In this post, Tara Morrison contemplates the three common student responses to group work in large undergraduate courses, and how she has tried counter these in the assessment design and delivery. Tara is a Lecturer in Business Education at University of Edinburgh Business School. This post is part of the Group Work series.
Group work…often the bane of a student’s assessment experience, to the point where they will make strategic choices about their course options in an effort to avoid working with others. In my course – Global Challenges for Business – there is no choice because it is compulsory for all undergraduate first year Business School students. I have the double whammy of the fact they are being ‘made’ to do group work and they are randomly allocated to their groups.
The Horror!
Or is it?
I have observed that there are three common student responses to group work, and I have established ways of countering each of these in the design and delivery of this assessment.
1. I don’t see the point of doing group work…
An easy response to this one is that they will have to work in groups when they are employed. This tends to go down like a lead balloon, as they know that the real world of group/team work is very different from the artificially created one they have at University. However, if you are able to communicate to students that working effectively in groups enhances a number of key skills, such as managing difficult conversations; negotiating; dealing with conflict; emotional intelligence development when reflecting upon how your behaviour can impact group members; and collaboration and effective communication. All incredibly useful skills for whatever they do in life after they graduate. Selling group work as far more than just producing a painful output with other people, is a great way to help students to appreciate that it may actually be useful.
2. I don’t like working in groups…
I get it. Frequently students experience being put into groups, with a limited amount of time (maybe 3 weeks) to focus on achieving a task – an output such as a presentation or report – and there is little opportunity to get to know each other before they have to produce a product. This focus on the output, rather than the process, is a very easy way to help students to want to avoid group work at all costs. Groups need time and space to learn about each other. Research has shown that developing group working skills is as important as the operational skills of producing an output (Morgan et al., 1993).
The most famous model of group development suggests there are five stages that groups go through: Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, and Adjourning (Tuckman & Jenson, 1977). Groups need time to get to know each other; working on simple tasks together that help them understand how they behave individually and collectively. Facilitate them in thinking about how they like to work in a group (I do a simple ‘Desert Survival’ activity, which they then reflect on how each of them behaved and how this may manifest itself when they start working on the assessment task).
Allow them the space and freedom to work through the stages so they can establish a way of working that is effective for them well before the assessment is due. Students are put into groups in week 6, and they work on a number of activities within their groups over the subsequent weeks. After each one they are asked to reflect on the process they went through, their behaviours, and how this might help or hinder their approach to the assessment task. They are not required to submit their video group presentation until week 14.
3. I don’t like other people being responsible for my grade…
The assessment criteria for the group presentation is split into four equal parts:
- quality of argument;
- strength of evidence;
- clarity of communication (Ivory, 2021);
- and reflection on the experience of working in the group.
Students are asked to reflect on what they feel they positively contributed (a star) and where they might need some development (a wish). They are assessed on the process and not just the output. Currently, this only forms 25% of their final grade, and I would like to move it to 50%, in order to really emphasise the importance of reflecting on the process of group work, and being graded as such, and not just the presentation itself.
So, have I won all 450 students over with this approach? No.
Have I helped students to appreciate that there might be some useful reasons to undertake group work? I think so.
I am a big fan of the WIFM approach…What’s In it For Me? Communicating to students that group work is an opportunity to challenge oneself and develop a number of skills that are vital within the current global environment. It can be difficult and that is OK and actually the more difficult it is the better it is for one’s development. A commonly asked question at an interview is:
“Provide me with a time when you had to deal with a difficult situation…”
“I give you my experience of group work at the University of Edinburgh…It was difficult but I am better for it, and here is why…”.
References
Ivory, S. B. (2021). Becoming a Critical Thinker: For your University Studies and Beyond. Oxford University Press
Morgan, B. B., Salas, E., & Glickman, A. S. (1993). An Analysis of Team Evolution and Maturation. The Journal of General Psychology, 120(3), 277–291. https://doi.org/10.1080/00221309.1993.9711148
Tuckman, B. W., & Jensen, M. C. (1977). Stages of small-group development revisited. Group & Organization Management, 2(4), 419-427. https://doi.org/10.1177/105960117700200404
Tara Morrison
Tara Morrison is a Lecturer in Business Education at University of Edinburgh Business School. Tara has worked in a variety of Universities for 30 years, with a passion for enhancing teaching and learning in Higher Education to improve the student experience. She has a particular interest in the development of skills within programme and course learning outcomes and subsequent assessment methods.
