Teacher resources and professional development across the curriculum
Teacher professional development and classroom resources across the curriculum
Student Perspectives: Group work
Quadir: I like that because you can get to focus on a specific area and it’s not really boring. You don’t have a lot about everything, you just have what you are supposed to do and then the other members of your team have what they are supposed to do.
Kerron: Working in groups allows people to view each other’s opinions and come to consensus and conclusions that are equal to all members of the group. It is very important to approach different ways of teaching. Not every student learns one way. Like, for instance, I like the straightforward teaching, read-out-of-the-book learning. But another student might like a more hands-on approach, a more getting involved with the assignment, so it gets diversified because not everybody is the same way. When you diversify, you equalize the situation and make sure that everybody gets their entitled learning.
Maysa: Group work is effective and it’s also negative in some ways. You have to rely on other people and relying on other people means that you have to have trust in them. Trust is a very hard thing to gain. Usually you get a lot of information but if you have a falling out, you never know what happens after that.
Samuel: You really have to do the work because there’s a lot of group activity. It gets you to work with others well. I know everybody in the senior class and I’m friendly with them but I don’t really work with them. What I like about working in groups, with people I’m not usually working with, is that it gives you a chance to see other people’s views. Normally, if you are with a group of close friends, you generally have the same views because you are friends. You talk, and you generally draw the same opinion about something. But you get to see another view about something, debate it, go back and forth. And you really get a whole broader view of the field so you really understand better what your topic is and where it stands to others.