Why I Hate Group Work When I Really Shouldn’t

Our best work is likely to be accomplished in a group — but it must be the right one.

Image by Colin Behrens

Whenever I embark on a new learning journey, I am scared of a certain moment, a moment in particular, the moment when I’m asked to work in a group.

This is something that takes me all the way back to primary school. Sure, I understand those for whom group work is a great way to learn. If you know more than the rest, you teach, which is the best learning method, and if you don’t know as much as the others, you are taught by your peers, which is possibly the second best learning method. I understand the pros. Now let me get the cons out.

The main problem I see with group work in education is that it assumes a minimum level for all the participants. This a major flaw, because all too often there are no guarantees to this effect, and we are only as strong as the weakest link: even if one of the group members is not at an acceptable level for the task at hand, the entire group will be denied the possibility of doing an excellent job.

The group’s potential is simply the average of the individual potential of each of its members. Say we have four people with balanced potentials: 50 65 75 and 90. The group’s potential will be 70. That’s okay. Hopefully, by…