I had a good experience with my group, everybody worked together to create something we all liked, and it can be fun working with different people. Thus, I enjoyed our project.
However, generally speaking now, I honestly don't always see it positively when teachers require us to work with different classmates, because, despite the fact that that gives you opportunities to learn from distinct people with new ideas, I still believe that your level of comfort with collaborators has a great impact on your work. I, for instance, am a very timid person and take time to feel comfortable enough to voice my opinions, therefore, I tend to get quiet and not to be as collaborative as I would in another situation. There is also the personality issue - some personalities just don't go together honestly.
Maybe it is something I must learn to do (getting over being shy around new people in order to be more productive), but I also wonder how important it is to make students comfortable so they can work better. Perhaps, it is more productive to let students choose their coworkers when it comes to work that is going to be graded, and encourage them to collaborate with different people in small projects that don't have a significant impact on their grade.
I know what you mean. Sometimes it is so scary changing groups. I am a people person, but that moment of introducing yourself is rather challenging. I did like getting to meet new people in the class so overall I was happy with the change. You do make me think about how often in my class I made the students work with different partners. Being shy was something I thought they would get over during the semester. I should pay more attention to this and try to be more understanding of their needs.
ReplyDeleteYou mention the difficulty of changing groups and I wonder if our students feel the same way when they have to work in groups. In some groups there are students that "don't pull their weight" but I wonder if they don't contribute because they are just a little awkward. I think this exercise was a great one for group work because it's something fun and not so "serious" so it can help students to feel a little more comfortable working with each other.
ReplyDelete3. Graci, I see your point about the challenges in having to work with people that you are not yet comfortable with or whose personalities may clash with yours. I agree that people will often show their best work when they are working with others who are like them. Personally, I get frustrated when I am graded on a group project for a class and I am assigned a group that may not be optimal. However, these experiences allow for essential learning opportunities on how to positively work with others, even in tense situations. As educators, it is our job to prepare our students for life beyond school. It is an unfortunate reality that students will be in situations at work, school, etc, where they will have to interact, create and complete projects with people that they would not have chosen to work with. By giving them the chance to learn how to work through disagreements with group members in a safe setting at school, they will be more likely to navigate through difficult group work experiences later in life.
ReplyDeleteI constantly go back and forth between my feelings on this subject. I love to let the students work with others who they are comfortable with, but a lot of times this can result in some students feeling left out and when students are too comfortable, their productivity sometimes suffers. However, I have also encountered many issues with random groups and students not being able to effectively work together or be comfortable sharing their ideas in a group setting. Tough topic with a lot of mixed feelings for me.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the fact that changing groups brings its own anxieties, but I also know the necessity of it. Having been in the corporate world for a few years, and having a wife who is a project manager at a large company, I know first hand that the reality is that often we are put in groups to get jobs done that are not of our own choosing. In my class, after having my wife do a presentation on professionalism, I slowly begin reassigning groups in my class for different projects (the student choose their own seats at the outset). It doesn't always go smoothly, but they understand why I do it, and also know that as with most group tasks, the assignment is temporary.
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