integrating theory--dialogue
15 years ago
Friday, October 3, 2008
Week 6, Post 2: Why Group Projects Suck
The last several weeks of school, I've had a lot of group projects in most of my classes. The section entitled How Should We Then Live- In A Group on page 244 of Chapter 18 gave a near perfect description of the group dynamics I've been experiencing. I'm not tooting my own horn but I like to take charge in group settings. I don't think of myself as a control freak but I don't like the idea of other people affecting my grades. Teachers like to say that group projects mimic the real world, that we'll have to work with groups in our careers. But if the hierarchy in the text is correct, then at work some of us will be doing all the work while others sight back and do nothing. Poole says that we need to be active agents of change in our groups. My only contention is that some people do not want to be active agents. They are just along for the ride, or the grade, and have no desire to step up from a passive (or rather apathetic) role. I like to make things happen and I found that last week, when I tried to let someone else step up, nothing was accomplished! It affirmed my belief that I should always have an active voice within a group and not rely on others to have one because the chances are, they won't!
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I have to agree with you that most groups consist of members that are just along for the ride and are happy to sit back and let everyone else do the work. Most of the groups I have been in consisted of around 5 or six people. Usually myself and one other person took charge of the situation and set up every meeting, organized everything and pretty much did all of the work. The last group I was in only had one lagger, he missed our final presentation which consisted of a five minute speech from each member. I ended up picking up his slack and taking over his speech. Members like that can really bring down the whole group.
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