- According to the University of Kansas website, students most often complain about peers avoiding working together
- Creating a clear list of responsibilities for each student effectively prevents later arguments over the division of tasks
- Materials from the Mayo Clinic website confirm that assertiveness training greatly helps children resolve school conflicts
- Simply practicing a difficult conversation in front of the mirror at home gives your little one a lot of self-confidence
Why does one child do the entire group project? Reasons
I guess every parent knows that moment when a child comes back from school and complains about the next group task. It often happens that your child spends long evenings poring over the poster or presentation and the rest of the team just does nothing and has fun. This is a very common problem that can discourage your child from learning and cause a lot of unnecessary tears at home.
This situation usually results from the fact that children simply cannot organize themselves well yet and do not know how to divide the work fairly. As we can read on the University of Kansas website, complaining about the so-called free riders who only… they piggyback on someone else’s effortis by far the most common complaint in such situations. Children often naively think that the task will magically do itself, which is why they lack someone who will take matters into their own hands and clearly give instructions.
How to divide tasks in a school project? Proven methods
It is worth telling your child to establish clear rules with the rest of the group at the very beginning of working together, which the University of Waterloo website even calls a small contract:
- assigning specific roles and responsibilities to each student
- setting exact deadlines for submitting your part of the work
- establishing simple rules of communication and frequency of meetings
- creating a place where everyone signs up for their task
- rotating roles with each new project
Thanks to such a simple and very clear list, each student knows exactly what he is responsible for and when he has to prepare it. This reduces the risk of later misunderstandings, and in case of trouble it is easy to check who simply forgot their part of the task.
What to do when colleagues do not work in a group? Golden rules
When other children stubbornly ignore their responsibilities, it is worth encouraging your child to talk honestly and calmly with peers, because avoiding the problem usually only makes things worse. According to guidelines published by the Mayo Clinic, it works great here assertiveness training and using clear messages that start with the word “I”, for example “I would like you to finish this drawing today.” It may be a good idea to practice such a scene at home in front of the mirror, so that your child can calmly prepare what he wants to tell his classmates. It is also worth reminding the child to maintain eye contact and to speak in a firm but even tone without getting angry or raising his voice. However, if colleagues still do not want to cooperate and simply ignore requests, it is best to advise the child to report the teacher who will help to resolve the conflict fairly and without unnecessary stress.
Sources:
