This semester, one of my teachers actually admitted that she didn't like to assign group projects. This was, of course, after she had assigned a giant group project to be turned in at the end of the semester. She said group projects made it difficult to know which student did what work and to know how to grade accordingly. It was fantastic to find out that not all teachers think group projects are useful because, as all students know, group projects are the spawn of Satan.
Group projects are useful in some ways. It's important for students to learn how to produce a product with a bigger group of people because that's how many things are accomplished in real-world careers. They also help students to practice leadership skills and problem-solving techniques.
However, group projects in college or high school settings are, for the most part, done in very different ways than they're done in the real world. Kids in these grade levels are: (1) not getting paid for their work, (2) usually happier to talk about the big party they went to last night than to actually discuss a serious project and (3) more apt to mess around, even if their laziness affects other people's grades. Although most teachers will say that the positives outweigh the negatives -- and maybe they do -- group projects are often annoying experiences.
The biggest problem with group projects is that, at some point, one or two people out of a group end up doing most of the work. As flattering as it is to be called the "CEO of the group," this is entirely unfair, and, as my teacher said, that makes it harder on the teacher to have to grade a project fairly if the teacher is not even sure who did what. For the lazy kids of the group, this teaches them they can simply leave all of their responsibilities to someone else -- which turns out to be the conscientious people in their groups at school or, in the future, their secretaries -- and everything will still get done, without them getting in trouble or having to do anything. Furthermore, what about those kids who are so power hungry their group members often think, "Who died and made you king?" These people make group projects really hard because the other students' suggestions are usually shot down without even being considered. Then those ideas, which could have been really good additions to the final project, are lost and the project isn't done to its fullest potential. Finally, the situation gets worse when the one person in the group who cares about doing well on the project is stuck with a bunch of morons. These people waste hours of time talking about how they were so drunk last night, how some girl or guy was so hot, blah blah blah. All this person wants to do is get this project done, so he or she can go home and be with people who can have normal, truly funny conversations.
The most that can be learned from group projects is the dos and don'ts of working with other people. It's important to learn how to be a sensitive and cooperative person. Nobody wants to work with a slacker, a power hungry jerk or even someone who can't make a joke once in a while. Group projects are probably not going away any time soon, so, in the mean time, try to avoid these pitfalls.
Write to Melissa at
mmwhiten@bsu.edu
Melissa Whiten is a junior public relations major and writes 'The Greenroom' for the Daily News. Her views do not necessarily agree with those of the newspaper.
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