I hate/don’t hate/still hate group projects! A tripartite ethical framework for enhancing student collaboration

Jeffrey W Murray

doi:10.1080/2331186x.2017.1377507

Abstract

AbstractStudents often say they hate group projects, because they don’t want their grade held hostage by someone else’s effort (or lack thereof) and/or because they’ve had the experience previously of having to do other people’s work for them. For the instructor, the challenge is to figure out how to provide students with the valuable lessons and learning experience of collaborative work while avoiding the common pitfalls. How should one, and how can one, balance individual accountability—one’s grade is a reflection of one’s own work—with the shared responsibility of meaningful collaborative work—one’s grade is a reflection of the group’s effort and ability to work together? To answer this question, this essay offers a tripartite ethical framework with which to critically evaluate the design of group projects and assignments. Building upon the foundation provided by the ethical philosophies of Emmanuel Levinas and Mikhail Bakhtin, and supplemented by a generalized account of accountability, this essay wil...

Highlights

Every semester, when I first announce that there will be a group project, I can hear groans emanating from the class
Levinas’s notion is at root a phenomenological account of the appearance and acknowledgment of the primordial reality of our obligation to the other. Having put those two conceptions together to yield a Bipartite Model, we find that still missing from that model, at least in the educational context of collaborative work, are the familiar mechanisms of extrinsic motivation—most notably, grades
Beginning in an attempt to mitigate the primary objections and most common negative experiences of students with regard to group projects—at least as they have been witnessed by and reported to me—as well as promote active learning and maximize student engagement, this essay has offered a tripartite ethical framework which simultaneously responds to a deficit in pedagogical and philosophical literature and informs the intentional design of student group projects

Summary

Introduction

Every semester, when I first announce that there will be a group project, I can hear groans emanating from the class. Without the threat of a failing grade (for some students) or the fear of not getting an A (for other students), the Captainships can become a suggestion rather than a central requirement of the assignment This recognition, of how the Non-Compliance Policy was not working within the Bipartite Model of ethical Responsibility/Answerability, yielded two insights. In terms of Accountability—in service of both Responsibility and Answerability—it is a time when group members call each other out, either positively for all the hard work they’ve done or negatively for letting the group down and threatening their grades This element of the major group project assignment has likely been so impactful precisely because it simultaneously supports all three poles of the Tripartite Model.

Conclusion

Findings

How would you estimate this group’s odds of success?