Ever notice the slight sag of the shoulders or heavy sighs or rolled eyes when you tell students they must work on a team project for the semester? It is a method of constructing what we tell the students is "the way it works when you're out there in the world," and yet it's so contribed as to be void of creativity, and certainly novelty! I've noticed that some of our students have 4 or 5 team projects per semester during their junior year.
One dedicated faculty member at North Carolina State University, Dr. Robert Beichner, developed a new approach to teaching the funamentals of physics - not a simple undertaking! This method, known as SCALE-UP (Student-Centered Active Learning Environment for Undergraduate Programs), has so many benefits that I don't believe I can express it all well in a short blog. I will encourage you to explore the possible use of this approach in your classes. There are two critical components of this learning environment that, in my opinion, make this program increibly valuable:
1. The teams are designed by the faculty to have a distribution of students with different academic records/performance. While it was expected that the honors students would be bored and would carry the group, that was not the case at all. In fact, the students with the highest GPAs learned more than those they guided though the material.
2. The test format is designed to guide the students through the fundamental questions; to learn to frame the problem and identify the approach to solve it. Once the student has addressed the problem, he or she has the opportunity to make the connection as to what the answer actually means.
The website where you can learn more about SCALE-UP is http://www.ncsu.edu/PER/scaleup.html.
There is a TED talk by Susan Cain that talks about the power of introverts and is kind of a counter argument to the whole group assignments thing. Here is the link to it; it’s a pretty decent talk.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ted.com/talks/susan_cain_the_power_of_introverts.html
Some people that you see the sag of the shoulders in when group work is mentioned happen to be introverts. Either that or they prefer to learn and do work as introverts. This may be because they like working alone as a preference, or they feel that when they work alone they can move through the material at a faster rate.
I know that in most work environments as an engineer you would be working as part of a whole in which interaction with many types of people is crucial to complete the project and complete it successfully. The simple fact is that some people do not do their best work in those type situations. Some of the best thinkers and designers throughout history completed amazing works alone and through their own thoughts. Do introverts have a place in industry? If so how can you simulate this environment in industry for an employee who does his or her best work when left to their own thoughts as an introvert?
Tyler, that's a really good point. My best friends are two of the shyest people I know. They work better when they aren't in a social setting. Left to think and design on their own and then, when they are ready, pursuing input from others, is serving them well. One is in academia as a teacher (and man, she's a great teacher) and the other is a research engineer for Corning. She is highly successful and hates to work with teams.
DeleteI look forward to watching the video. Thanks for sending it.
It's actually pretty well known that students learn the most when they're teaching the subject themselves. As they explain the concepts and answer questions, it forces them to rethink and verify what they've learned; sometimes it challenges them to create a new approach. All of this cements the academic material and methods into their mind. So it doesn't surprise me that honors students learned a lot from this experiment.
ReplyDeleteThe problem we see today with a lot of these projects is a lack of creativity or a lack of motivation. I worked on several design projects since I came to Tech and each time I've ended up carrying the project because my "teammates" just don't care. It's possible that engineers - most of them being intoverted - just prefer to work on their own rather than interact, but I think it's more likely that they feel too constrained and approach their task with a zombie-like attitude. I can't say I know of a universal solution for this... but hey, maybe this SCALE-UP thing is on the right track!
It's possible, Ben, that we who are leading the classes need to lead a sort of campus revolt. We need to let the administration know that if we are going to compete with the "free thinking" movement and the student-centered, active-learning environments, that we need the versatile facilities in which to do it!
DeleteI'm working now with a professor who has control of a classroom schedule for one very awesome, big room. Now, we need the right type of furniture to make at least a versatile learning environment. Maybe it will work out even better; we won't be locked into the SCALE-UP format either!
I believe that a different way of doing group projects and activities is definitely needed. I know I am about to light a fire under some people by saying this, but due to the fact that I am a girl, I feel as though the males in my group expect me to carry the brunt of the workload. Girls tend to be more organized, and this is translated into us putting the final product together, in addition to contributing our part of the research and collaboration. Group work would be much more enjoyable if there was a way for everyone to contribute equal amounts, and truly enjoy the subject.
ReplyDeleteI understand your concerns, Cameron. It's sometimes an assumption that the female members of the teams will be the "group secretary" or "notetaker" or whatever you want to call it.
ReplyDeleteIf I may make a suggestion, you should feel comfortable in telling yoru group-mates when they are abusing your talents. The workload should be shared in an equitable way. Maybe rotating notes/secretary duties, passing off some of the organizational details to some of the guys on the team, etc. It's not just gender, it's also a matter of talent.
I've learned over the years that we get abused as much as we ALLOW ourselves to be abused, so draw the line. Say "hey, let's divide up the work so I'm not doing all the writing, or whatever." The females on teams many times do end up in that "organizational/secretarial" duty, but we also tend to fall into the role of taking orders. Well, stop it! Learn to say "no," I've done enough of that and need to participate in some of the other aspects of the project. YOU take control of your destiny. (If that doesn't work, call a meeting of your team with the instructor. You'd be amazed how much can be worked out in a meeting with the authority figure, even if they don't say much of anything!)
Thanks for the input! Diane
I think group projects are really important to college education. That being said, I think they are too often used in classes. It is getting really difficult to schedule out 4-5 different projects during one semester while working a part time job or other obligations for students.
ReplyDelete