Group work

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How do you cope with busy lectures and group work at uni/college? This is something that I can really struggle with and I just wondered if any fellow aspies had any thoughts or strategies to offer?

What tends to happen for me is there'll be a lecture/seminar with around 30 people attending and we'll have to get into groups to go through a work book or work on some other task that has been set. The room naturally starts to become quite loud with lots of people talking and overwhelming for me to deal with, which obviously affects my ability to take part and contribute. I end up sitting there feeling completely overwhelmed, building until I feel like I'm just going to snap or just burst into tears. I am trying to make sure I step outside from breaks but this one; doesn't change the situation I have to go back into and two; despite struggling in the lecture, means I get a bit stressed because I'm having to miss bits of it. The other thing I do is try to make sure I end up with people I am more comfortable with that I hope would be more understanding and patient with me but it still makes me feel a bit embarrassed and worry what they think of me.

My goal is obviously to get through university and pass but the stress and anxiety of coping with things really affects my mental and physical health and I want to avoid making myself seriously ill again.

Do you know if you can get accommodations from the university for your Asperger's?

Well they are aware of it. I have a mentor in place but I'm not sure I find her all that helpful if I'm honest. Other than that, I can get extensions for essay deadlines and extra time in exams.

I seriously struggled to cope on my first placement that I finished this week. I passed but my practice educators made it clear that they had to work really hard to help me 'jump through the necessary hoops'. I have the academic ability and knowledge it's just trying to cope with the environmental and social difficulties. I had one week where things really became too much and I really had to start thinking about whether this is for me, regardless of how much I want it. I somehow managed to decide to try and at least get to the end of my placement, which I obviously did and am proud of but given the state I am finding myself in, I'm still very much worried about how I am going to manage to cope with continuing the course and subsequent placements.

Hi VDUB04,

I went through UK higher education system and I know your pain. The emphasis on group work, team work and social interaction approach to problem solving in the UK academia is overwhelming. And in the most part, counterproductive too.

Since you have disclosed you are an Aspie, I would recommend speaking to your advisor. Made them aware of the problem and also try to come up with a list of cons of such approach from your point of view. In my case for example, it was the case of entire group handing on and relying on one person's contribution, so while many students tried to come up with ideas, only one person makes use and leads the entire project progress. In the worst case scenarios, one person does work and earns marks for the whole group or the entire group engages in a chit-chat.

Unfortunately this problems persists in the UK also when you will be looking for work, with group interviews, bouncing ball between each other and playing childish games and getting a job if you are hilarious and funny, not skilled or suited for the job. Unfortunately the days when actual skill mattered are long gone, now it's all about social and fun.

Speak to someone one on one and made them aware of how pointless this system is because group work is not compulsory it is just the tutors choice, who think that this is the way to make students work.

Thanks, it's good to know I'm not the only one. I really struggle with verbally communicating stuff so I think I am going to do my best to write everything down. I will try and share that with my mentor but if that doesn't really help, I will have to reconsider and maybe try to share it with my personal tutor.

By the way, I notice you're in Hastings? I used to go there a lot with my family in our caravan when I was younger. Lot's of fond memories!

Battle of Hastings! Is there some sort of reenactment of the Battle of Hastings in your town?

Yeah little smelly town but has great warm summers and a beach. Tops the list of the UK's most deprived areas and and is the most ethnically preserved place (almost exclusively white English). It's very eventful place with pirate day, jack in the green and other occasions when the entire town dresses up and marches the town. But no @kraftiekortie - there is no acting of the battle unfortunately because sometimes I would like to see them getting some beating! Personally I love the calm, secluded and almost private beaches, woodlands and campsites around it but people wise it's a race for a chav of the year title.

I just moved here from Scotland, after living all over the UK, searching for some peace and acceptable weather.

Back to the topic @VDUB04 - make the tutors think and reconsider the teaching methods for a second, because most of the uni institutions here stolen program from nurseries. Don't be afraid to voice your opinions, after all you are probably the only one seeing things in different light than the rest.

Nope....never liked group work.

I just have such a different slant on things.

And I usually did most of the work, anyway, because I was presumptuous enough to believe that my way was the best way. I am not an advocate, really, of the concept.

The b***h about group work is that the majority rules, which is laudable most of the time, but just doesn't work for ME.

If I were you, I would concentrate on your individual papers, and make a concerted effort to make your voice known during group work. And I believe most people would respect your input, should you be able to justify it in a clear and concise way.

We always used to go to Shearbarn. We could walk through the parkland down to the sea front. Occasionally we'd go on long walks along the cliff tops and find the more secluded beaches, though we did once come across a nudist section!

Thanks for your input Jack and Kraftie. I have two weeks back at uni since finishing placement this week, then two weeks off at easter. We shall have to see how things go :-/. I am in the process of trying to write some things down now in preparation for sharing them with my mentor/personal tutor.

I struggled with this as well. Particularly if we had to form our own groups. I had no idea what to do! From my experience there are things you can do:

1. Find a quiet table of other less talkative people.
2. Just work away by yourself and ignore everyone else - not ideal, but if it works, it works.
3. Ask if your group can move into a separate room - I find that I can do groupwork in a smaller, less overwhelming environment.
4. I find it comforting to sit in a corner, or next to a wall, so there's not so much a sensation of being surrounded.
5. Work ahead of your class, complete the workbook before arriving, tell the tutor that you have completed the work and ask to leave early.
6. Run away (Please don't do this, but I admit I did a couple of times)
7. Talk to your advisor, or your uni's disability service and see what they can recommend.

Keep us updated - if this does not convince them then they will have to answer before all WP community and we will make their names public, name and shame them All the best buddy!

Thanks, I can really relate to number 4 actually, I do that The problem is the lecturer might ask the class to get into small groups for 5 minutes and discuss something. So you can't move the group to a separate room and it doesn't matter where you sit in the room, there's no quieter table. I have to be honest, the modules I particularly struggle with this in, aren't exactly my favorites and I think my writing ability saved me in my recent first essay grade as I didn't do a great deal of reading for it but I really trying to foster some motivation to 'knuckle down' a bit more with it to help compensate for my lecture/seminar issues.

I think the whole 'discussion' approach to learning just doesn't work for me, even if being in the room was more tolerable. My processing is just that much slower that even if I can superficially seem to manage the discussion to some degree, it just isn't beneficial to me. I strive to please and avoid confrontation so I automatically try to go along with it but quite frankly I don't actually want to do it. Obviously this changes if I am the one 'in control' of the discussion, so for example, if someone sat down with me and I told them of my understanding of a given subject, the bits I was unsure of and could just ask them clarify specific parts, that works much better for me! Though I realise this isn't how it is 'supposed' to work

Thanks jackinblack I will do. I have an appointment with my personal tutor next weds!

I wish I could give more useful advice here. If it were up to me group work would all be optional, but unfortunately I'm not Tsar of Universities. Yet.

I really like lordfakename's suggestions. I have another, if you don't feel like you can ask the professor/teacher if your group can work in a quiet spot. Usually some kind of leader emerges out of those small groups. You could take that person aside, explain that you are on the autism spectrum, or just say you have a problem with noise or whatever, and ask THEM to ask the professor/teacher for a quiet spot.

I agree that group work is torturous. I usually struggle with my desire to tell everyone what to do and it kills me to see things done incorrectly. I would rather do all the work on my own than work in a group.

It is very useful to have groupwork experience once you come to the working world. One of the questions I asked people in interviews is "what role do you typically play in a group?"