CL1 - Teaching Stories: Disadvantages of Collaborative Learning



 
 
   
   
 
   
   
 
 
 
 
 
   
 
   
   


 
 
 
   
 
 
   
 
 
 
 


Students speak out on Collaborative Learning
  
by Cathy Middlecamp

Here's what students report as the disadvantages of Collaborative Learning

  • People need to go at different speeds. MORE, ...

  • Someone may try to take over the group. MORE, ...

  • Quiet people may not feel comfortable. MORE, ...

  • Sometimes people just don't get along. MORE, ...

  • People may not pull their weight. MORE, ...

  • It is not fair! MORE, ...

  • A concept may not be understood as well if a person doesn't have to figure it out. MORE, ...

  • The time spent talking about irrelevant topics is unbelievable. MORE, ...


People need to go at different speeds

Some people need to go at different speeds while doing the lab to fully understand and absorb the information. It seems that while working in a group, someone is either slowed down or forced to catch up faster then they would like to.

Some groups may go too fast for one person and that person feels lost, so he/she just copies.

A problem is people going too fast, with out waiting to see if everyone understands what is going on.

Working in groups can often involve situations where the group moves to fast for a student. It allows work to get done without knowing that every person in that group actually understands what was done.

Sometimes the members in your group may work faster then others which may cause tension because no one wants to stay in lab pass 3p.m.

Another disadvantage is if your partner doesn't understand the information at all, you can be slowed, just because you have to explain all the material before you can actually start solving or applying this information.

There may be one group member who doesn't learn as quickly as the others, and get left behind, and ultimately not learn anything at all. Similarly, if one does not learn as quickly and the group tries to slow down to explain things to this member. The whole group may end up falling behind.


Someone may try to take over the group

Someone may try to take over the group and dictate what everyone does. These type of people are not good group workers.

I think that one of the biggest problems of a group situation is the balance of power. Not all people are given an equal voice in a group. Usually there is one group leader that everyone defers to. Another person takes care of the data. Some people end up feeling overlooked or unappreciated. I think that one way to remedy this is to keep the groups small, which forces all people to participate.

Another problem in working in groups is dictatorship. One person may take control and not allow others to share their knowledge.

If you are in a group full of dominating, close-minded people, your ideas can be shut out of the discussion and completely ignored.

Also, dominating or conflicting personalities could interfere with each individual's chance to fully participate.

Sometimes you get partners that don't take any input and only do it their way which gets frustrating.

When there is one dominant person, . . .others don't learn how and why things are done, but only copy the information.

More problems occur when one person is a control freak, not willing or able to trust the abilities of others in the group. This can again result in discord and a lack of cooperation amongst the group members. Put simply, one person can drastically affect the group either positively or negatively.


Quiet people may not feel comfortable

More quiet people may not feel comfortable expressing themselves and their ideas with a group.

The quiet people that never talk might still not feel comfortable talking to a group. In this case they are more comfortable talking to a T.A. one-to-one. It can be said that this could still be a good thing because the person that is afraid to talk will have more of a chance to talk in the group.

Some students are shy or reserved and feel awkward when working with others.

I would have to say the biggest disadvantage is forgetting about a particular group member. . . . I think that when people work in groups they should do their best to make sure everyone is involved.

It is very easy for a person to just stay in the background and never really contribute anything to the group. For this reason, these people may be better off working alone then in a group situation.

Often when I hear that we have to work in groups I get very uneasy. I do not always like to meet new people. I do not know how they will take my beliefs and values.

Usually when a TA states "Get into groups," friends quickly get together and begin gossiping uncontrollably, using the class as a social hour. The shy timid students, however, dread having to find a group of "friends." Slowly, these students get together in an uncomfortable and quiet group.

Sometimes a student feels not as smart as the other students and allows them to do all the work. They do not want to screw the experiment up by making a mistake. So they do not ask questions on how the lab is being performed and really miss out. ... This can come with one's inability to communicate with peers or maybe just being naturally shy around others which can carry over into the work force.

I believe that the greatest disadvantage is the tendency for a group member to acquire a "passive role" in the group. The passive member does not actively contribute to the cause of the group, but will still take credit for the outcome. I have assumed this role many times, as have we all at some point in our careers.

Of course there are always instances where people are consistently being left out of groups, for one reason or another, but I didn't see too much of that either.

