Group work can be an inequitable experience for students that are especially concerned with the grade they will be receiving. When a student feels extremely pressured to receive full marks, she will not trust his fellow classmates to put in their best effort. Instead, she will oversee their work, and sometimes even do the entire project himself. This is also a detriment to the lazier student who will take advantage of her driven friend and will lose out on the learning experience by allowing her to do all the work. .
The above complications can also result in an unfair distribution of grades. There is no fool-proof system of knowing who did the most work, the quality work, and which parts of the product belong to which student. .
Additionally, not all students have the ability or desire to work well in groups. Teachers have argued saying that it will train students for their later careers. However, in many careers working together and collaboration is necessary, such as being part of a team of construction workers; other career paths, such as being an author, are mainly solitary work. .
In conclusion, group work is an ineffective and unjust method of learning. It results in unbalanced distribution of the work depending on the nature of the students. Although there are some obvious pro's to group activities the negatives completely out weigh the positives. Working in groups also results in a teacher having false beliefs of who contributed what to the project. Lastly, working in a group does not help, and can even harm some students" natural tendencies to working alone.
