Wednesday, March 27, 2013

The Power of Habit: Collaborative Work Reflection

Haley Scholars Spring 2013 Reading Groups

Last week, one of our long-term contributors, Phillip L., noted that "Leaders of successful organizations are developing the un-tapped creative juices of once top-down organizations and encouraging collaborative peer-to-peer teams within the corporate structure." That comment relates to a recent discussion some of us were having about "group work."

What is one positive or noteworthy habit that you have recently noticed in academic contexts associated with "collaborative peer-to-peer teams" (or with group work)? That is to say, we have collected some responses about the negative habits of collaborative work, which necessarily read like short sketches of "when group work goes bad." So we're curious about processes or regular or habitual moments when group work goes well.

In particular, we are interested in what's one notable activity or element that seems to always be in place when the experience of working collaboratively goes well.

 

5 comments:

Jasmine said...

There are many positives to group work. One of the biggest positives is that it's a lot easier to come up with ideas in a group. For example when doing a group project, it's pretty easy to get started because there are numerous minds working together to start constructing the plan.

Another good thing about group projects is the fact that the load is split. It's nice not to be able to split responsibilities for certain projects.

Lastly, being in a group causes you not to procrastinate. When a student has an assignment that they have to do by themselves they can wait until the day before and still pull it off. When working in a group, on the other hand, you feel more compelled to get your portion of the work done in a timely manner because you have to get it done in advance in order to combine it properly. Although, group work can have a lot of negatives, it also has plenty of up sides.

Shakita H. said...

I think there are some good benefits to working in a group such as; there are many different ideas to go around and share; you are able to split up the information and not just have to do everything yourself; if it’s a study group, you may learn better and be able to cover and understand much more information than working or studying alone. I think that any help in which it is for a good cause, is very beneficial than trying to always accomplish something alone. Also, being in a group may teach you how to not procrastinate and how to work with others and be sociable.

Tia Borders Baptist said...

What i noticed about some of the good quatlities of having group work is being able to haer different people ideas and collaborate. I usually as a habit is take control or leadership position when i am in a group. Even when i try not to take the leadership role the group usually alwats makes me the leader. i figure this is good habit because we usually get a good grade. Also i am really good at hearing everyone opinions and giving everyone a task so they feel apart of the project. I really dont like group project but i try to make the most out of the situation.

Kizzy Hopkins said...

Group work can afford many positive benefits, such as; When working you can gain more knowledge from your peers ideas and more ideas about the project. when working in a group goes well there is a sense of support and value of each others ideas.
Moreover, all the group members benefit from each others effort and knowledge, while only having to doing a fraction of the work.

Hilary Conrad said...

The best thing about working in groups for me is coming up with different ideas. I am not the most creative person, and coming up with good ideas is hard for me. But when I work in groups, I am able to feed off of other people's ideas and help make them better.