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Group projects
Nov. 8th, 2005 12:29 pmSo, I survived my honors seminar presentation, algebra quiz, and English presentation today. Remind me to post my seminar presentation background, because it was a pain in the ass and I want recognition for it.
Now I shall rant about group presentations.
I have never worked on a group project in which all members contributed equally. There is inevitably at least one slacker, and other people have to do extra work to make up, otherwise the presentation looks badly put together. I wouldn't mind so much if we were actually learning something from this, but we aren't. The slackers get the good grades they didn't earn, which doesn't exactly prevent them from doing it again (after all, what have they got to lose?) and the same thing happens the next time. There's no incentive to work hard in a group project unless no one else is, and people tend to assume someone else is.
Also, there's no real way to tell who did the most work. If the hard-working students accomplish their goal of giving a good presentation, the teacher can easily assume that everyone contributed equally and give good grades to everyone, which only perpetuates the behavior. Of course, I (being, of course, one of the slack-pick-uppers) could rat on the slackers, which teachers generally encourage, but I don't do that unless it's an anonymous peer grade. That's only happened once, in my biology class last spring, and the fact that I did practically the entire presentation and got the peer grades I deserved for it probably saved my A in that class. Still, helping one person's grade is not the purpose of group projects.
I know the logistics of individual presentations are much more difficult, especially with large class sizes, but I really, really wish teachers would assign them more.
Now I shall rant about group presentations.
I have never worked on a group project in which all members contributed equally. There is inevitably at least one slacker, and other people have to do extra work to make up, otherwise the presentation looks badly put together. I wouldn't mind so much if we were actually learning something from this, but we aren't. The slackers get the good grades they didn't earn, which doesn't exactly prevent them from doing it again (after all, what have they got to lose?) and the same thing happens the next time. There's no incentive to work hard in a group project unless no one else is, and people tend to assume someone else is.
Also, there's no real way to tell who did the most work. If the hard-working students accomplish their goal of giving a good presentation, the teacher can easily assume that everyone contributed equally and give good grades to everyone, which only perpetuates the behavior. Of course, I (being, of course, one of the slack-pick-uppers) could rat on the slackers, which teachers generally encourage, but I don't do that unless it's an anonymous peer grade. That's only happened once, in my biology class last spring, and the fact that I did practically the entire presentation and got the peer grades I deserved for it probably saved my A in that class. Still, helping one person's grade is not the purpose of group projects.
I know the logistics of individual presentations are much more difficult, especially with large class sizes, but I really, really wish teachers would assign them more.
