Group Work

Yesterday you were asked to write about situations in which strangers had to work together for a common goal. Many times as students you are put into groups to perform various tasks. How do you feel about group work? Do you like it more than working by your self, or less? Why? What makes it better or worse? Do you think you are a net contributor to the groups you are in, or do you tend to just let others in the group do most of the work? Why do you think teachers make students do group work so often? For example, do you think they are really trying to teach students to learn how to work together, or are they just making their own jobs easier by reducing the number of projects to grade? How do you think group work in school will prepare you for life after high school? Given the fact that in college you might have to work in groups even more than you have had to in high school, and after college you will certainly have to work in groups, how do you feel about the value of group work?

I think group work in school is good practice for college, and later for our careers. In this world, and especially during this time and age, people need to work together in order for progress to occur. Whether it is on a global level as we experience global integration of cultures and skills, on the career-based level within a company or research team, or on the individual level, cooperation must occur.

It's obvious how group work can be important, as skills may need to be shared and labor equally divided. However I'm not exactly fond of group work. In the past I've always been the hard-working self-starter who did most projects and assignments on my own, and even now I sometimes have this attitude. I think it spouted from my sense of security - trusting in my own ability was easier than trusting someone else.

Nevertheless, in recent years I've gotten rid of this attitude and learned to (though tentatively) trust others much more than I would have. However I still hate the fact that most of the time, the group is given credit as a whole; even if I'm the one who's free-riding, I would hate it because it feels that it was not deserved.

I think that teachers claim it helps in life, but in reality their first thought is that it is easier to grade.