Humans are social beings by nature. Chances are you like spending time with people, obviously to different degrees for every person, but no one likes always being alone. From the beginning of our existence we have always traveled in groups; from small tribes to bustling cities, people always find a way to stay together. I am currently reading a book entitled The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies. So far it is an interesting read but it sparked another thought while I was strolling along its pages.
Imagine if I asked everyone on this site to run 100 meters. The recorded times averaged out would be much slower than the fastest runner(prolly b/c there are servicemen/women i've seen on here who undergo intense training lol) However if instead I asked a question to everyone on this site(mathematical, historical, doesn't matter) the group answer would be very close to the smartest person's answer. By nature, humans are meant to be smart in groups, we naturally answer questions better averaged out with many others. On the show Who wants to be a Millionaire, when the audience was asked a question 91% of the time the majority of the audience was correct. 91% that seems amazing to me.(All the above is almost a straight copy from The Myth...)
So with this obvious bias for humans to not only thrive economically but also mentally in groups why isn't there more work being done in groups, large or small. Why don't we try re-working classrooms to be much more social experiences, group tests, group projects and that sort of work. There will always those people who just coast by and let the "smart kids" do the work but instead of worrying about that why not focus on the fact that the "medium kids" will be learning more by being in the group than by having a teacher lecture at them.
Also, i've never been employed at a large company but from what I know many of them use teams of people to accomplish one goal instead of putting one man/woman on the project. I would assume that this is b/c they found it works better for a variety of reasons, brainstorming, delegating, spreading around the workload so employees can handle many cases and not "burn out." We make steps in business b/c it is necessary for those businesses to survive, however rarely do we take those theories from the business world and apply them elsewhere. This is one area where I see this as being possible.
Let me know what you think. Any comments are welcoming, pro or con.
Have a nice day
T
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while some people do tend to do better in groups, other people are naturally more solitary...just because someone doesn't like being alone all the time doesn't mean they wouldn't prefer to be alone a lot of the time.
and personally, as one of the "smart kids" i deeply resented group projects and would always end up doing most of the work to make sure it was done correctly. one person doing a project meant for five people isn't exactly fun.
finally, regarding asking a question and having a lot of people come up with similar answers: i think that your line of thinking is flawed here. physical ability depends on training, genetics, age, weight, etc (for instance, i'm skinny and i'm pretty young but i'm really out of shape and i don't really come from a 'sporty' family), whereas a lot of things that you could ask about are common knowledge (or can be looked up on google), so the fact that more people would be able to meet your "challenge," as it were, hardly means that we're all social butterflies that love being forced to work with others.
--stacie
It wasn't so much of a challenge and I didn't intend on people having research material in front of them. I was speaking more along the lines of Who wants to be a millionaire, just saying that we have a wide variety of people and backgrounds here so we would be a good "test group."
Sorry your one of the smarties who always had to pick up slack for the lazies.(Yes i developed my names for all groups) However life is full of lazies and full of people smarter than you. Interacting well with a group is not the same as doing better in a group. "Two heads are better than one" type of deal. I don't think that you can deny that there are benefits of working in a group, no matter if you go hang out with the people afterwards or not.
Silent enim leges inter arma
no, i definitely know that there are benefits to working in a group; sometimes if a project would just overwhelm one student but at the same time is a worthwhile learning experience, you need more people involved.
however, were the public school system to implement a mostly group-centric system, i think it would penalize a lot of the more intelligent kids while artificially helping the kids that either don't learn at the same level or are just plain lazy. the difference in the work force is that employers tend to be more selective in who they hire, whereas anyone and everyone can (and in fact, must) go to school. that lazy kid that coasted by because he always let the smart kids do the work isn't going to do too well in the working world. and what about college? most learning there is on an individual basis. after all, you don't apply to college as a group (and you certainly don't pay for it as a group). in this respect i think a group-centric system would hurt more kids than it would help.
but yes, learning to work as a team is very important as well. i think a good balance of group and individual learning is needed for a truly effective school system.
--stacie
There's a fairly simple way to fix the issue with the "smart vs. lazy kids" issue:
Allow them to work together, but grade them based on individual participation. That way, if a person wants the grade, they have to do the work and can't just let the smart kid do the work (since if the smart kid is the only one doing the work, then they're the only one getting the grade).
As with everything, it's always simple, but never easy. As one of the "smart kids" myself, I often found myself in....troublesome situations. I was never one that was faced with "do my homework or get locked in the locker" type situations (I'm not a small person, thankfully), but there were times that people decided they were going to try to push me around. The system could be corrupted, but having the groups meet in class may help remedy that since the teacher will be able to see how much everyone is really working.
-- quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
yeah, that's a really good idea. i've had projects like that before, where everyone had to submit a sheet that described all of the work we did for the project and why we feel we contributed fully to its completion....
but i was in an advanced academic program and we were all the "smart" kids so it didn't really make a difference. =P
--stacie
Well, I don't know about the world's dynamics
But I do know that a lot of the United States is turning to teams and groups; both in the academic sense and in the business world.
Collective countries, such as China, Japan, and Italy, already do very well in a team setting; America has a little bit of trouble with this. Not sure why, but I believe it's because of the "personal responsibility" aspect we push and the individualistic society we live in.
Other countries view themselves as a group; Americans rarely do. Rather, Most Americans tend to view themselves not as part of a group but as an individual working with other individuals to attain a common goal and an individual goal.
This thought process can make it a little harder for many Americans to adjust to a team setting.
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