When I was younger, I loved everything about school, except for one thing: group work.

As soon as my teacher mentioned a collaborative assignment, I felt my mood dampen. Group work meant one of two things for me: 1) I would get stuck doing all the work on my own or 2) I would be in a group with classmates who wanted to take charge and not listen to the thoughts or opinions of their group mates.

Such instances traveled with through elementary school, up through junior high and high school, to my undergraduate days.

I simply couldn't see the value of working with others on an assignment. Instead, I preferred to get a head start on projects, researching and writing at my own pace, preparing any visual aids in a timely manner, so as to allow myself plenty of time to revise before the due date. My biggest worry when working with classmates was that they would forget a vital piece of information, that they wouldn't have all the materials on the day our presentation was due, or that someone would be absent.

Now that I'm a teacher, my thoughts on group work and collaborative learning have changed drastically. My students work together daily on assignments - whether it be in-class math problems or semester long research projects. I am so pleased and impressed with the work being accomplished at this time and the relationships that form as students work beside friends and classmates they may not see a great deal during the school day.

As an educator, I feel that group work is extremely beneficial to students - in many ways. Working with special needs students, I delight in watching the teamwork and encouragement that regular education students give their peers. No student is left out of an assignment, tasks are shared amongst the group, and everyone contributes. Children learn to utilize their individual strengths and talents in organizing assignments and truly value one another's diverse opinions.

A second benefit I see with collaborative learning is the opportunity for students to further develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills. In my elementary classroom, I frequently circle around the room, listening to the conversations taking place, the thinking going on, as students work to solve math riddles and ponder why certain liquids respond as they do when rolled, shaken, or tipped. I believe strongly in the statement: "Everyone is a student, everyone is a teacher." Life is a continuous learning experience and just as I teach my students and they learn from me, they are also teaching and learning from one another. It is the variety of opinions, thoughts, and ideas exchange during group work that serve to enlighten their knowledge of a vast number of topics, to challenge their ways of looking at the world, and making them more well-rounded individuals.

Working together during the school day, students also learn the importance of team-work, a skill that will be of much use to them in the later grades, as well as the professional world.

The days of dreading group work are long gone, as such a learning environment is helping to shape tomorrow's leaders and prepare them for their future.

Learn more about this author, Melissa Bregani.
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