Group work in high school

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I hate group work! Every time I disagree with the others and try to put a better idea forward, they act like I'm just doing it to be a pain in the arse. Does nobody recognise the dangers of groupthink anymore?! (Groupthink: where people don't bother to check their facts cos they want the whole group to agree unanimously.)

I hated group work throughout school and still do to this day in college. When I was a kid in primary and middle school I hated group work because I would always spend like 15 minutes trying to find a group who would take me and half the time that would only happen because the teacher would finally step in and force a group to take me. In high school I hated it because I found it extremely inefficient and pointless. When it came to in-class assignments I would usually just dictate what all the answers were to the group so we could be done as quickly as possible. With out-of-class projects I got lucky and had group members who would pull their weight so those assignments were only an annoyance due to how pointless they were (the reason people pulled their weight was probably because all the out of class group projects I had to do in high school were assigned in my AP classes where all the kids were extremely motivated and competitive).

I fourth it. [/quote

Fifth it, I HATE GROUP WORK!

The kids in my group took advantage of me because im good with the computer, and they dont want to do anything. We had four days to do the whole assignment, for three of the four days, the play around on youtube and music sights. The last day we had to work on it, they are in a huge rush to get it done, and they flip out at me like its my fault. They made me do all of the work for three days, and they did nothing. The teacher, and the principal were no help either, they just acted pissed of and irritated.

My issue with group work isn't really finding kids to work with or getting along with them, usually if it is just me and 1-2 friends I can work fine. It's when I'm assigned into a table group or whatever, and I can't work at my own pace and tell the other kids to slow down/speed up, I'd much rather work by myself.

I sixth it, haha this could go on forever

The stupid assignments we do are pointless anyway, after all of this attitude the teacher gave me, everybody in the whole group, including me got a 100% on the project, when like i said, they clowned around on youtube, played games, and listened to music.

That's one of the greatest differences between high school and the 3rd and 4th years of college. At that point, you're with people that actually want their degrees, and actually do their share of the work. At least, if you're in a non party major (business, communications, etc.). So nice to go from doing all of the work to showing up at the scheduled time to find that the whole thing's done.

In college, it seems that whenever the recitation instructor or professor assigns us to groups, everyone stares in silence and does no work - yet when the professor or recitation instructor allows us to create our own groups, nobody will work with me. So it's a difficult situation.

The worst case scenario was where I was assigned, for a project on "social networking sites" (honest!), where I was the only guy. I'm sorry, but when groups are being assigned as opposed to chosen, the resulting dynamics are very centrifugal in nature. That the other girls (for the most part, but how?) knew each other only made matters worse.

All of that is almost hypocritical, though, because I am proposing an undergraduate-taught course for next semester - that I will co-teach, provided it gets approved - wherein most everything will be done in groups.

I'm used to being ignored in groups, but on Monday during sex education, we had a group assignment and I got the opposite. Everyone was messing about and talking about prostitutes, and I was sat there being all, "Anybody got anything sensible to say? Or have we fulfilled today's admittedly low sensibility quota already?!"

Luckily I was appointed as the person who was writing down what we'd come up with, so I couldn't be totally ignored as is traditional.

Same hear.

Thank you!
My sentiments exactly.

Has this thing been photoshopped?
I sincerely hope that no mice were injured in the making of this picture (it looks photoshopped but I'm just checking).

If you want a job doing do it yourself I say: do other people's jobs if you have to.
I've found that's the only way to get by, work overtime and cover for the lazy ones that don't care. I actually cared about my education even if other people were hellbent on ruining it. I never received any thanks for my trouble of course. I've lost count of the number of times I was let down by other people. Take my advice:

If people can't be bothered don't bother with them: work alone and DIY.

I detest group-work with a passion for all the reasons stated above.
My parents never had to deal with all this nonsense when they were growing up.

I think the world would be a better place if assessed group-work was scrapped for those of us who prefer to work alone. I have nothing against people working together on non-assessed things in their free time though.

What about an alternative "solo-track" assignments for those of us who can actually be bothered to do the work?

This girl in my group said; "your name isn't going on the project if you arent going to do anything", so i said whatever. You tell me to shut the f**k up when i give ideas, or yell at me when i dont do something the way you want it, i'm not gonna do anything for you at all, i'll just lie on my desk and fall asleep, i'm not going to deal with your b***h attitude." Like i said before, the teacher gave my whole group a 100%, when they didnt do anything, and the last day we had to work on it, they were in this real mad rush to get it done. i hate high school!

And here. I have the same issues with group-work also

As for the "Teamwork" picture, I wonder if the exercise hypothetically entitled:

"Everyone get into discussion groups of five. The task is to free the cheese from the mousetrap."

Might have been more successful if one "Mousetrap Expert" had been sent in to disarm the contraption first, so that all of his murine friends could safely extract the cheese without injury. This murine expert is usually very well read and teaches the other rodents any relevant safety procedures.

That's how it was done “The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents” (think Darktan) and "The Rescuers". There are clear leaders, experts and chains of command in those fables. Time-wasters/dilly-dalliers get eaten by the cat or caught by the rat-catcher. When the "Prisoner's Aid Society" splits off into lots of smaller factions, under weak leadership, no prisoners get rescued.

I agree. Group work sucks. Usually, if it is a big project, I just ask my teacher if I can work alone. It's much easier that way, and I can get the A myself.

Yeah, usually I just ask if I can work on my own, and 9 out 10 times the teacher knows I work better on my own. Unfortunately, with subjects like RE and PE I tend to have no choice but to work in a group.
The last major piece of group work I did, we had to all do a podcast, and basically, I did pretty much the whole thing, I made the script, compiled the video and got all the images. All they did was say my script. It wasn't like I was trying to control it too D:.
But the one before that was good, because we had to make a power point and decided we'd work independently on a slide each and then someone would just put them all together at the end. I got highest mark because I was doing something like 16th Century cures for illnesses, and I had a very good memory and good knowledge with computers, so I didn't have to use any cue cards and just told it like it was xD. However, the rest of my group just read directly from they're books .
So, sometimes I like group work, or don't really mind it because I just do my own thing.
Sometimes I just hate it though, because either every just takes me for a complete idiot and ignores me, or I'm just left to do all the work D:.
EMZ=]