Group Projects, the One-Student Burden
I’m sure this has happened to you: you’re up at 1 a.m., working on a group project. Your teacher assigned you to a “random” group of people, and you got busy delegating components for people to do. But no one did anything. For two weeks. So now you’re up at 1 a.m. working on everyone else’s parts, cursing the person who ever thought that working in a group was a good idea.
The dynamics which arise in group projects can be troublesome, especially if everyone is competing for a grade. With glitchy sharing technology, different ideas about form and content and varying levels of motivation, a group project can easily go south and end in hurt feelings and poor results. If you are in the middle of one, they seem like the devil’s favorite homework assignment. But embedded in the formatting, collaboration and meetings of such a project are a plethora of mechanisms, both physical and digital, that can make or break a group project.
Group projects are designed to strengthen team-building skills. When students have only ever worked by themselves, they are very good at working by themselves. You probably did most of your homework by yourself when you were younger, maybe with some minimal help from your parents. Most assignments for young students are geared toward strengthening their own time management skills and focus. Group projects, which begin sometime in middle school, possibly even earlier, begin to build more complex skills which you will need beyond school, such as pushing your own ideas while encouraging or improving others’, keeping a schedule with a group, and sharing labor. They’re skills you need to survive in the business world, and schools integrate learning these tools alongside your other subjects to get you good at them before you graduate.
That’s all fine and dandy, you think. You’re currently researching Native American and colonial relations, which is what your partner was supposed to do. But it’s 1 a.m. At the moment all I’m thinking about is the cold I’ll get if I don’t go to sleep right now. Why the hecky-heck do we do group projects if I’m the only one who’s learning anything?
The other component is ease of use. Ever notice how group projects come at midterms or at the end of the term? Teachers have a lot of grading to do then, and they can’t spread it out because they have a grade-book deadline. They, too, are stressed and tired and just want to go on break. So, to meet that deadline, they give all their classes group projects so they don’t have to grade as much. It gives them less to worry about. Group projects, then, are easier for teachers and technically easier for you, too, if your group functions well. Or at least functions.
Group projects are probably not going away. Ever. They’re annoying and a little bit silly. But they also sort of capture the spirit of Harkness. At its finest, you can gather a group of people who are of varying skill, motivation and organization levels, and together you create something which none of you could have done on your own. At its worst, even a terrible group project mimics Harkness. Ever have an 8 a.m. Wednesday morning class when no one but you will talk? Just as you can never escape group projects, at Exeter you will never truly escape Harkness.
But you’re still up at 1 a.m. thinking about that cold you’re going to catch. You’re not thinking about the synergy of Harkness and group projects. How do you not end up in this mess again? Talk to your teacher about it. As long as you’re not throwing your entire group under the bus in an angry and offensive way, you can work out an arrangement with your teacher to light a fire under your team members’ tushies. You can also check in on people every once in awhile and tack a reward onto getting parts done early: celebrate by going to Stillwells after a brainstorming session; go for a walk in Swazey following a first draft; get everyone Grill cookies when all major research is compiled. You can meet at a place with food to work on it together. Make sure you get people’s numbers early on in the process so you can spam them when you need components of your project. A group project doesn’t all have to fall on you.
So put your markers and poster board away, file your notes, and shut down your computer, 1-a.m.-student. You need to sleep.