Reply #10: I HATE group projects. [View All]

[distantearlywarning]

As an undergrad, I was invariably the only person who really cared about getting a good grade on anything, so I invariably ended up doing all the work.

My worst story: I had to do a 5-person group paper :eyes: in a class required for my major. One of the other girls in my group just happened to be in another class with me (an honors seminar) and she was one of the top students in the department. The other three dolts were sleepwalking through their undergraduate education, waking up only when it was time to party. This other girl and I made a sincere effort to get the other three motivated and working, but to no avail. She and I ended up writing the entire paper by ourselves - I did all the research, and she wrote it. The other three literally contributed nothing. Zip, zero, zilch. One guy brought in a piece of research that wasn't even related to our topic and was proud of himself for "working so hard". I can't even remember what the other two did. We got an A, but it was pathetic.

In another class, I was in a group where we had to write a paper about a topic and then do a presentation. There were 5 of us in the group. I volunteered to write the paper if they would put together the presentation. The paper got an A and the professor kept it to show future classes an example of what he was looking for in the project. When it came to presentation day, I showed up expecting them to be prepared, and we completely bombed. The presentation got a C-. The professor yelled at me later, saying, "Why didn't you make sure they were prepared", as though it were somehow my duty in life to pull 4 unmotivated morons up with me in every single class. I essentially told him I was tired of being my brother's keeper. I don't think he got it.

As a TA now, I never force my students to do group projects. I've had professors say to me, "How are they going to learn to get along in the real world if they don't learn how to work with others now". I always tell them that I've worked in the real world, and in the real world if you sit on your co-workers' coattails you get fired. That's usually sufficient motivation for the slackers to grow up and get with the program. Why should I make the decent students suffer now for nothing?

I have to say, in graduate school I have had none of the group project problems I had as an undergrad. I've done several group projects in graduate school, and it was a refreshing relief to find that when you meet with the other people in your group, everybody has their portion done on time, and it's almost always quality work. There have been no conflicts or problems at all and in fact the grad school group experiences have been interesting and useful for me. Those experiences just cemented my belief that it isn't about "not knowing how to get along with others", but rather the character of the others one is expected to get along with.