Why do you think so many college professors are so gung ho about group projects?

Many community colleges and four-year institutions that specialize in business-type degrees seem to require group projects less for the project itself and more for the opportunities to learn about group dynamics, project leadership and other skills that have a very real place in the world of work. So while you are doing the project with your various groups, they hope you are building the skills to be a productive employee.

In the work environment, it is not at all uncommon to work in groups on behalf of your employer’s goals and this type of school work is often seen as preparation for that aspect of employment. It could be argued that Small Group Communications and other classes might actually better help you learn the skills, but the opportunities to practice the skills can be invaluable.

I agree with @Kayak8 and no matter what the career, you ultimately will be working with other people to accomplish tasks and projects. What you experience in these group projects will be a pretty accurate reflection of what you will experience in the working world. There will always be someone who makes the task harder than it has to be and IMO, an important dynamic is discovering who the real leader is…as my boss continually challenges us in saying “the cream rises to the top”.

In the professional world you don’t always get to handpick who you work with. I think it’s more of a disservice to make it seem in you will never have to collaborate.

All those reasons are good ones, but I’m cynical & believe that the fact that group projects=fewer papers to grade has to be taken into consideration.

I personally think it just means less papers to mark…..Think about it, if theres 4 students in each group your dividing your marking by 4…easy as that. Less papers to mark, less time spent marking, less hours they have to pay someone to mark the papers.

…..hmmm I just read what @ccrow…..I agree.

Don’t get me wrong though, group assignments do teach us all valuable lessons about other people AND more importantly we learn about ourselves, for instance; what role we are more comfortable with in a team situation. I always end up volunteering to do most of the work because I don’t trust anyone else to do it properly (probably something I have to work on)

I never saw the value in them, I still don’t. I’d wager the above answers are all likely reasons of such misguided professors’ efforts. Though if your goal is to teach and develop group dynamic in work environments, make it a for credit course.

What informal polling? I don’t think 90% is accurate. At least not where I went to school.

@Captain_Fantasy was it more like 99.999%?

There have been a lot of studies done which seem to indicate that collaborative learning, or group projects, are more effective at transforming students into critical thinkers with a deeper understanding of the subject matter that is being taught.

By actively discussing the topics and being forced to work in a group, students pick up more than they would during a traditional lecture based classroom because they are actively engaged in discussing and even debating over the subject in order to determine the best way to complete the project.

This does translate better into real world situations and may help to create better employees once the students graduate. There is currently a debate going on regarding the effectiveness of group based collaboration at the elementary and secondary education level.

Partnership for 21st Century Skills is an organization that include a lot of corporations lot Adobe, Apple, Intel, etc. as well as educators. Their focus is on bui8lding skills in students so that they will be better prepared for the job market when they graduate. Skills building can be done through increased group collaboration and technological training.

On the other side of the debate is an organization called Common Core which feels that focusing on building skills too early can be detrimental if the students aren’t given a solid foundation of knowledge learning how to apply that knowledge through skills building activities.

@fireside Raises more good points here and it will down to you will be asked about your abilities to work in group setting and what your skill set you bring to the table over problem solving in group settings. In a job interview you either be able to say well I aced my Biz 101 exam or you can say “it’s interesting you ask that as I encountered this situation numerous times in my group projects while at school and I was able to contribute…” People get jobs because of their skill sets not just because of their GPA.

It is good entertainment to watch a group of people try get along.;)

My first group assignment was in the fifth or sixth grade, I think. We were pairs, and I was paired with one of the worst students in class. He was also one of the bullies. Not surprisingly, I ended up doing just about all the work. We were supposed to make a paper mache sculpture of Quetzalcoatl. My partner, at least, was not destructive to the process or mean to me. He just let me do what I do.

But after that, most of my group experiences in schools were good. I also had many experiences learning how to teach people to work in groups, some of which I apply here. I wonder how many people realize that we are a group working together at fluther to create an important product.

Process dynamics are very important, and can be key to the success of a team. What I don’t understand is why so many of us are thrown into groups without learning the skills and techniques necessary to make them work well. It’s usually the sink or swim method, and that’s why I think many people hate working in groups. In any case, there are no jobs on Earth that don’t involve cooperating with some people at least some of the time. We are interdependent and there is no way around that.

I think that professors are not trying to make their work any easier by assigning folks to work in a group. They have to grade people on an individual basis as well as grading the group’s work, and that can’t be easy. They also have to do a lot more coaching when groups have problems. I’m sure that can be difficult when they have few group management skills themselves.

Most groups that I’ve ever been in have found themselves surprised at how much fun it was and how productive it was. I don’t think that’s an accident. Groups tend to work better when I’m around, even though I have no official role in the group at all. I don’t think it’s all that hard.

I just try to make sure everyone gets heard, and that things happen fairly and that any effort to create dissent gets gently but firmly squashed. I also put my full, sincere and intense interest into my “work.” Somehow, just doing that seems to create a creative energy that is catching. I ask the right questions, I think. The ones that get people to consider an issue as if they are all on the same side. I do this whether the effort is verbal or purely nonverbal. Don’t ask me how I do the nonverbal thing. I can’t really explain it. All I know is that I can do it.

Maybe its because they want you to soccialize with the other students<.9

Because they are smart. It’s key to students’ future careers. In companies people skills are key not just subject matter expertise.