It is believed that output of a group is normally better qualitatively and quantitatively than sum of individual output provided certain conditions are met. I believe this is one of the reasons of students are expected to work in groups for majority of assignments. It is believed that in a group each individual brings his own perspective thereby enhance the quality of output and even increase the lead time of project delivery. But as per my experience and probably for most of you this paradigm may be untrue. There could be host of reasons for this, probably the task itself might not require equal participation from each member, the partners might be the ones to be blamed, difference of opinion itself might be the cause or it may be combination of these factors or some unmentioned factors that might be causes.
In order to counter this one pattern that might emerge in future is formation of common groups across all subjects with each member taking up responsibility for certain project or assignment. This in itself would also be another form of collective action.
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2 comments:
Sharat whatever you are saying, may be true. Group work some time does not meet its level due to the problem of free riding. But, what you proposed as a solution may not be totally true as a group of 4 or 5 people is given a task to judge the workability of individuals remaining in a group. The main problem of free riding can be handled in another way. What Jospeh and i were discussing that we should have our own grading system where everybody will grade their partners according their contribution and finally that will remain confidential and will be submitted to the respective faculty. From the sheet he could easily identify the person who is given lowest grade by everybody.After that the necessary steps can be taken....
Sharat, you are very right in saying that people add different perspectives to the project while working in a group. One more reason, i feel, why these group projects are given to us is that while working in a group we imbibe certain soft skills that we may not ourselves realize. Getting a chance to work with people from different backgrounds gives us an opportunity to learn new things about other disciplines as well. The situation of conflict is something we must try to avoid as in the process we also learn the art of conflict management while working in a group.
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