More Brains More Success
March 14th, 2018When a student is struggling on a topic is takes a lot of courage to raise their hand in a classroom that can be up to 200 people in a lecture hall. This usually leads to the student not raising their hand and leaving the lecture hall with questions. But if the student had a small group of people they are able to go to their group with questions and work through misunderstandings that can happen.
Benefits of working in a group:
- Build on students collaboration skills
- Share diverse perspectives
- Develop stronger communication skills
When working in the job market most projects and major tasks are done in groups. By teaching students to work in groups it will benefit them in the long run because they might not be using that assembly language in the workforce but they will be using the group skills they learned in that class. When working in a group students are able to break down tasks, assess everyone’s strengths and weaknesses and take on tasks accordingly. As well as giving and taking peer feedback. This is a major skill that is lacking in corporate America is that group members aren’t taking their peers feedback into consideration and overall hurts the teams performance.
What makes a group successful:
When I was doing research for this blog post I was looking at articles of what makes a group successful and the one thing that was on every website, article and journal was Communication. Communication is the key to working in groups. This is also a skill that is sadly dying in the younger generations. Having students work in groups help not only with the subject they are working on but also helps students with their communication skills. In a recent survey done by a Business Solutions firm said that 7 in 10 Millennials would rather text someone than talk in person. This leads back to my point that making students talk to each other is helping them better their communication skills.
Why communication is important:
- Effective Communication helps teams succeed
- Verbal and Nonverbal communication are both important
- Builds and Maintains relationships
Overall students who are able to ask questions and work through misunderstandings do better in school and having a group that students are able to foster relationships and build skills that can’t be lectured on. I myself have struggled in classes and when I need help I turn to my peers for help before my professor. This then leads to study groups and bouncing ideas off one another and if one person in my group understood something they helped the rest of the group understand.
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