Kimberly Trott Blog 3

Kimberly Trott

Video 1 Group Contracts for Collaborative Work

1. Problems encountered in groups are the main one of one student doing all the work, while others watch.  When roles are assigned, students argue over who gets what role.  Time management is always an issue.  Arguments arise over how the project is assembled.  Absent group members is always a problem. 

2. If there are no norms or rules within the group it is all a he said, she said situation when problems arise.  Students get practice creating the contracts.  The teacher said that with every new group, the students design a new contract; this means the more they experience contracts and have the chance to write them the better they become at creating effective contracts.

3. The checks and balances are that all students get a copy of the contract; they must try to solve the issue among themselves, if this fails, they must have a conference with the teacher, and finally if the issue or issues continue, one or several students may be removed from the group. 

Video 2 Making Group-Work

1.  I love this video! What well behaved students.  Assessing group roles (grading/evaluating) is the only way to make group work successful if you use it routinely. Otherwise, students do not think you really care and will not give it there are to make it work.  It also gives students a way of determining if they are really being effective in the role, similar to a real world job. 

2.  He directs feedback to the persons whose role it is to fulfill that task and reminds them it is their job (not his) to insure that the project has met certain elements.

3.  Students tend to perform better and produce higher quality work if they know other students will see the work.  Peer assessment in my opinion can be flawed if not done anonymously.  Most students are critical of others in the group if they feel they have contributed little, but if a student evaluates another student and their name is on the evaluation many students find it difficult to grade harshly.  Likewise, groups that have friends within always assign higher grades than deserved.

I saw almost every element of the South Carolina graduate profile: Creativity and innovation, critical thinking and problem solving, collaboration and teamwork, communication, information, media and technology, knowing how to learn, integrity, self-direction, global perspective, perseverance, work ethic, and interpersonal skills, and knowing how to learn.

PBL units really can’t work if you are not using the above standards, and if what you are doing is not using the above it must not be PBL you think you are doing.