Is it fair to make students work as a team or with a partner?

[InChrist]

What if a student has social anxiety

I don't think the school system cares too much about individual student's anxieties.

 

[Falvlun]

What if a student has social anxiety

Education isn't, or shouldn't be, just about the academics. It's about learning necessary social skills needed by most well-adjusted adults.

 

[Kerr]

What if a student has social anxiety

Depends on the degree. I have a little social anxiety myself, but for that reason its good for me to end up in social situations to confront my own issues on the matter. If its of a much more serious degree then I guess the school and the student could try and work something out, like working in a smaller group or working with people they know and feel more comfortable with or something. Dont really know that much about how to handle serious social phobia and such things, so take my words with a grain of salt.

 

[CaptainNobody]

I never really liked working with a partner or team in school, but things got a bit better through the years.

Mainly, it felt that in school, the teachers would always try to pair up a kid who was struggling with a kid that was doing pretty well, so what usually happened was one kid would end up doing all the work.

Things got better in college and grad school, though. I guess by then you clear out most the suckers, but not all of them.

 

[Vinayaka]

but why constantly do it, like every assignment is done with a partner with this class.

I don't think it's unfair, but I do think it's poor teaching. 2s, 3s, 4s different people, etc. There should be variety.

 

[Serious_crimes]

The argument would be "it helps build real world social skills". Personally I can't stand being responsible for slackers.

 

[wildcat]

Depends on the degree. I have a little social anxiety myself, but for that reason its good for me to end up in social situations to confront my own issues on the matter. If its of a much more serious degree then I guess the school and the student could try and work something out, like working in a smaller group or working with people they know and feel more comfortable with or something. Dont really know that much about how to handle serious social phobia and such things, so take my words with a grain of salt.

This is an issue I faced in college and I have to say, it didn't work out well for me at all. I have severe social phobia that no amount of therapy, medication or exposure has been able to cure or help to any significant degree. I would avoid classes that involved a lot of group work or social interaction like the plague, and if I found a class would involve it, I would drop the class. There was a required course that I actually failed two times because there was a group project involved. I eventually had to take the course online to be able to pass it. And now, I'm not going to college at all, it simply became too much and my mental health didn't benefit from the exposure, but rather made me worse. I tried to make it through the college program but simply wasn't able to.

I find that college (and high school, another trauma for me), is incapable of adjusting for a student with mental disorders. I had come across only a few teachers who would work with me and try to lessen the group work for me, but for the most part, I had to drop, avoid or fail classes because of my phobia. Most people underestimate the severity of some people's social phobia and assume that group work will be "good" for them and help them get over it, but in some cases, exposure will not help a severe version of the disorder but rather make it worse and make the student incapable of finishing and they end up dropping out of college all together. People tend to be judgmental of those with social phobia because they expect them to get over it easily.

So, for the topic, no I don't think it's fair to require all students to do group work. I can see the reasons why it would benefit, but I don't see it necessarily benefiting everyone. I think we should be supporting people's different personalities and the different ways they will succeed the most. I realize that most careers and jobs require group work though, and I wish our society wasn't like that, as it automatically gives the upper-hand to extroverted and socially skilled individuals and not everyone is like that.

 

[Kerr]

This is an issue I faced in college and I have to say, it didn't work out well for me at all. I have severe social phobia that no amount of therapy, medication or exposure has been able to cure or help to any significant degree. I would avoid classes that involved a lot of group work or social interaction like the plague, and if I found a class would involve it, I would drop the class. There was a required course that I actually failed two times because there was a group project involved. I eventually had to take the course online to be able to pass it. And now, I'm not going to college at all, it simply became too much and my mental health didn't benefit from the exposure, but rather made me worse. I tried to make it through the college program but simply wasn't able to.

I find that college (and high school, another trauma for me), is incapable of adjusting for a student with mental disorders. I had come across only a few teachers who would work with me and try to lessen the group work for me, but for the most part, I had to drop, avoid or fail classes because of my phobia. Most people underestimate the severity of some people's social phobia and assume that group work will be "good" for them and help them get over it, but in some cases, exposure will not help a severe version of the disorder but rather make it worse and make the student incapable of finishing and they end up dropping out of college all together. People tend to be judgmental of those with social phobia because they expect them to get over it easily.

So, for the topic, no I don't think it's fair to require all students to do group work. I can see the reasons why it would benefit, but I don't see it necessarily benefiting everyone. I think we should be supporting people's different personalities and the different ways they will succeed the most. I realize that most careers and jobs require group work though, and I wish our society wasn't like that, as it automatically gives the upper-hand to extroverted and socially skilled individuals and not everyone is like that.

Yeah, I can see that. Working in a group can be good for someone with social phobia. Can. It depends on the person. If the social phobia is severe enough the student in question should of course be offered a good alternative. In my case, I happen to have ADHD and Asberger, so the university I study at does give me options. Like I can take the tests alone rather then in a giant group. Which I do because I tend to get rather stressed when I take a test. Dont know if there are options for those with social phobia, though, but I sure hope so. I believe a good society is for everyone, not just those who have a specific set of personality traits.

 

[Ablaze]

It most certainly was not fair when I was in school. Often I was paired with slackers and others who would exploit the situation for their own gain. I ended up having to do the entire project by myself on several occasions, while my "partner" received the exact same grade for contributing nothing.