Have group dynamics changed?

March 24, 2005
By Wendy Heithoff
Editor in Chief

College is stressful for any student. And although some students encounter more stressful days in one week than others will in a whole semester, it is undeniable that stress is a part of college life. But there is one aspect of college that is bound to add stress to any student’s life: the unavoidable group project.

In the past week alone, I have witnessed a student coming into Hagen almost in tears because a group member dumped all the work on her. Another student was up until midnight compensating for what her group members failed to do, and other students dreaded going to class because they know today is the day they will find out who their group for the remainder of the semester was going to be.

I realize that professors don’t have an option. They are entrusted with the task of grooming their students for the real world, where group projects are a part of every day life. Most working world situations are a tangled web of people who rely on you to complete their tasks, and likewise you on them.

However, the strange element about this semester’s group projects is the professors’ belief that our generation enjoys group work. According to them we function better as a cohesive element than their generations.

It seems hard to believe. Granted, I can’t make an unbiased argument given the fact that I didn’t attend college with my professors, and they may be right. For some reason, our generation is more apt to working in groups.

However, I disagree with the statement that we enjoy it more. Even though there may be those rare situations where students get to choose their groups and a bunch of friends get to work together on a project, the vast majority of group work experiences are far from this. And there are a variety of reasons why our generation has every right to hate group work.

If anything it seems that it is harder for our generation to work in groups. For more and more students, school is not their only job. Instead they have to work a job that provides a paycheck every week in order to pay for their education. It is not uncommon for students to take five years to gradate instead of the assumed four.

Add into the mix that St. Ambrose has a high number of commuter students. For these students, completing group work either means staying on campus long after they would have otherwise left while other choose to drive back to campus after they have left to meet with a group. With these factors, along with many others, group work can seem impossible at times.

Despite the hardships that come along with finding time to meet with a group, there is always the question of how the groups are created. It seems that there is some secret formula devised to ensure that all the groups have the same skill level, and are equally matched.

However, we all know that there seems to be that one group that has all of the overachievers in it while another group is comprised of one hard working student and a bunch of slackers.

I have no idea how this happens, but I guarantee it happens in most classrooms. The only comfort for these situations is when a professor states that there will be an individual grade on the project based on each student’s personal work and a group grade based on the final project/presentation.

So here is the truth from where I sit. Group projects are dreaded by most students because it means putting your grade in the hands of a number of other people and it means extra time that has to be scheduled around other people. Although the work is usually split between group members who do it on their own time, then compile it at a later date, and try to make it flow together, and generally, some ends up getting the short end of the deal.

And once all of those factors are added up, there doesn’t seem to be a good reason why our generation would enjoy group work more than our professors’ generations.

So maybe we have more in common with our professors than we thought.

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