Group work makes me upset

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What is the whole point of doing group work? I know it's for when you get a job but this is High school. The school year started out fine and I had average/ high grades and now they are below average. Does anyone else struggle with group work? Independent work is not a problem but group work is. I feel like I'm lazy and I bet my teachers think that also . The people in my group seem like friends and have already started on the assignment and I'm sitting there not knowing what to do.

In the past, I always had issues with group work and people decided to work together and leave me out. I am always ignored in group projects and I have been told to speak up.

Ask to do the assignment in a group of one, or to do an alternate project as a group of one, and explain why.

Hate to be a doom and gloomer, but, it doesn't get any better in college... or at the office.

In all seriousness, I was the same as you in high school. In college, I wasn't having it, I would just take charge and tell everyone what to do from the start, so I would be sure it got done and I knew what my contribution would be. So, the bad part about being in charge? Others will slack off and you will do more work, and some will want to whine about their feelings about the other team members ( gag ), BUT, at least you know the whole project and you don't feel useless.
I HATED team projects in school. My last semester had a capstone class for the business unit of my CS degree and I was in the only all female group, and our project was to do a business plan and associated budgets for... a makeup manufacturing company. ~FACEPALM~ I don't even wear makeup, I've got NO idea.
I did tell the group to use Google Docs. So, we can all see who is working on the files and who is not. And, the night before each segment was due, I could know for sure what was done and what wasn't, and slap in something for the missing portions (the sitting around all day before class, not knowing if the project is complete or not? it killed me).

Project teams are pretty much the same at work, too. I like IT project management better than construction or business because IT people are more likely to approach like me and the teams tend to be smaller. Sometimes you have a choice who you work with, sometimes you don't.

Best of luck.

We actually had an assignment where we had to explain pedagogical justifications for groupwork.

The main explanation was that university are increasingly marketized in nature which has as its consequence a focus upon sets of skills and ?graduate attributes? in order to produce subjects with ?a marketable?persona?. This ?reassessment of the goals of university? is in order to appease employers? demands for ?transferable skills' of interperonal communication etc, so groupwork is a way of making you more "marketable" - basically so they can tick off that you "learned" to work with other people in your degree

I hate group work because academic capacities alone are not sufficient. there is an additional necessity of certain personal characteristic which not all students posses ? as Merith Cosden and Thomas Haring note, ?students who are gifted academically do not necessarily have the social interaction repertoires and leadership skills to effectively? participate in the required manner - so it is an implicit structural privileging of particular social characteristics, which is really terrible for Aspergians and Introverts

Wow, well said. I believe it.