Mixed Ability Groups in Higher Education
Posted by Kate Glover on March 4, 2013
Enforcing the use of “mixed ability” groups for assignment work is supposedly geared towards getting the “lower end” of the group to learn from the “higher end”, while the “higher end” consolidate their and reinforce their learning by teaching the “lower end”. In theory, different people are good at different things, which should result in the whole situation evening out over the course of the academic year.
In my (admittedly limited) experience, the higher end tend to work hard at home and/or have a natural affinity for the subject, whereas the lower end tend to be there because they either don’t turn up, or they struggle in general – which tends to lead to the same students populating the same ends of the groups in most modules. This then starts to feel unfair, as the higher end, who are there through hard work and talent – end up doing all of the giving, and the lower end keep doing all of the taking. Those in the lower end who lack dedication to the course, soon realise this – and drop even further behind as they know that they’ll be “carried”, due to the higher end not wanting to lose marks.
While it is often stated that if one person puts in more or less effort than the rest of the group, then the grades will be adjusted accordingly – this contradicts the advice simultaneously given, that there are marks allocated for the demonstration that groups successfully work as a team. Higher end students then feel obliged to “fill in” for the lower end, and end up forging the paperwork to show equal contribution. Again, in my limited experience, if a higher end student submits their work to be judged on its own merits, leaving the lower end student to submit what they will – we have tended to find that the group assignment is capped at the lower end student’s grade, due to the lack of coherence as a team.
Such situations may finally result in a higher end person putting in hours and hours of work – to end up essentially getting two Cs (and personal credit for only one) rather than the one A their time and effort should have earned them.
With the cost of tuition fees ever rising, is this fair? Do you have examples of other courses or organisations which have a more transparent policy on group work? Are you a lecturer who has to deal with this from the other side? I would love to hear other opinions on this!
Axcell Hunt said
I’ve actually had exactly the same issue the past few monthes on my course (Digital Games Production). The skill levels are so varied that it’s pot luck as to whether you will have a good or bad time with a group assignment. Sometimes higher end students get placed together and they excel and push the assignment past what was expected in the brief due to their shared enjoyment in the topic. Other times they are stuck with lower end students and have to essentially carry them, and the assignment, in order to get a good mark. Though the people that I feel suffer the most are the middle ground students,those who want to learn but perhaps are lacking the skill, time or knowledge to really do better than average. When they are placed with lower end students they really suffer as they have the same issue the higher end students would but lack the knowledge to do well regardless or be able to help the lower end student learn. And even when placed with higher end students this can cause a rift as the higher end student may decide to simply crack on with the work and not explain/involve the middle tier student who would struggle to understand what is happening and fall behind.
It’s a tough one, there doesn’t seem to be a right or wrong way to do it. I mean, you could always try to keep similar skill level students together but that would increase the rift even more and may lead to feelings of frustration from the lower end.
Personally I would prefer to not do group assignments at all, I dislike having to rely/take a chance on someone else when my marks are at risk. Perhaps a better way would be too have everyone work alone but come together to explain your progress and findings at regular intervals before the assignment is due. That was the higher end students can relay their findings or methods to the lower and mid students without having to do the work for them. This may in turn give them enough direction and confidence in what their doing and achieve more from the assignment. It could also help for them to bring up areas where they were stuck/not sure on and get a group opinion on how they should tackle it.