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Old 08-18-2013, 12:12 AM
 
Location: Lauderdale by the Sea, Florida
384 posts, read 592,516 times
Reputation: 577

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So today, my buddies and I were reminiscing back to our high school days. One of the things we all agreed on was how annoying it was when the teacher matched us intellectuals up with a deadbeat kid who didn't want to do any work. So I have some questions for the teachers here:

1. Do you match up the smart/dumb kids on purpose? Is this so the work actually gets done?

2. What is your policy on students who do not contribute to the final project?

3. Do you allow students to kick out any of their partners who are not doing work?

Thanks,
LPDAL
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Old 08-21-2013, 09:41 PM
 
58 posts, read 113,950 times
Reputation: 229
I personally am not a teacher, however I think failing a group as a whole because of one student is a little unfair.

Then again, the real world is unfair, so perhaps for some teachers this system works. I never liked it myself.
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Old 08-21-2013, 10:22 PM
 
Location: My beloved Bluegrass
20,101 posts, read 16,035,309 times
Reputation: 28271
Quote:
Originally Posted by littlechoirlady View Post
I personally am not a teacher, however I think failing a group as a whole because of one student is a little unfair.

Then again, the real world is unfair, so perhaps for some teachers this system works. I never liked it myself.
The more likely scenario is that the entire group will pass/get a good grade because of the hard work of one or two of the kids and the others will merely coast.
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Old 08-21-2013, 11:07 PM
 
Location: On the brink of WWIII
21,088 posts, read 29,070,272 times
Reputation: 7812
I usually pair up the Rhode Scholars with the Gomer Pyles.

1. It helps the Gomer Pyles to learn it from others.

2. It tends to deflated the egos of the Rhode Scholars just enough to keep them grounded.

Each student is evaluated on their contribution. I am confident the scholars will do well, I am anticipating the Gomer Pyles to do better.
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Old 08-22-2013, 08:58 AM
 
Location: Northern Virginia
4,489 posts, read 10,906,811 times
Reputation: 3698
My projects are set up to be completed during class time. This means I can easily evaluate each student's individual contribution. Plus, it's pretty easy to quiz the kids individually (just asking them questions as I walk around) and figure out who knows what's going on, and who doesn't.
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Old 08-22-2013, 10:59 AM
 
Location: Liberal Coast
4,280 posts, read 6,063,177 times
Reputation: 3924
Our teachers usually let us choose our groups, which was terrible for a few other kids and me. We are very shy and didn't want to approach people to ask them if we could be in their groups. Now, we function very fine in the real world, but it's completely different when three very good friends are in a group and know each other very well. I was in one group in college where the other kids all knew each and basically ignored me for the entire project. I was never asked what I wanted to do, what I had to contribute, etc. That was their loss because it was in my favorite subject, and I could have had excellent contributions.

What I liked was one teacher who said you could choose to do the work on your own if you wanted to, so that's what I chose. I sat by the teacher's desk in that class, and she told me she understood why I did it on my own. Almost always (except in that one college class), I was the one doing all the work, and it was ridiculous. I wasn't going to sacrifice my work because a few kids wanted to sit there and do nothing.

People can learn to work in groups in much better ways than group projects at school. Team sports taught me way more about group work than school did. For non-athletes, band, orchestra, or choir help.
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Old 08-22-2013, 01:27 PM
 
Location: Great State of Texas
86,052 posts, read 84,169,407 times
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I see more angst, aggravation, intimidation, fear, anger and resentment among students than the collaborative learning it's supposed to promote. The ones that don't do their work constantly ask to do group work while the ones that do the work either want to pick their own partners or do the work by themselves.

I found that letting them pick their own groups fared much better.
I just had to spend a little more time keeping them on task over social chatter.
Friends tend to not let down each other.

And the ones that rarely did the work ended up together and HAD to do the work because there was no one in the group to copy off of.
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Old 08-22-2013, 11:10 PM
 
6 posts, read 9,184 times
Reputation: 15
This thing help to pass a student who does not to work but this thing make him lazy and habitual of not doing any work. At some places it is useful but other it is very harmful for students.
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Old 08-23-2013, 08:03 AM
 
Location: Whoville....
25,386 posts, read 35,414,606 times
Reputation: 14692
In my chemistry classes, I let kids choose their own partners. It's their problem if they chose a partner who doesn't pull their weight. In my physical science classes, I create the groups and put one person who slacks in each group. The projects are really designed for two people. I'd love to group the slackers together but their parents complain that I must be doing something wrong when their special snowflakes fail the project. I'm ok with this because my vision for physical science is just to expose them to as much science as I can so they are better prepared when they take chemistry. Personally, I'd love to redo the curriculum and make it an easy A because I find that kids at this level (the top 1/3 of students skip this class and we're talking 9th graders here) are motivated by success. They'll do what is easy and that's better than the nothing I'll get out of many of them if I make it too hard.
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Old 08-23-2013, 09:53 AM
 
18,073 posts, read 18,697,364 times
Reputation: 25191
Quote:
Originally Posted by littlechoirlady View Post
I personally am not a teacher, however I think failing a group as a whole because of one student is a little unfair.

Then again, the real world is unfair, so perhaps for some teachers this system works. I never liked it myself.
Teams in school, even college, are rarely like teams in the workforce.
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