Group assignments are crucial for developing teamwork and communication skills.
In order for a class to be considered effective, it not only needs to teach the required material, but it also needs to constantly challenge students to improve their core skills. Even if a student forgot all of the material taught in a class after completion, they should still have grown as a student.
According to the University of Kent, verbal communication was deemed most important by major companies hiring college graduates — second on the list is teamwork.
By assigning coursework for students to complete, college classes give students the chance to build on their fundamental skills while learning the material for the course. If all of the assignments in a given course were designed to be completed solo, it would still suffice in teaching the student about the course material.
Despite this, having group assignments, as well as solo work, forces students to apply and develop a different set of skills that they may not otherwise gain. For some, it might even push them out of their comfort zone by demanding them to work with people they may not normally work with. Without group projects, students would be robbed of the opportunity to grow. The challenge and possible frustration or difficulty in group projects are, therefore, a necessary evil.
Many of the complaints against group projects have to do with the perceived futility of working with others. Realistically, many of the scenarios that are considered disadvantages to group-based assignments, such as lazy or flaky members, are possibilities in real-world scenarios.
Coursework and, by extension group projects, teach not only applicable material but also skills that are necessary for functioning as part of a team — skills that will be relevant not only in internships but also for a career.
Furthermore, a GPA does not just represent the average of all final grades earned but is a strong indicator of how well a student adapted to the challenges in their courses. So, ultimately, it can be said that a good GPA indicates that a student overcame said challenges — which would again involve the use of proper teamwork skills.
A lack of group projects would result in a large part of the challenge being lost and would leave students ill-prepared for internship opportunities. The ability of the GPA to accurately reflect student ability would also be reduced.
As stated previously, group projects can pair together students that would typically have no desire to work with one another. By demanding that students work with assigned partners, group projects can teach an essential aspect of teamwork: overcoming barriers.
With all of these factors in mind, it would be difficult to imagine an effective curriculum without group projects.
