Group Assignments: Friend groups or Assigned groups?

Rathiel

Rathiel

Legacy Member
Group assignments are necessary to foster feelings of camaraderie in students, and to teach students how to cooperate with each other in order to achieve a certain goal. But would you prefer to divide classes by friend groups or by assigned, randomized groups.

The former will allow them to work together more cohesively, likely producing a project which would turn out better since they already know each other's strengths and weaknesses for most part. The latter would teach flexibility in one'es ability to work with strangers or people they might not necessarily know, as well as prevent alienating individual students.

Which do you think is a better way for students to complete their group assignments?
 
Friends groups, all the way. People need to socialize with those they want, and not forced. I've found assignments done with friends much more fun and productive. I'd feel uncomfortable with strangers around me.
 
Based on my personal experience, you are more attached to the project if the people you are with are those whom you are close to. But, it will also be the cause of people being left out. There are students who don't have friends and I guess, one way to do it would be "the boat is sinking" it's like choosing who they want to be with while being on an activity.
 
In my own experience, Our teacher would give us group assignment. We would then vote who will be the leader, the assistant and the secretary. Each member are encouraged to give their own contribution to the assignment. It is a great way to show leadership and obedience. Group assignment has a great effect on the learning of the students. I also believe that students learn a lot from the group assignment.
 
I think both of these have advantages and disadvantages, so it really depends on the person and individual. On one hand, doing tasks in groups of friends is a lot more fun and comfortable, but on the other hand, they might not focus on the given task. Doing tasks in assigned groups of different people a person doesn't know would make the person more shy and less comfortable, therefore he will try more to impress them and not look silly. But it becomes a stress that way.
 
Group assignment is also good if everyone in the group is giving their contribution. The problem comes in when the leader is just the one doing it and the rest are just waiting for their assignment to be passed. It is good for the leader because he will learn a lot in answering the assignments. When examination or test comes, the leader who is doing everything will excel because he is the only one doing the group assignment.
 
Group assignments are of course great way to build friendship and camaraderie, by doing this, at a young age, children will be taught how to work with other, find ways on how to approach people. Also, this is a way for them to develop interpersonal skills at a young age.
 
For me, assigned group is more okay that friends group. Its for our own sake also, to develop our skills and learned how to cooperate to other aside from friends.
 
It's better to friend group, but also its better to assign group because assign make a student have a new friend that he/she didn't know those people which help him to make friends also friends group is good because it's so loud ahahahh but if you think there are no bad assign groups I think it depends on the teacher wants.
 
I think it's a great idea to let the kids work with assigned groups rather than those they are already friends with. This ensures that no child will be left behind and everyone will be distributed randomly. This is also a great way to have the kids leave their comfort zones and interact with their classmates whom they are not familiar with yet.
 
It is best to assign the groups randomly. Generally, students will choose their friends as a group and they will stay confined only to that group. If random groups are made, there will be a good mix of communication and people will open up a lot more. A healthy interaction will take place and it will benefit the student immensely.
 
For me it should be assigned groups. Because there are those students who always get left behind without group during group activity.
This could be due to various reasons, but most of the time they are just really shy and timid, and they don't have the courage to reach out to other and volunteer to be a group member.
So by assigning the group members, this situation can be avoided plus it will foster camaraderie within the whole class.
 
This is based on experience.

The finished product of a friend group would often go better than that of an assigned group but that's all there is to it. It has no social effect on the class' environment.

While the finished product/project of an assign group also most of the time good(when peer pressure took place), but there's a lot of time that it doesn't because of lack of communication within the group. It's a good thing if they tried hard to communicate with others they don't usually talk to--this lead to the improvement of their social skills. There are times though that relationships go worse and also times when they group ends up with only one individual working.
 
Assigned groups is preferable since it gives the kids opportunity to get to know their other classmates more rather than being always with those they are already friends with. Assigned groupings can help improve the students' social skills since they get to interact and socialize with their classmates whom they don't usually talk to. This is also a great way to help improve the students' self-confidence.
 
I am always for the grouping of students because working in a team gives the student the initiative to bring out their best. The quality of a project being worked on by an individual would depend on the personality of the student while being in a group assignment each individual will be motivated for their best contribution. But in class work I would prefer to be grouped with other classmates instead of my friends so that there will be more serious work.
 
bravosi said:
Friends groups, all the way. People need to socialize with those they want, and not forced. I've found assignments done with friends much more fun and productive. I'd feel uncomfortable with strangers around me.
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Interesting - I feel completely the opposite. I think that students need to work with people they're not familiar with, or may not even like. It's important to learn this, in my opinion, because the real world outside the education realm sees this happen all the time. You don't always get to pick and choose who you work with and you often still need to work together to get a job or a project done.
 
I would go for assigned random group for a more challenging mood. This would help develop personality to deal with other people's attitude. This encourage individuals to participate and focus on the task without delaying. It also helps improve self confidence and trust to other people. I also feel that being in a comfort zone won't give us privilege to improve for the better.
 
I think it's better to assign groups instead of letting them work with their friends. Children can feel really heartbroken when they aren't picked by their classmates. Nobody gets their feelings hurt when the teacher is the one picking the groups. The students also get to talk to classmates they might otherwise not socialize with. Plus, children are less likely to slack off if they aren't working with their friends.
 
Personally, I believe it's a better idea to assign groups as it's more accrate of the working world. Students need to learn how to work and communicate with a diverse group of people. By assigning project groups, you help the students learn how to work in a setting more accurate of today's world. My professors in college would never let us pick groups for our projects and it was so helpful to learn how to be patient and deal with the same roadblocks that I now deal with in my career.
 
It's nice to work with your own group of friends because you already know each other and somehow already comfortable with each other. It is also easier for you to fix your schedule or venue of making your assignments. However, it is also beneficial for students to widen the group of people they are interacting with so that they will be exposed to diverse kinds of people from which they may also learn from and make friends with.
 
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