At the mention of group projects, or collaborative work, some students cringe at the very thought of trying to cooperate with their peers on an activity that could seriously impact their grade. However, some students welcome the opportunity to work with other students and share the responsibilities of a larger project that individual students can’t experience on their own. While group projects can be uncomfortable and inconvenient for a lot of students, these collaborative activities are vital to the learning process and shaping of professional skills.
The skills we learn in class every day are shaping us to be successful in our future careers, and these skills extend beyond our knowledge of how natural selection works or how many significant figures we should use in chemistry problems. Group projects assigned in science classes not only teach students about a specific area of the natural world but also effective communication skills.
Research done in 2006 shows that students who participated in cooperative learning exhibited higher academic achievement than individualistic learning. Along with this finding, other benefits that arise from group work are improved skills in social interactions, alternative ideas, teamwork, problem solving, etc. Because of these many positives to group work, I think it is quite beneficial and necessary to learning and building other necessary skills for interacting with others.
For professors, group projects allow them the opportunity to get to know students they wouldn’t normally meet. In lecture halls with 200 plus students, it’s impossible to connect with everyone in a short amount of time. “In general I like group projects because I get to meet students in smaller groups. I can talk with them, get to know their names, and learn a little about their interests,” said Jennifer Landin, a biology professor at NC State. “When we all come together in the large lecture hall, it’s a much more collegial experience.”
However, a lot of students seem to have doubts and uncomfortable feelings about the idea of working with other students. A study regarding social anxiety in college students conducted in 1999 found that “symptoms of social anxiety are not by any means a rare or extreme occurrence within the normal population.”
Some complaints regarding group activities include the burden of trusting others will do their specified tasks. “I’d rather not put my grades in the hands of other people because I know they could never take my grades as seriously as I do. It can be difficult to mesh the different styles that each student has into one coherent group project,” said Stephanie McIntyre, a first-year studying management in the Poole College of Management.
Other students are more eager to interact and see the bigger picture of group assignments. Audrey Williams, a first-year student in the College of Sciences, said “group projects are good because it gives you a chance to hear other peoples’ ideas and opinions, and it teaches you how to work with others.”
In the work world, professionals must constantly work with coworkers and people in their workforce for solutions to problems, so the time to start getting used to working collaboratively is now. It may be uncomfortable or sometimes inconvenient to work with other students outside of class, but working with people is a skill that almost every job needs. Collaborative work with other students is an activity I believe to be helpful in preparing students to work with others in the professional world and beyond.
