To be honest, if I find out an elective I'm taking has a group project, I drop the class. Group projects, as executed in past classes just don't work as learning experience for me. Before I started this policy, I was involved in a couple of group projects. In two different classes I have taken, I have participated in a large group project.The first group project I had was in a class about linguistics. The class was large, about a hundred people, and we were in groups of five to six. We were to give a 10-minute presentation. Five people in a group is too many to get together outside of class, so the only time we actually met, there were only three of us that showed up. B&D mention guidelines for group synergy, and one of the is "Agree on the Basics." Because only a fraction of the group had shown up to the meeting, we were never able to come together as a group to agree on what our direction was and how we were going to achieve it. Instead of productive talk about the content of the project, all talk became about logistical aspects of the project.
To add to the problem, there was one girl who wanted to take the leadership role. She was one of the ones that came to the in-person meeting. A problem arose from this. In the e-mails to the other group members, her role as self-proclaimed group leader was not made clear. Therefore, in the back and forth communications, she would try to take control, and it was easy to see that the other two were pushing back. She had not established herself in the leadership role to them, so she just came off as pushy and bossy.
The project became less about learning and understanding the subject, and more about endless e-mails back and forth. It was truly a nightmare. One group member I knew outside of class, and we were able to make our portion of the project solid and cohesive. We met on our own and went forward with the few things all five of us agreed on. The other 3/5 of the presentation, however, seemed totally unrelated once we presented it. I would say that the largest contributor to to the problem was group size. Five may not seem like too many people, but when there are RSO, work, and school obligations that each group member must deal with, this greatly complicates things in a project. The large size then contributed to the lack of agreement on the fundamentals of the project.
The second group project I had worked better on so many levels. It was for a cinema class. We were to watch The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and give a 15-minute presentation about the movie. We met bright and early on a Sunday morning and spent three hours in a round-table discussion and brainstorming session. We agreed on what we wanted to say, who would say it, and how we would present it. Not only were we able to agree on the basics, but we also followed B&D's advice to "doubt your infallibility." The other members of the group came from backgrounds like communication, business, and anthropology. I was an English major at the time. We all came to the table with different opinions on the subject matter, but we were eventually able to come together with a cohesive project.
I know we are supposed to be bringing juicy stories to the table, but this movie project experience was about as seamless as one could ask for. I'm actually had I had the second experience so I'd be (slightly) less colored about group projects as a whole.
We should spend a bit of time in class on Tuesday talking about scheduling out of class group work. If I don't remember to bring it up I hope you will interject that into the discussion. As a practical matter, one way to get around the issue is to schedule students so they take several courses in common. Then their out of class free time would overlap more.
ReplyDeleteSo I'd like to know whether that is the real problem or if instead the issue is that people are simply not that committed to the group work so don't try to juggle their other responsibilities in an attempt to make the group effective.
On the "I'm the boss" syndrome, which is pretty common, we should also discuss when some attempts at coordination are welcome by other group members and when the person just seems pushy and arrogant? Could she have been the true leader if she had handled it a bit differently?
Something that I have noticed recently in group projects is the attitude of "Just Make a Google Doc." Instead of meeting together physically, my latest group projects have taken place through Google Docs where all the group members contribute, chat, and review at their leisure. While the quality of work suffers, the experience seems to be less painful for everyone.
DeleteInitially, I thought, "whoa, that's a bit extreme to drop a class just because of a group project." But, after understanding why, I could sympathize with you. I have experienced the same thing with group projects. This teaching method, for me, is ineffective. Though, it seems that the reason learning in a group setting is ineffective is because of the lack of coordination in the group. I'm sure that if in the first situation there had be less bossiness and more group collaboration, which is difficult to achieve, learning would have been easier. More time would have been spent on the subject matter rather than logistics, allowing you to gain fuller knowledge or understanding of the material.
ReplyDeleteI'm actually breaking the rule this semester with an elective. The projects are worked on almost entirely in class, so that makes the whole process much smoother. The logistics don't become a problem in this instance.
DeleteI, like Glenn Hubbard, initially thought it was a bit extreme for you to state that you would drop a class solely on the requirement of a group participation, but after reading through your post, I see why you may feel this way. However, I feel there is much value in group projects for school overall. While more likely than not there will be headaches and people who don't do their part, I also think it's important for students to get exposure to this and learn how to deal with it. For me, I think group projects are more about learning how to deal with the situation and less about the project itself.
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