COLLABORATIVE LEARNING
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Frances: Does This Sound Like You?
Frances expected that the advantages of participating in a group project would:
- Sharing the workload, that is, not having to do the whole project alone.
- Generating a variety of ideas, that is, the interaction between group members would increase the number of ideas.
Frances was dissatisfied about the way things turned out with the group project. Her dissatisfaction stemmed from the inefficient way the group functioned. EAch was waiting for someone to take charge and do it. Frances really felt bad about the outcome. She felt she should have organized things but didn't because she didn't want to get stuck doing more than her share of the work. The reason no one put the blame solely on Shaun is because her behavior was expected and it played a small part in contributing to the hapless effort each of the other members put in their own work. Neither Jimmy nor Frances took the responsibility for assigning Shaun specific responsibilities or holding her accountable for them. Each of the group members gained little from the experience of the group project, expect that the work got done. Now Jimmy and Frances would rather work on their own than work in any group.
Think about these questions and share your answers!
- What specific strategies might you have suggested to the group?
- Why do you think Frances compromised her expectations for the group project the way she did?
- Why do you think Frances and Jimmy reacted to Shaun in the way that they did?
- If you have a choice in selecting your group members, what criteria do you use? If you do not have a choice about who is in your group, how do you decide on roles?
- Have you ever been in a position similar to Frances? Explain the outcome.