Group Work free essay sample

Group work is something that has been hit or miss in the work or school world for a very long time. There is a very negative attitude about group work the second it is assigned. The truth is that group work can actually make the performance of the individuals go down but, there are also very positive aspects to group work that many people don’t usually think of. In this paper, I will explore some of the pros and cons to group work, look at some possible solutions to the problems, and I will reflect on some of the past experiences I have had in group work. Let’s first start off with the positive things that group work can bring to table. From a young age, children are put into group situations to learn how to socialize and work with other people. These groups help them develop and learn how to appropriately interact in the world when they have grown and matured. Later in life, group is still assigned in many areas of a person’s life; at home, at school, and at work. Some of the positive aspects of group work is that is teaches teamwork and communication. People must be verbal and opinionated to get work done properly and on time. Almost always, a leader will emerge. This person tends to be someone who has an authoritative personality. It can teach someone leadership ship skills and organization. Many times, opinions will differ and debates will arise. In this sense, it can teach people good negotiating skills and how to defend a position. The most important pro to group work is that it teach critical thinking and problem solving. There will never be a time when everyone agrees. Many times, people must compromise to get a good and productive outcome. So, there are a lot of reasons why group work is good. That is probably why it is still widely used today. Let’s face it, sometimes projects are just too big to be tackled by one person. Can you imagine if one person built the Eifel Tower all by themselves? It’s impossible. People had to come together and work soundly together to maintain the progress and ultimately finish the massive project. But not all group projects are finished as well as the Eifel Tower. Some â€Å"crash and burn† This is where the cons of group work comes in, and trust me there are a lot of them. One of the biggest problem is unequal contributions. So many times you hear a group mate say â€Å"I always end up doing all the work! † It is very easy for people to slack off and let more of the work fall on the other people who care to much to let the project go downhill. According to ehowmom. com,† In many cases, one or two members will take on more work to ensure the entire group gets a good grade, or one member wont complete his responsibilities at all. Additionally, it can be difficult for a teacher to know which members pulled their weight and which did not. Therefore, the grades assigned to group projects or the individuals involved may be unfair to one or several members of the group. † This is a very big reason why students end up having a bitter feeling about the group object. They feel as though other students got a grade that they did not deserve. Another problem with group work is that everyone has different learning styles. Some people are audible learners, some are visual learners, some are hands on leaners, and some people simply just work better on their own rather than in a group. When it comes to having to achieve a goal while working with others, they would do a much better job if they were able to complete it on their own. This makes the quality of the work not as good as what they could be doing. Ultimately making the outcome of the project suffer. A third problem that comes up often in group work is personality clashes and problems with control. As I said that there are many people who choose to slack off and not do any work, there are also the people that want to take complete control over a group project. These people often makes the process very not fun at all. These â€Å"dictators† want to control every aspect of the project. Abbie Goldschmid wrote in â€Å"Confessions of a Control Freak†; â€Å"Control often changes my motives. Instead of genuinely trying to help people, I’m just looking out for myself. My grades, my academic appearance, my project, my control. It feeds my ego, makes me feel important. That’s sad — that I require control to feel worth something. How little I must think of myself if taking value away from others, in this case my classmates, is the only way I can value myself. Why do I doubt my classmates’ competence? Because if I think they can’t get me an A and I can, then somehow I’m more valuable than they are. I like to think that I’m not trying to do that, but if we’re being honest here, that does make a lot of sense. † She brings a very good point to the table: the people in groups that are the controlling people are simply very selfish. They don’t trust the rest of the group to put in enough effort to make a good project and ultimately get a good grade. They think that by taking control they will be able to determine the grade they get. That is not true though. Most times when there is a â€Å"dictator-like† person in the group, it just cause conflict and cause the group to fall apart. It is always good to have leader in a group but these people take it to the next extreme. They may put other down and not let anyone in the group speak up and give their ideas and opinions. This causes another problem; the people who don’t speak up enough in groups. So many times, people may have a very good idea to add to the group but are too intimidated by the others to come forward with it. They may even have an idea to completely transform the project into something that it never could have been without this idea. Many projects fall shy of their biggest potential because of this issue. So what can we do about it? There are a lot of techniques to apply to group work to help eliminate the cons and bring out the pros. The first starts with the person assigning the project. They need to provide clear instructions. If the group doesn’t have a clear idea of what is expected of them, it just leaves a very big margin for conflict early in the project. The next things can help groups work fluently together is to allow time for groups to gel. According to The Desrie2Learn Newsletter; â€Å"A common mistake is to expect groups to produce their collective work in too tight a time frame. Remember, groups need time to coalesce and work through their processes (i. e. , forming, storming, norming, performing, and all that). † Groups need to be able to get to k now each other before diving into a big project. They need to learn each other strengths and weakness to get the most out of each individual person. Lastly, people must take responsibility for their share of the project. Holding everyone accountable for their specific part is a good way to make sure that everyone contributes and everyone is involved in what is going on. Make sure there is a leader to keep in contact with everyone and keep everyone updated as things progress and new things need to be completed. My experience in group projects have, for the most part, been very positive. I feel as though I try to incorporate the above suggestions to make a project go more smoothly. One things that I have found is that I usually come out being the leader of the group. I am very good at taking charge and delegating task in a very nonthreatening way. Whenever I start a project with a group, I always try to take time to get to know everyone and brainstorm some idea. This give everyone in my group a chance to get their initial ideas out on the table. From there, we make a plan and get to work. I try to check in with people consistently to make sure that they are keeping up on their part. I usually do pretty well in group projects and am very happy with the outcome. Although, I can definitely see where people can get negative outlooks on group work from. So group work, while a somewhat scary task, is not a dead end. You need to make sure that you use the skills listed above to help make it go as smoothly as possible. Try not to let it get to you too much if everything doesn’t go your way. If everyone communicates and works well together, a great end result will occur.