighten their fellow classmates. In the variety of groups I have taken a part of, many negatively impacted my grade for other group members’ actions. This is troublesome because group …show more content…
A group can be filled with polar opposite opinions and levels of motivation, which creates uneven workloads. When groups consist of these people with completely different experiences and perspectives, decisions are difficult to make unanimous (Knouse). Decisions are usually left to the side of the majority, but in a group of only two students, there is no majority. One experience I had that shows the disaster of this is when I was grouped with a stubborn classmate, who was confident they completed their section accurately. I was not assured of this, and questioned them, but they merely disregarded it. In view of the fact that I could not simply invalidate them, I focused on devising my side. After the teacher graded ours I found out I was indeed correct. Another example of disagreement is when one student tries to control the whole project, only allowing their ideas and excluding anyone else’s input. These members command other to create the project a certain way. For example, one student in one of my group experiences dominated it, even after we repeatedly had to duplicate answers because they directed the group towards wrong answers. After I mentioned that we were still completing it incorrectly, they kept their answer, viewing my opinion as insignificant. Group members will have different amounts of enthusiasm as well, which will lead to different workloads. There …show more content…
If teacher uses this method and comes out with good results at the end of the term, other teachers would surely eventually follow. Although there would still undoubtedly be skeptics who would stand behind their own methods, this practice could potentially spread throughout the community as teachers move to different schools and other instructors visualize this practice in their own classroom. If more and more teachers use this idea, the future of group projects will be more fair. To get this idea started, students who want this change could ask teachers if they would consider trying it. To be fair, this solution has a few flaws, but this is the best solution to get rid of the negative effects of groups yet keep the positive. With the structure of group projects getting changed this way, hopefully students will not have to stress as much about their potential partners, and group members will get the grade they

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