I always hated group project when I was in school, especially the couple of times where I had to depend on the expertise of other students to help me get through. Professors, however, still seem very fond of assigning group work in certain academic areas:
Group work is largely an academic joke, a process where the weaker members of the group rely almost exclusively on the stronger, more conscientious students to carry them all to the grade they want. (Of course, the same “weak rely on the strong” dynamic prevails in real-world group work as well.) Group work serves lazy students and professors quite well — the low-performing students can relax while their peers complete the task, and the professors have fewer papers or projects to grade.
While easy classes and group assignments may do little to further the students’ actual education, that’s not the point, is it? After all, the real purpose of many second-tier (and even some first-tier) public- and private-university business degrees is to provide the mandatory credential required by employers, who then do the actual, on-the-job training the position requires. Recent marketing, accounting, or management grads enter the workplace (with rare exceptions) as essentially glorified interns, and they’ll sink or swim based on their performance in a job they learn as they go. While’s there nothing inherently wrong with starting low and working your way up through determination, creativity, and discipline, why must these new employees spend four years and tens of thousands of dollars before they can start their real training?
So many fond memories of business school group make work. Another reason I dropped out to take history. In the humanities I was graded based on my actual performance. When I started working at a real job most of my co-workers had business degrees. So four years of jargon and accounting and they still got paid what I was paid.
Comment by Publius — April 17, 2011 @ 11:42
Another data point for the argument that a bachelor’s degree has replaced the high school diploma as merely the minimum educational filter for entry level (white collar) jobs. It rarely matters what discipline the degree is in, just that the applicant has one.
Comment by Nicholas — April 18, 2011 @ 11:51