Advantages And Disadvantages Of Group Work

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1.0 Introduction
Active learning has been one of the major focuses in the Polytechnic to create engaging, fun and creative learning environment. Collaborative learning and group work are an important element of active learning. Several studies have also shown that students prefer strategies promoting active learning to traditional lectures (Bonwell, 1991). In addition, students of today are of a very different generation compared to decades ago. Students of today prefer collaborative group work (Black , 2010) Therefore group project works has been widely used in the Polytechnics to engage students. Educators also favours group work because it can offer students the opportunities to work on more complex and challenging tasks. Furthermore, employers prefer graduates who are competent to work in groups and possess some teamwork skills. However, there are some undesirable elements of group work. Educators are constantly concerned with freeloader and their learning, whereas students are concerned with differential contribution and the unfairness of assessment. This will demotivate the students instead of the initial intention of motivating them if the assessment is not done correctly.
In the Polytechnics, there are modules where the group works contribute 65% of their module assessment. Without an effective group work assessment, students might be getting a grade that they do not deserve and definitely have not acquired the skills and knowledge taught in the module. This will

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