Pedagogy: Group Projects

[rockwood]

This afternoon's preparation for a group microteaching (essentially, teaching a very short lesson in order to practice teaching at all) tomorrow evening went very well; it seems we have most things down, we're within the proper time frame, and I have the Powerpoint saved in multiple locations just in case technology strikes.

However, thinking about this assignment has got me thinking about group projects in general. From a purely personal viewpoint, they're definitely not my favorite teaching method; coordinating with other people is a pain, the grading can feel unfair,  and presentations can be difficult to practice when they rely on audience participation.

On the other hand, from a pedagogical standpoint, most of those are potentially good things. Learning to coordinate with other people, work around scheduling conflicts, and overcome differences in learning style or level of interest are certainly valuable skills in and of themselves. Group planning, timing, and similar abilities are improved when students have to make educated guesses how long some segments will take, and errors in calculation teach them to modify and revise on the fly. Even having student grades 'unfairly' linked to their group-mates can teach responsibility, management, and leadership.

Of course, if a group is too unwieldy or ill-prepared to face these issues, all that results is frustration and failure, for which the teacher is at fault. Rather than letting that happen, perhaps by starting out too heavy on the project side of things, the teacher can start out simpler: assign small groups that have to coordinate outside of class (only two or three people each), to help them learn how to schedule and manage their time properly; or start with larger groups that meet solely during class time, so they can work on interpersonal and group skills rather than time management. If possible, assigning both individual and group grades may be initially helpful, so that students can see how their personal performance affected the overall result, and moving to pure group assessment will the be less of a shocker.

On my personal list of pedagogical theories, group projects rate somewhere in the middle: they may take more time than their content is worth, but the learning they allow extends beyond the content area. I would save big group projects primarily for sophomore or junior level students, introduce the freshmen to the concept with smaller projects, and then keep a few truly complex or involved projects for the senior level students, giving them a chance to really take over and co-teach for a lesson.

Blessed be,
~Nathan

Comments

[corduroybard.livejournal.com]

You also should be concerned about the social dynamic that exists for students quite separate from your class. If you ask students to peer review (in essence to judge one another's performance) how will this be affected by outside social factors? No one wants to be a tattle tail or teacher's pet, or just plain unlikable. Setting aside the validity of the labels I believe we can recognize that they exist. While grades can motivate them to drop the hammer on a bad worker, the effect on the social dynamic must be considered. Depending on the stage of development it can be very important to promote a harmony among the student body and while actions that promote enlightened discussion are good, actions that may lead to grudges or ostracizing are not. Too often I believe teachers try to take a moral high road in ignoring the existence of a complex social hierarchy. Teachers actions should promote the dissolution of such separations. As much as possible teachers must avoid actions that could easily create ill will between classmates.

[garrettplc.livejournal.com]

Granted, but then, perhaps, teachers could incorporate a 'non-judgmental' form of peer review, as a way of teaching students how to give constructive criticism and positive feedback.

In which case it wouldn't serve the same purpose I'd originally suggested, but it would still use this opportunity to teach something useful. I'd go with: students conduct peer review by writing comments or suggestions for their group members. The teacher then grades each student (probably in a 'check-minus, check, or check-plus' simple scheme for whether or not they did it at all) based on the comments they GAVE, not on the comments they received, and gives the students feedback about the feedback they left...if you get my drift :-)