Group Work Augmentative Essay
Group Work Augmentative Essay
Group work fits in a variety of contexts in a learning institution, which ranges from temporal group exercise during tutorial class, seminars, field works, or practical to the permanent official group during project work. In recent past, various universities have integrated group work in the curriculum of teaching various subjects. The majority of the educationist they feel that group work is the most effective way of assessing student’s capability. They argue that students develop interpersonal and cognitive skills when they interact with their peers in the groups, which enable them to excel in challenging subjects at the personal level (Sharples et al., 2016). However, these claims on benefits of group work to students are not well embraced by the majority of the students. Most of them they criticize group work as wastage of time that drags innovation and potential of ambitious students.
Integrating group work in pedagogy has greatly boosted the teaching of some subjected and classroom management. Various faculties in university they have incorporated group work in pedagogies since it makes classes easy to manage. Students can organize themselves into small groups which are easy to monitor compared to whole class. In groups, students set specific rules and regulation adhered by all group members. Group leaders note the weakness and grievances of the group and raise them to the instructor. It is easy for the instructor to assist a group rather than helping individual student. Group work encourages students’ participation and attendances in class (Heaslip, Donovan & Cullen, 2014). In mathematics, group works have been proven to help student understands various concepts and calculation methodology used in solving mathematics problems. Howington, Hartfield & Hillyard (2015), states that some students who find mathematic concepts confusing when instructor direct them, they understand them better when they rely on the group work. In spite of these benefits students fears engaging in group work because some of them are lazy and do not participate in-group. Only a few students are actively participating in-group work while others are passive.
Group work enables the students to come up with the collaborative academic community, which helps them to develop an efficient study relationship. Group work promotes students engagements and supports to one another. Studies indicate students can learn and gain more from their peers when they exchange the ideas and concepts in a group study. In the group, students share their experience on matters relating to a particular subject and challenge their minds in finding a solution to any challenging concept. Group studies enable students to reflect their understanding of the particular topic, which promotes their cognition ability. When students work together in a group, they enhance their creativity and critical thinking which result from sharing perspectives of a given subject or topic. According to O’Flaherty & Phillips (2015), group studies deepen understanding of the topic, which becomes easier to memorize compared use of traditional methods of studies. However, some student thinks the group work is a waste of time. The majority of them think group work is time consuming compared content covered during group work session. Some students mislead the group especially when the group members are not conversant with the topic.
Group work promotes communication and interpersonal skills of learners, which are effective in the learning process. Students who are shy or have poor communication skills they can enrich their competence by actively participating in group discussions. Learning as a group enables students to have mutual relationships, which ultimately boost their interpersonal skills. The interpersonal skills permit the students to relate well with students, lecturers and other members of the society. Group studies is an effective approach for engaging learners who may feel humiliated speaking to the whole class, but are comfortable participating in smaller groups (Tomlinson, 2014). In the group studies, students can mimic their lecturer’s communication cues, which help them to improve their communication skills. However, group work undermines intercommunications skills of some students. In many groups, some students feel superior to their group mates. These students they dominate in all decision-making and ideas contribution in groups giving others no chance of expressing their views (Howington, Hartfield & Hillyard, 2015). Other students may confront their fellow students directly in some ideas they raise in-group discussion. This, in turn, led to stigmatization and victimization, which suppress the student’s ability to communicate effectively.
It clear that group work is an effective method of learning in university, but some students have a controversial stand to benefits of group work in education. Group work benefits students in various ways like; improving understanding of technical subjects like mathematics, promote classroom management; amplify collaborative studies, boost interpersonal, and communication skills. Students criticize group work since some members are lazy and do not participate in group work, group work waste time and some students dominate group discussion thus suppressing the weak students.
References
Heaslip, G., Donovan, P., & Cullen, J. G. (2014). Student response systems and learner engagement in large classes. Active Learning in Higher Education, 15(1), 11-24.
Howington, H., Hartfield, T., & Hillyard, C. (2015). Faculty viewpoints on teaching Quantway®. Numeracy, 8(1), 10.
O’Flaherty, J., & Phillips, C. (2015). The use of flipped classrooms in higher education: A scoping review. The Internet and Higher Education, 25, 85-95.
Sharples, M., De Roock, R., Ferguson, R., Gaved, M., Herodotou, C., Koh, E. & Weller, M. (2016). Innovating Pedagogy 2016: Open University Innovation Report 5. Institute of Educational Technology. The Open University.
Tomlinson, C. A. (2014). The differentiated classroom: Responding to the needs of all learners. Ascd.
