Grouping of Activities: How it Helps in the Attainment of Program Objectives

Undertaking the Unit 4 group assignment, a User manual on Recycling, was an interesting activity. My perceptions on group work changed after completing the group assignment. The benefits of group assignments outlined in an array of classes I have taken in the past, I had initially disregarded the correlated limitations. Group assignments are analogous to other learning techniques and methods; they have both advantages and disadvantages.

In their organizing tasks they have to build a structure of working relationships between all of the members in the organization, that best allows them to work together and attain goals.

Group work and required tasks are to be distributed evenly or by specific strengths of a given member. Responsibilities are to be balanced by how much one is capable of doing and how adept or willing they are towards working on a given task. All members are to put their best efforts in any given task assign that is assigned to them.

Since much of our time is spend in groups, it is helpful to work in groups because it will give an opportunity to improve their human functioning. Group work helps to develop individual skills in communication, relationship building and asserting oneself

Because our team only had seven members, not every role could be performed. As a matter of fact, some of us had to play two roles or three or more occasionally. According to Adair (1986), no matter which role who performs, individual contributions can be seen. Overall strengths of team and areas of weakness have been embodied in group work adequately. Unfortunately, due to less group members, 4 roles described by Belbin such as resource investigator, co-ordinator, implementer and completer finisher have not been well reflected.

I always thought that working in groups meant one or two people doing all the work and the rest just goofing off. But in our group each individual had a specific task that they had to perform to make sure the group assignment got done. The group consisted of 9 people who are as followed; Christian Clark, Reilyenne Nahulu, Michel Rivera, Hunter Salavea-Timoteo, Kashalynn Vergara, Paola Guadalupe Gonzalez, Kobee Ledward, Bryje Ahia, and Jeremie Saludares. The analysis covers the importance of an interesting topic, preparation needed, roles I played, things that went well in our group, could've done better, and the two important things about group communication.

With the heterogeneous groups the level of discussion and cooperative work is increased, providing benefits for every student partaking. According to Paul Burden and David Byrd (2012), “Having students work in groups generally has a positive effect on their achievement when compared to their work as individuals.” Small-group work and discussions allows for students to improve their communication skill, cooperation skills, and gain new insight and understanding from their peers in a way that could not be achieved working alone.

This relates to our small group class very closely because it takes all the people in the group to achieve the goals of the group, not one person alone can achieve the goal successfully, and if they do it wont be as good as it should have been with all the members participating in the objective.

Some people argue that group activities help promote teamwork skills and effort, but it is too risky because your grade could be driven down because of a bad assignment and there are better ways to learn how to do teamwork and effort without risking your grade. Also, group projects offer a chance of socializing with other kids and learning how to get along with other people, and that might be true, but some kids will not get along and fight, which makes the assignment a mess and the chance of socializing will be ruined. Group assignments might offer a chance to do better work and have people work together with organization to make a better assignment. Sometimes that might be true, but it depends on what type of people are working together, they could just be lazy or dumb, or they could socialize off in class and not get work done or they couldn’t be organized and be in a frenzy. In the projects, a lot of things could go wrong, and more things could go wrong then the things that goes right.

A large amount of sports, activities, and hobbies require multiple individuals to work together to produce a desired outcome. If a group effort is required that means everyone much put in the same amount of time and dedication to succeed; if an individual backs outs or does not provide their full attention to the group, the outcome may not be what is wanted.

With every group assignment, a possibility of difficulties arise, as dissimilar personalities and work ethics merge together. One of the greatest challenges I have experienced with group work is the even distribution of roles and responsibilities. Each group tends to have at least one member who takes on more roles and one who tends to slack off. To prevent this from occurring, we will set out our

In order to enact this model and to make it effective there are certain factors that need to be considered. Groups need to exert enough joint effort in order to accomplish tasks at acceptable levels of performance. Every member of the group has to offer the adequate skills and knowledge regarding the subject at hand. Also, consideration to cultural and organizational setting have to be taken into consideration (Harrison, 2005).

It is important to recognize the attributes of your group mates and work together cohesively. This requires people to work selflessly for their group and volunteer to help anyway they could. I've learned, working in my group, that having a common goal or task is needed to perform well. My group had many miscommunications about building the tower. Although our critical thinking involving the strengths and weaknesses of the task were great we were not good at putting them into action. Likewise some people worked with weren't as creative. They followed the notions of the group and contributed to completing the task. Although my group did not finish the tower we created many ideas but couldn't put them together. A Group settings allows people from multiple points of view share their ideas and complete a task faster than working in pairs. In terms, putting more heads together on a project increases the capacity to solve complex issues in a

“Group work is a form of voluntary association of members benefiting from cooperative learning that enhances the total output of the activity than when done individually”.

A group engages in certain processes that naturally occur when a set of individuals are working together. In the Orientation phase, the needs of group members are to be oriented to the task, that is, to define the task, specify issues, identify expectations, and explore the nature of the work. From this, members develop a common understanding of the group's purpose. In the Testing and Dependency phase, participants generally act as if they depend on the leader to provide all the structure. They look to the leader to set the ground rules, establish the agenda, to do all the "leading," while the group members acclimate themselves to the setting. Group members exhibit behavior to test what behavior is acceptable and what is not, and begin to establish boundaries, to consider themselves as individuals in relation to the group, and to define the function of the group and the leader. This phase generally concludes when there is general agreement that the goals are achievable and that change is possible--whether it be changing behavior, making a decision, or solving a problem. Organizing to get work done involves a number of group decisions. These include establishing work rules, determining limits, defining the reward system, setting the criteria for the task, dividing the work and assigning individual responsibility for particular tasks. As it relates to