Most educators would agree that collaborative and teamwork skills are necessary for graduates to thrive in 21st century workplaces.
Still, they also are aware of the reality that while group assignments and projects are favoured and loved by some students, they are disliked by many others.
Some students and teachers prefer learning on their own. They are of the "if it's going to be, it's up to me" mindset. They feel that if something is going to be done right, the chances of this happening increase if they do it themselves. This way, they have control over the process, the outcome, and, most importantly (to them) the grade. In my student and teaching experience, although there are exceptions, it is usually the thoughtful, reflective, high achievers who do not like collaborative projects or 'group work'. In their past experience, they have been part of projects where they did "all the work" but got the same grade as others in the group who contributed less (in both quantity and quality). They felt this was not fair. The more competitive students felt they missed out on the good feeling of getting a better grade than their peers who contributed less. Worse, in some cases, they felt their group grade was lower than it should have been because others in the group did not make deadlines or did not produce what they had agreed to produce. Conversely, students who would score lower on assignments they complete on their own look forward to "group projects" because they feel that they benefit from the skills and knowledge of other students and thus get a higher grade.
As a teacher, although I have students work in groups to teach certain historical topics (e.g. The Jazz/Flapper era or the Famous Five) or to work in groups for debates, I can do more and I need to do more in my classroom to foster collaborative learning. In the past, I haven't embraced collaborative learning more for the same reasons outlined above. First, many students do not like working in groups for the reasons outlined above. As a result, there is less enthusiasm, especially among the students who tend to lead and achieve higher. Second, on the surface, it's harder to assess students and give them a grade-especially if some of the work is not completed in the classroom. Third, I find that I have to teach students "how" to work together because I don't work in a highly collaborative school culture. They haven't mastered the skills in lower grades. By the time they get to high school, they are like fish out of water when learning together. It's like wearing a new shoes. It's not comfortable and it causes blisters.
A few years ago, I picked up a tip from a teacher named Allison who contributed to the Action-Ed blog. She outlined her method as follows:
________________________________________
1. Group Mark: This is the usual group mark; the mark earned on a project, paper, presentation, etc. For example, let’s say a group of 4 members earned 16/20 on their presentation project. Their group mark is 16. Most often educators stop here, but I don’t think it tells enough of the story. So …
2. Total Group Points: Then they determined this by multiplying the group mark by the number of members in the group. Continuing with the example, the group mark of 16 is multiplied by the 4 group members giving us 64 Total Group Pts (4 x 16 = 64).
3. Prepare Fractions: Then on a piece of paper, I have the students write a fraction beside every group member’s name, leaving the numerator blank and using the same denominator as the group mark.
For example:
• Stan = /20
• Susan = /20
• Joe = /20
• Tanya = /20
• Total Group Pts = 80
4. Group Negotiates Individual Marks: Then the group works out - on their own - who should get how many of the total group points. I ask them to review what went well and what didn’t, and have them use that information - on their own - to decide how to allocate their total group points. They cannot use more or less than the total number of group points they earned, some members may earn up to 105%, and it’s up to them to present their cases to their group mates as to why each member should get what they should get.
For example, lets say Stan was ‘the man’ and the group agrees their decent mark of 16/20 was largely due to him doing a great job on the most difficult tasks. They agree he should receive 105%, which would look like this:
• Stan = 21/20
• Susan = /20
• Joe = /20
• Tanya = /20
• Total Group Pts Left = 43 (64 - 21 = 43)
Then they move on to Joe, who - the groups agrees - did absolutely nothing in preparing for the presentation (Stan did Joe’s work), but a good job in the actual presentation. The group decides to give Joe 8/20, and we’re left with this:
• Stan = 21/20
• Susan = /20
• Joe = 8/20
• Tanya = /20
• Total Group Pts Left = 35 (43 - 8 = 35)
Finally, Susan says that she and Tanya contributed equally (which is mostly true), but Tanya adds that she was the one who spent a good 30 minutes proofreading everyone’s final work and fixing mistakes. With this, the group decides on the following marks and submits them to their instructor who records them as the individual grades for the group assignment:
• Stan = 21/20
• Susan = 16.5/20
• Joe = 8/20
• Tanya = 18.5/20
• Totals = 64/80
5. Teacher Records the Marks: The teacher, then, does the following things before recording the marks:
• Verifies the numbers add up, ensuring students aren’t trying to add a couple marks here and there (it happens more often than you think, and it always results in group members blaming bad math skills .. he he),
• Ensures that the group generally agrees with the collective decision/allotment, making sure no one was bullied, intimidated or 'guilted' into taking a lower grade than they felt they rightfully deserved.
• Fields questions and assists with any negotiations that become heated, sometimes teaching (or coaching) a group how deliberate on the issue and how to present and listen to points-made calmly and rationally.
_______________________________________________
The good news is that this method does generally help in making grades more fair. The bad news is that the process is also time and effort-intensive. It's also not easy to make sure that no one was bullied or guilted into acccepting a lower grade as students also interact outside of the high school classroom where teachers are not around to "ensure".
I haven't yet used online tools like Google Docs but I'm hoping that these tools will help students work on assignments outside of class time and that they will allow students to merge their efforts on a Power Point presentation, for example.
