A few more words on group projects and group dynamics

In my last blog post I have been praising group projects. Group projects in higher education are great. But that is not the whole truth. Be aware of the pitfalls.

One could argue that group projects involve the following issues: When working in teams of several students, chances are pretty high that there may be a subgroup of people who are less motivated and do not want to invest a lot of energy into the project. Or perhaps they are just less talkative than their partners and prefer staying in the background during discussions. Another possibility is that there are other types of students involved, let's call them "control freaks" or "self-promoters". I believe that there is no need to explain these personalities in more detail.

Group dynamics can be pretty complex and may lead to internal conflicts or to the fact that only a subset of team members will actively pursue working on the project. In Germany, we have a nice joke that the word "team" actually is an acronym for "Toll, ein anderer macht's!", which means something like "Great, somebody else is doing the work while I can lean back and relax". 

But shouldn't it actually mean "Together everyone achieves more"? Alright, let's stop thinking of other silly and cheesy acronyms, but rather talk about what the teacher/instructor can do in order to prevent such issues and let every student grow and succeed. 

Possible solutions are listed in the following:

• Divide the problem into several subproblems and assign different subtasks to the individual students. Either you as a teacher do it or you can let the students do it. Make sure that they will communicate about their subtasks, for example by establishing connections between the different subproblems (such that the solution to subtask A may also be -- to some extent -- relevant for subtask B and vice versa, etc.)
• Hold meetings with the students and try to recognize the different types of people (control freaks, invisible students, procrastinators, etc.). If you think that it will be beneficial, convey a subtle message such as "I appreciate your hard work, but I think that student X is capable of doing their own work" for the case of a control freak. However, also note that you are not a babysitter and students need to learn how to deal with such a situation. Therefore, do not intervene when it is not urgently required. 
• Emphasize that students should see and understand each other's work before they present it together in a group presentation. It is not very hard to tell when people have not adjusted their part of the presentation to the other group members' work. 
• Encourage students to provide constructive criticism to other group members. However, it is also important that they create a positive atmosphere in their group where everybody's contribution is taken seriously. 
• Accept the fact that different people work differently. Do not force students to change their working style entirely, but provide honest and constructive suggestions for improvements when you notice flaws. 
  

This discussion has not been very physics-specific. However, in the next posts I will try to focus more on topics that are particularly important for Teaching Physics in Higher Education. Stay tuned!