The Validity of Group Work Assessment in Secondary Education.
“For many years group work and its assessment has been the subject of considerable research and discussion in educational literature” (e.g., Boud et al.,1999; Nightingale et al., 1996). Group work has been used in education as a teaching/learning strategy, However, the all-encompassing assessment of group work is a more recent phenomenon and poses some challenges not only in Queensland secondary schools but schools worldwide (Johnson, D., & Johnson, R. (2004). Furthermore this essay will discuss the various ways to assess group work, the benefits and disadvantages of group work assessment, guidelines for group assessment and how group work assessment is relevant within secondary education.
'Group work' encompasses a vast variety of assessable activities and instruments including a poster, oral presentation, a written report and many more. In addition, there are a number of methods available for assessing aspects of group work, including allocating a shared group mark or individual marks based on product alone, or on a combination of product, group process and individual effort. In addition, assessment may involve peer and/or self-assessment as well as assessment by teaching staff.
The educational benefits of students working cooperatively in groups are well recognised (Johnson, D., & Johnson, R., 2004). Adaptable to really any subject or situation, group work under proper conditions encourages peer learning and peer support (Killen. R, 2009). Among other things, group assessment activities may also help academic staff to effectively utilise their own time (Killen. R, 2009).
However along with the benefits, group work assessment can also hinder student...
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Parsons, D. (2002). Justice in the classroom: peer assessment of contributions in group projects. Department of IT andelectrotechnology, Otago Polytechnic, Dunedin, New Zealand.
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In order to evaluate my role within the group, it is important to identify what makes a group. A group must firstly consist of more than three members, “Two members have personal relationships; with three or more there is a change in quality” of the personal relationship. (Bion 1961, p26) The group must have a common purpose or a goal in order to succeed. Having now completed my group work task, I can look back and reflect upon the process that my group went through to get to the presentation end point.
Assessing the process itself provides motivation for students to learn how to behave in groups. It shows students that you value meaningful group interactions and adhering to norms.added
Toseland, R & Rivas, R 2012, An Introduction to group work practice, 7th edn, Allyn & Bacon, Massachusetts.
If you are studying together it is very helpful, and you will get a lot done. Also, with a group mind, if you are doing a project for work/school there is always somebody there to look over your work, just in case you mess up. Then, if you are doing a project with some a lot of calculations, having a group is very helpful. In case you mess up or just do not see a mistake you made on a calculation and correct it, so you do not have to get some points taken off for getting it wrong. There are pros and cons to this subject matter, but I think the cons outweigh the pros.
This term paper is an analysis of the group processes that were observed from the participant observation point of view. The task group project was designed to allow a group of randomly selected students in an online course to work together in order to research, outline, and write a research paper as a group. This paper will synthesize the observations noted and the course material to demonstrate the knowledge obtained with regard to group process. The course was set up as an asynchronous/online format, which means the class did not have regular face-to-face meetings or even set times for meeting to complete the project.
Two students agreed that working in groups is better than individual work. One student, Cameron Devers, says “the work gets done faster in groups.” Another student, Amena Alelg, thinks that working in groups helps her in solving the problems that she is not capable of. She says “working in groups is more interesting and helps keeping the physics concepts in mind.” In addition, both of the students agreed that most of the cases, not all of the students participate in solving the worksheet problems and there is one person who takes the responsibility of the whole group assignment. Regarding the idea of assigning roles, they think that this would be helpful and will ensure full participation of all members. Moreover, Devers said that the worksheet usually does not help very much in understanding the concepts and for it to be more effective; it must contain problems that are consistent with the class curriculum. On the other hand, Alelg thinks that this worksheet is ineffective because it lacks instructions. Students’ assertion that assigning roles and instructions should be written on the worksheet in order to make it clear and effective ensure that this worksheet is not the best and should be redesigned to achieve its
...earch for the topic and apply effective techniques to get the result. Moreover it gives an opportunity for students to solve the problem by a healthy discussion and co-operation. This is what we call 'group discussions' which motivates the students to perform in a team, show leadership skills and enhances the presentation capabilities as well. Benefits of using collaborative processes are not limited to the college classroom, but applicable to real-world.
A variety of applied counsellors and theorists have argued that the first and maybe the biggest challenge for prospective counsellors working in a multicultural society is to identify the dominant values faced by themselves and the society and culture in which
Toseland, R.W. & Rivas, R.F. (2005). An Introduction to Group Work Practice, 5/e. Chapter 3. Understanding Group Dynamics. Retrieved from http://centreofthepsyclone.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/group-work-practice.pdf
University education is meant to be difficult. It is very fast and very laborious when compared to high school education. In school studying alone was easy since there were plenty of time for anyone to go over the materials presented in the class and get a good grade. But, in university students are constantly asked brainstorm ideas and complete tasks that requires much more than just reading the class note or books. In this kind of situation makes partnerships with students and group studying very effective tools for success. I have a small group of friends with whom I sometimes study in group in the library. This practice has actually lifted a lot of pressure off of my head this semester and I have seen effectiveness of making learning a group effort firsthand.
our thought process, and how we contribute to the process of group work. This involves a
Working together with other people for an assignment can be a challenging task in some cases but luckily, I worked well with my group members. The decisions we made were anonymous although we paced ourselves individually when it came to completing our separate parts of the essay. As a group I believe that we connected well on an interpersonal level as all four of us were able to make alterations to any problem together . Furthermore, we did not give each other a chance to get angry at one another as we knew that this would only cause conflict that would disrupt our flow as a group. There was an equal divide in the amount of work that we all did; our contributions were fair and no one was lacking behind. In addition, my group members were great at keeping each other informed if one of us were not able to attend a group meeting; emails were sent out informing us what we missed and ideas that were formulated. Everyone in my group worked according to deadlines and in synchronization with each other; we did not have to nag anyone to complete work or wait on a member to complete their task.
Parrish, Patrick, and Jennifer A. Linder-VanBerschot. “Addressing the Challenges of MulticulturalInstruction.” Cultural Dimensions of Learning 11.2 (2010): 10 pgs. Web. 8 June 2015.
Group study develops the thinking ability of each and the whole group and helps them to understand and solve problems quickly and efficiently. Group study gives students the opportunity to gain a better
According to David O. McKay (2013), multicultural education is constructed to prepare pupils for citizenship in a democratic society by facilitating them to take into account the needs of all individuals; it shed light on how issues of language, ethnicity, culture, religion race, abilities/disabilities, and gender are entwined with educational content and processes. A multicultural curriculum is needed to accommodate for diverse learning and teaching styles of facilitators and pupils and to expose biases, stereotypes, and policies that can restrict achievement. What is more, a multicultural curriculum is also needed to help pupils, faculty, and staff become advocates for multicultural awareness, to ensure that content is fair, accurate, and inclusive, and to prepare pupils for diverse workplaces and multicultural environments. In writing this paper, the author will describe key issues of culturally diverse students, recommend a curriculum approach to address the issues, and discuss the challenges and benefits expected. In addition, she will describe three key issues of male and female students recommend a curriculum approach to address the issues, and discuss the challenges and benefits expected. In closing, she will describe three key issues of students with disabilities, who are mainstreamed, recommend a curriculum approach to address the issues, and discuss the challenges and benefits expected.