Pretty much every time the words “group project” have been uttered in one of my classes, I’ve had to prepare my ears for the collective groan that comes from all 35 mouths in the room. And for good reason too, because more often than not, these “group” projects end up with one or two people doing most of the work, and everyone else taking on the incredibly difficult task of adding their name.
I’ve been subject to my fair share of group projects this year, including group Claim Evidence Reasonings (CERs) in biology and the occasional partner test in math. I’ve had such a horrible experience that I’ve decided not to major in business, solely due to the thought of having to deal with group projects for a second longer than I’m required to. With all the times I’ve had the whole work load flung into my hands, I can confidently say that group projects are terribly unfair at worst and inefficient at best.
On paper, group projects seem like a great way to get work done faster and teach valuable life skills. Working with others can help improve teamwork, foster communication skills and build trust between classmates. Except, instead of killing two birds with one stone, I often feel inclined to throw that stone at my group mates.
In a study done by Harvard University, participants were asked to pull on a rope individually and in a group of peers. The results revealed that the participants exerted just over 60 percent of their effort, compared to when they were asked to pull individually. Your Spanish teacher might not be asking you to haul a boulder across the classroom for a grade (although maybe your physics teacher is), but the same logic carries over.
This phenomenon, known as social loafing, is when people exert less effort when working in groups, compared to when working alone, and is sadly not when you and your group mates get together to start a bakery. Although, both situations probably result in your group not getting any work done.
The point is, whether your group members are incapable of doing the work, or just feeling apathetic, they aren’t helping get any work done. Social loafing gets worse with bigger groups since people figure that someone else will have to do the work eventually. Once the social loafing mindset has been established, the whole group can become less productive based on a perceived sense of laziness.
If I’m the only one doing work in my group (which has happened a lot more than once), I’ll automatically decrease the amount of effort I’m putting in to match the energy level of the rest of my group. This “sucker effect” demotivates everyone and creates tension between group members, while also forcing a disproportionate amount of work onto more academically motivated students. Despite the unfairness, these students, including myself, usually end up doing the work anyway.
But even while ignoring laziness as a factor, group projects are still much less efficient compared to working alone. Sure, there are more people who can contribute to the project, but it becomes much harder to actually do any work.
Chances are, everyone in your group has different schedules and extracurriculars that make it almost impossible to schedule a time to meet up. This is less of an issue when working digitally, but when working on physical projects like posters or models, everyone needs to be present.
Realistically, I know none of us will be escaping group projects any time soon, but in the meantime, there are ways to make group projects a little bit less annoying. As far as social loafing goes, assigning roles like a leader within your group will help easily distribute the workload and make sure everyone always has something to do. You can also divide up the work before starting and assign an equal amount to each person.
Our teachers also have some power when it comes to making group projects more effective. Creating smaller groups, around three to four people, decreases the effects of social loafing and makes communicating with your group easier. Teachers can also choose to grade group projects separately, meaning students still have the opportunity to collaborate with each other, but don’t feel pressured to take on each other’s work. Or alternatively, teachers can assign more group classwork rather than projects and tests.
Hopefully these tips will make your group project experience better than mine, unless you share my deep seated hatred of them and can’t turn back now. In any case, I’ll stick with picking the solo option–if there even is one–and save myself the mental distress, extra workload and half-baked apologies.
