If you have never groaned at the announcement of a group project, you’re either extremely extroverted or a liar. While it would be an overstatement to say a majority of students hate group projects, enough of these students dislike them to be considered significant.
One of the largest problems in group projects is social loafing, which is the phenomenon where people tend to contribute less in a group setting than they would as an individual. It manifests in a disproportionate amount of work that different group members do. This is known colloquially as “carrying,” wherein one person “carries” another by contributing a much larger amount of work than they do. Sometimes, it takes the extreme form of freeloading, where one person does absolutely nothing to help but still receives the group grade in return.
A common solution to social loafing is peer evaluation. However, it is largely ineffective since the effects of ratings on students’ grades are not usually seen until report cards are given out. And even then, social loafing wouldn’t be the first thought to come to mind when one sees a low grade.
Furthermore, they do not address the root problem directly. As the adage goes: prevention is better than the cure.
What then is the cure for social loafing? Forsyth (2021) says that teamwork may be the key to overcoming it. In “recognizing that each group member has an important part to play in the success of the group,” students will be able to develop a sense of interdependence and accountability. However, this isn’t new information. It’s been drilled into our heads since childhood: teamwork makes the dream work.
So, if teamwork is so great, why is it so rare?
First, students often don’t have the time to develop a group dynamic because groups are constantly changing. Forming a new group every activity is good for getting to know new people and keeping conflicts at bay, but it’s not great for developing working relationships. Groups need more time together in order to identify and play to the member’s strengths instead of basing delegations on existing evaluations of each other. Perhaps this could be done by retaining groups for longer periods of time (e.g. a month, a quarter).
Yes, interpersonal problems may arise, but according to Bruce Tuckman’s (1965) theory of group development, conflicts really are a part of the process of forming an effective team.
Second, students are limited in their communication with one another. Many factors contribute to this—the largest two being general awkwardness with unfamiliar peers and the pandemic. The lack of communication impedes teamwork. This can only be overcome by a conscious effort on the part of all the group members to set aside time and talk about group goals. We often blame freeloaders for bringing us down, but when was the last time you actually tried to reach out to them?
Third, students are not taught teamwork. It is simply expected to happen. Teamwork and other important interpersonal skills are not commonly taught in a classroom setting, but it would greatly benefit students to be explicitly taught methods by which they can effectively work with one another. Classroom activities like projects and games do provide opportunities for students to figure out and develop these life skills for themselves, however, intentionality is key in developing a functional team, and it can begin by learning how exactly to work with different kinds of people.
Group projects have two main functions: to allow students to gain a learning competency and to develop teamwork skills. In the status quo, they are not effective in fulfilling these functions. The fault lies not in the nature of group projects but in the way they are currently conducted.
This can be remedied by creating environments conducive to teamwork, learning more about it, and actually putting it into practice. Still, establishing teamwork as a norm is in itself a group effort and requires everyone’s participation to be achieved. Whether it be through giving that groupmate of yours the benefit of the doubt or researching about group theory, we can all do our part in creating a more efficient and harmonious world.
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