Paired Choice Style Questions (Independent)

“Some teachers encourage their students to work alone on projects and compete with each other. Other teachers encourage them to collaborate and work in groups. Which approach do you think is better?”

I think teachers should encourage their students to collaborate on assignments.

First of all, this teaches students skills that are useful in the workforce.  For example, in my senior year I had a history class where I worked on a major assignment with five different students.  While working on the assignment, I had to handle scheduling and I even had to deal with interpersonal-conflict between different members of the group.  Both of these things taught me skills that I use almost every day in my career now.

Secondly, group projects simply have better outcomes.  Group projects benefit from the expertise of many different people.  As a result, the final project is usually of a higher quality than a student would complete on their own.