Nowadays many high schools and universities require students to work on projects in groups, and all members of the group receive the same grade (mark) on the project. Do you agree or disagree that giving every member of a group the same grade is a good way to evaluate students?
It is crucially important to take into consideration what exactly has been brought to the table by each individual engaged in a project. Personally, I strongly believe that it is paramount to assign certain tasks to every student in order to ensure their full commitment. I feel this way for several reasons, which I will explore in the following essay.
To begin with, a plethora of people are willing to take the credit for their work., without putting in any substantial effort. This is because they are aware that there are always going to be more conscientious and hardworking people. Therefore, they are prone to taking advantage of them. My personal experience is a compelling illustration of this. When I was working in China as an English teacher, we would occasionally need to devise long-term lesson plans for our middle-school students. Although we were all supposed to be working together, other educators would only rely on me and other accountable people in the team. Consequently, when our boss would assess our performance, he would address the whole group. When the lesson plans were satisfactory, our supervisor would reward all educators, allocating the same amount of money regardless of the time and effort put in by every individual teacher.
Furthermore, people who are mindful of their own engagement in collaborative work are inevitably going to cultivate a hostile environment in class. Needless to say, their dissatisfaction will only grow exponentially as time goes by. Therefore, they will be against any teamwork if the issue is not tackled by the teacher. For instance, when I was a high school student, we used to take part in projects with our male classmates. Needless to say, most of them were not engrossed in the educational process due to the fact that they were more likely to skip classes. As a result, they would not be able to grasp the whole idea of the project. Meanwhile, others would hold a grudge because they are not willing to be the only ones accountable. This attitude creates animosity among classmates in the long run.
In conclusion, I strongly believe that educators should take in account a myriad of aspects before evaluating group projects. This is because some people are hardwired to lay responsibility on others and take credit for the work they have not completed.
Submitted by Maria Minero on