Group work: the bane of a student’s life

It is more than likely that most university students will at some point in their course be forced to be assessed as part of a group.

Group = people, people = less work, less work = fun? Right?!… Wrong.

For those of you who may have had the pleasure of working with me in a group already or indeed do so in the near future: please don’t take this personally. It is an observation of the situation, not the participants.

Defined by painfully-long silences and an overwhelming mood of indifference, seminars and tutorials already subject students to weekly doses of abject awkwardness. Isn’t this enough? No.

Alas, step forth tutors and the dreaded instructions: ‘please arrange yourselves into small groups’.

You have now entered irrevocable territory.

Breaking the ice with a teaspoon

Even the most easy-going social butterflies will have their wings clipped as soon as they are tasked with group assessment.

Complete strangers are thrust upon you with the expectation that you have the charm & maturity to form productive relationships within an instant.

A degree of optimism can be elicited from that one time you spoke to the person to your left in Heebie-Jeebie’s a few weeks back, however generally you feel like you’ve been thrown into the lions’ den with nothing but a twig to defend yourself.

Of course social cohesion is a thing to be encouraged and aspired to but only over time. Rome wasn’t built in a day.

The ideal group. Look at all that chemistry.

 New found insecurities

Perturbed by the prospect of group humiliation, all pre-existing confidence you had in your knowledge begins to crumble under the weight of expectation.

Capital cities, spellings, basic historical facts & simple mathematics soon become matters requiring intense internal deliberation before you even dare to vocalize your input.

You know you’re right… but what if you’ve been mislead?!

Trust no-one, not even yourself. It’s too much of a risk and your face needs saving.

‘Do I actually know anything at all?’

Compromise? But I’m a genius…

For the tortured artists among you, this point is for you.

You are on an individual journey of discovery with infinite knowledge & a chapter in all history books in sight, the last thing you need is the ideas of others to curtail your undoubted creative potential.

Okay, I am being hyperbolic, the but the basic argument still stands; many people do not find group work productive and feel much more comfortable and confident when left to their own devices.

Perhaps group work should be offered as an optional form of assessment rather than a compulsory requirement?

The debate will rage on for decades I am sure.

I would listen to your view but I am too busy doing what a genius does.

The freeloaders

For weeks your own blood, sweat and tears have gone into ensuring your group project hogs the limelight come presentation day.

You’ve done much more work than a certain individual within your group but you have no need to worry, this will be reflected in your marks, right? Unfortunately not.

Unless scrutinized closely throughout the entire process, there is no real way your tutor can differentiate between the workaholics and freeloaders when calculating your grade.

At first this leaves you outraged and understandably so.

However as the dust settles you experience an epiphany: the freeloaders are neo-realist super-geniuses.

Why worker harder when you can achieve the same grade for much less work? Take a back seat and let the tortured artists deal with the stress and burden of pursuing greatness.

Freeloader life.

Just because you don’t like group work doesn’t mean you can’t make it work for you.

Be the freeloader and enjoy the fruits of your laziness.

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