More quiet people may not feel comfortable expressing themselves and their ideas with a group.


Sometimes people just don't get along

Sometimes people just don't get along no matter how hard they try, their personalities clash. In these cases long time lab partners would be horrible, you spend more time over coming your differences than actually doing the work.

The first disadvantage of working in a group is that members of the group don't always cooperate well.

There could be arguing with group members. When you put a group of people that have never worked together . . . personalities might lead to arguments, this would waste time and lead to an unproductive group.

Disadvantages that may occur in group work are: not getting along, not liking to work with other people,

The worst scenario is if you have an incompatible group, because then it is hard to have a successful end product.


People may not pull their weight

I get very angry when we all work so hard and then one person who did nothing all lab asks to get the answers. I realize that there could be multiple reasons for why this person did not pull their weight, other then that they might be lazy. However, it is a very frustrating situation.

If you are the only one in your group that is willing to do the work and the rest of the people just sit back and watch, it can get very frustrating. If you try to give them things to do and help them get involved in the group, their lack of motivation and care may produce poor quality work in which, many times, you get graded on too.

I saw some students who didn't care about the assignment take advantage of the group member who did care and who did do the work. These cases were rare, though.

Some group members may not contribute to the activity, therefore one or two people end up doing all the work. On the other hand, one may become too much of a leader and not involve the other group members in decisions and just run the activity his/her own way.

Another disadvantage can be if one group member doesn't contribute as much as the others do. This will often leave the other members frustrated and the student who isn't contributing won't really learn anything. There can often be a weak link in a group, so it's up to all of them to strengthen that one. They need to recognize that he/she needs to add more to the group.

I get very angry when we all work so hard and then one person who did nothing all lab asks to get the answers. I realize that there could be multiple reasons for why this person did not pull their weight, other then that they might be lazy. However, it is a very frustrating situation.

Working with others can get annoying if you have a free loafer or someone who doesn't care about doing accurate work.

Disadvantages present with cooperative learning are often brought upon by lazy people! Sometimes one person is left with all the work because their partner doesn't pull their weight.

I've had to deal with this before, when one person does not pull their weight it makes extra work for the second person.

Some of the disadvantages of working in a group are that maybe one person would do everything in the group and others would not help them. Also others could be totally lost, because one person in the group is doing all of the work.


It is not fair!

Finally, when you put students into groups, many of the hard working students do all of the work and the lazy students do nothing and still receive the same grade. This is not fair to those who worked hard, or to those who sat in the corner and talked the entire time.

Not everyone in the group will participate. Some people rely on others to do the work for them. These people usually receive the same grade, which is not fair to the people in the group who did all of the work.

Sometimes, it is only one or two people in the group who take the brunt of the work. This isn't fair to anyone in the group

Often times group members will not equally contribute to a task in which the whole group receives one grade. So if a member does not fully participate they may be given a grade that they do not deserve.

All the group members may not participate equally. In this kind of situation, one might feel that he/she can take a back seat and let the other members do all the work. This is not fair because often, the group is given one grade, and that may not be representative of each member.


A concept may not be understood as well if a person doesn't have to figure it out

A concept may not be understood as well if a person doesn't have to figure it out for himself.

Another disadvantage to group work is that a concept may not be understood as well if a person doesn't have to figure it out for himself.

At times you miss things that you would learn by doing the project on your own.

Sometimes peer groups get lazy and just give group members answers to a certain problem without explaining how they arrived at their conclusions. Because of this, no real knowledge has been gained.

Instead of working together, certain people will just copy answers and never really understand the concept or problem which we may be working on. They are punishing themselves by not learning what should be learned and hurting the others in the group because they have one less person thinking about the problem.

A motivated and highly educated student matched up with a somewhat lazier or slower student will not benefit the first student as much as another student possibly could.


The time spent talking about irrelevant topics is unbelievable

The freedom to talk often greatly reduces the efficiency of my group work. As soon as we are set free to begin whatever the task or project is, the uncontrollable temptation to talk about plans for the weekend, what happened last weekend, or this incredible whatever that someone witnessed/heard about sneaks in. The time spent talking about irrelevant topics is unbelievable when seriously considered.

When people get into a group, they have a tendency to get off task. This can take away from the amount of material learned. Learning also may be inhibited if one person assumes all the work.

One last problem of group work is that sometimes nothing gets done because everyone is talking about everything but what they are supposed to be doing!


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