<p>Why do professors still think they’re a good idea? Don’t they remember being undergrads? They almost never work.</p>
<p>For one thing, it’s often easier to grade. If you have five groups of four, for instance, do presentations or write a paper or something, you only have to grade five papers/presentations vs. having to grade 20 papers/presentations. Also, you may not have time to have 20 presentations, but you do have time to have five presentations over the course of the quarter/semester.</p>
<p>You can also expect more a group. Since they have more people, you can expect a more thoroughly researched presentation or better responses to the class’s questions because they have five minds instead of one. Or because you’re splitting the work among of group of people, you can expect it to be done faster or not take as much time, as it would if one person was expected to do the assignment entirely by themselves.</p>
<p>The assignment the professor wants to give may also lend itself to a group more than it would any one particular person. For instance, in one of my classes, we had to have a group debate in front of the class and that would have been pretty hard to do by yourself.</p>
<p>And then, of course, there are professors who still believe that it’s important for people to learn how to interact with their peers, that students should be required to figure out how to work with a team of disparate individuals to put together a presentation or a project, and that this is a skill that many students undervalue, despite its potential usefulness in the future.</p>
<p>I understand all of that but let’s be honest. How often does any of this happen?</p>
<p>How often does what happen?</p>
<p>Group presentations are often always less of a burden on the professor than individual presentations (both in terms of grading them and in terms of time that needs to be available for students to present).</p>
<p>Many professors either do expect more of groups than they might otherwise expect of an individual, and group projects can take less time than individual projects if you divide up the work effectively. I’ve had professors that had different standards depending on the amount of people in your group. For instance, groups with three people were expected to do more (have a longer or more thorough presentation) than groups with two people.</p>
<p>If the professor assigns you a group debate, you generally always need a group in order to have that debate. Some assignments are always going to lend themselves better to a group project than to an individual project.</p>
<p>Do students learn to work better in a group setting through the use of group projects? I have no idea. But I got better at delegating tasks, dealing with people who don’t put in any effort, dealing with people who are overbearing, compromising on group decisions, and just generally dealing with other personalities through group projects. Whether other people or you get anything out of it doesn’t really matter to me, but I hope you would put in some effort to learn from any experience you have.</p>
<p>I don’t remember anything from my college physics class, and I don’t really think I learned anything from that class. But should colleges stop offering physics classes? Definitely not. There are many students who hate public speaking and don’t feel like they get anything out of it. Should students never have to give a presentation or a speech? Definitely not. You don’t want the first time you have to give a presentation to be when your job depends on it.</p>
<p>My professors always say that group assignments are there for us to develop skills revolving around teamwork and whatnot. Proves to me somewhat useful in only certain careers. For my internship, we have to work in groups quite a bit (ad/PR) so yeah. I mean I didn’t really gain any more skills other than learning to be more patient/tolerant of others. </p>
<p>I now think some group work is fun even if I do most of the work just because a lot of group projects seem to be more on the creative side of things as opposed to the mundane same assignments, essays, lectures, MC test/quizzes. But then again, most of my group projects involve my major (again, ad/PR) so it’s a generally creative outlet. I may the minority here, lol.</p>
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<p>Which is a fantastic skill for everyone to learn =D Definitely don’t undervalue that, haha! I know many, many people who still have yet to learn it.</p>
<p>College students need to learn to think forward.</p>
<p>After school, you will never again need to take a multiple choice exam. But you will almost always be working as part of a team, and group projects are education in that vein.</p>
<p>lullabies made the point of learning to be more patient and tolerant of others on group projects–excellent! Other things you will learn: how to balance work loads, how to make sure all parties pull their fair share/meet their responsibilities, how to make sure your viewpoint/knowledge etc. gets heard and reflected–eg., how to be appropriately assertive; how to make sure that the team keeps its eye on the actual goal (what ultimate product does the client want/require). And of course, presentation skills, both written and oral.</p>
<p>I can’t think of a job or career where these skills don’t play a role.</p>
<p>cuz in the real world u have to work in groups, bro</p>
<p>/thread</p>
<p>boysX3 is absolutely correct. My D’s school (grades 6-12) has project-based learning as its focus. I can’t tell you the many positives for D being in this kind of school. She’s learned all of what bX3 has mentioned and more, especially how to identify your strengths and weaknesses in any given topic and yet still make the most of your value to to the group, and yourself.</p>
<p>The presentation portion is as important, as you learn to stand up for your work, your point of view and to be professional. There’s a reason kids from the high school are sought-after for internships. Honestly, I think this is THE most valuable type of classwork.</p>