Group project is not a good way to evaluate college students

Nowadays, it is common for college students to finish the tasks assigned by college teachers as groups. Students have to form a group with a few classmates according to their will or teachers’ will. They work together to prepare for their task. In the end, they make a presentation in front of teachers and the rest of students. On completion, all the students in the group receive the same grade. There has been heated debate over whether group project is a good way to evaluate students. Some applaud the practice, believing that the result of group project will be more favorable with joined efforts of every group members and each of them will get a higher grade. However, others argue that group project is by no means a good way to evaluate students. Because they insist that it is unfair to give the same grade to all group members since their contributions differ. In my view, group project is not a satisfactory way to evaluate students.

First of all, some group members are so lazy that they don’ t deserve the final grade. At the beginning of preparation, group members often gather to discuss the contents of their task and divide the different parts of the task among members. The lazy members often ask for fewer parts than others. Therefore, other group members have to make more preparation. So it is unfair for the other members since the lazy members contribute less. What’ s more, the lazy members often procrastinate to finish their parts. So, others have to wait. As a result, when all members eventually combine their respective parts, there is little time left for revision and unification which can lead to an excellent presentation and high grade.

Secondly, some group members are lacking in the spirit of cooperativeness. The lack of cooperativeness is often manifested when all group members combine their respective parts. I’ d like to take a PowerPoint task for example. It is inevitable that different members adopt different formats of words and pictures in their slides. Therefore, it is necessary to unify the format. But some group members are unwilling to change their format. In consequence, the final PowerPoint is not unified in format, which brings about a low grade.

All in all, I don’ t think group project is a good way to evaluate students for those members who are lazy or lacks cooperativeness often have detrimental effects on the final grade of a group. College teachers should make every student do their work separately. Teamwork does not necessarily leads to a better work. 

如今大学老师常常要求学生们分组完成任务，最后组内成员获得相同的任务分数。题目问你是否认为小组任务是评价学生的好方法？范文作者持否定态度，认为小组任务绝不是评价学生的好方法。一，有些组员懒，做的部分少，而且常常拖延，耽误整个小组完成任务的进程。二，有些组员缺乏合作精神，影响到了最终成果的质量。最后一段作者简要总结，重申了观点。