Nowadays many teachers allow their students to work in a group and create projects together. But is working in a group better than working alone?
Firstly, when students work in a group, they feel responsible for evaluating the entire team, which stimulates them to focus on self-development and do better work. Students do not want to use others, but they want to contribute. Working in a group teaches cooperation, responsibility for a group and ways of resolving problems, which are very useful skills in the future.
Additionally, each member of the group has different characteristics and skills. Due to the diversity of talents, everyone can do what they do best. As a result, the project is more elaborate and interesting than if we did it ourselves.
Major disadvantage of working in a group is groupthink. Groupthink is a psychological phenomenon in which people strive for consensus within a group. In many cases, people will set aside their own personal beliefs and adopt the opinion of the rest of the group, which rejects many innovative ideas.
Another drawback is disorganization and no division of tasks. The most important thing is a leader who honestly plans the work of the group. Unfortunately, what often happens is no one wants to take on this function. As a result, group work is distributed unevenly. The whole group gets the same grade, which is unfair towards harder working students and may demotivate them for further cooperation.
To sum up I believe that working in a group brings positive results for both the students and the project. Sometimes difficulties may happen, but overcoming them develops us and expands our skills.