Group assignments – Legal way to outsource your education?

by

George Effiom

          Group assignments are valued by students despite the attendant unequal contribution from group members. A variety of strategies are subsequently employed among students for working on group assignments when seeking input and support from peers.

            Brainstorming, a common approach to group assignments in educational institutions is now considered one of the best methods of developing student communication skills and acquiring knowledge.  Research has it that interaction members engaging in group assignment would develop skills such as communication and critical thinking.  Group work offers an effective means of getting students to increase the complexity and challenges of tasks and students gain much experience and knowledge from collaborative work. When students shy away from contributing to such assignments, however, the reverse is the case, leading to low motivation of active members.

            Some groups experience great difficulties in bringing members to contribute for the common interest, especially when the grouping generates a union of strange bedfellows comprising Bookworms NFAs (No Future Ambitionists). The latter are neither time conscious nor conscientious and which often makes it take longer for tasks to be completed. This leaves the former with the responsibility of doing most of the work while the whole – sluggards and all - share the resultant good grade.

            Though group leaders try to steer their ships smoothly, by assigning responsibilities to members, the NFAs somehow still shirk their work portions, endangering the entire group to failure or penalty.

            Group assignments should be a co-operative learning environment which improves students’ learning while developing essential team work communication and leadership skills, but the way it gets done most times lends one to want to say to the teacher “please, let everyone farm their farm!”