PME 811: Blog Entry 3 - Does group work hinder creativity?

Does group work hinder creativity?

While reading articles on the module 2 set-list I was struck by one paper on the effects of social interaction on creativity. According to the authors, their study proved that surveillance by an expert (such as a teacher) and collaboration (as in group work) was only minimally detrimental to creativity and innovation.

Well... I definitely wasn't in that study.

For as long as I can remember I have hated group projects. Dislike, Despise. Loathe entirely. Both as a student and now as a teacher, the whole thing feels like a mess of who-does-what, are-you-sure-you-read-the-question-right, wait-what-was-the-deadline, my-mom-says-I-can't-come-over, I-thought-you-were-going-to-buy-poster-board, can-you-just-do-the-whole-thing? UGH. No thanks - especially since I was usually the one left holding the proverbial bag.

Don't get me wrong - as a teacher, I regularly assign group work. My assessments are designed to require self and peer assessment, we talk a lot about how to organize group efforts so that everyone shares the work evenly, I check in with each group along the way, the whole sha-bang. Invariably, one person's idea of how a project should evolve ends up being the only way forward because the others either aren't interested in putting in the effort or because that one person dominates the conversation or timetable. Creative collaboration goes out the window and meeting basic criteria becomes the only goal. It's a problem, and it's a problem we are passing along to the workforce where group-work projects are a part of daily life.

So what's the answer? There's no shortage of proffered solutions. Flip through any scholarly journal or professional magazine in the field of education and you will find a plethora of ideas, studies, even products like iPad apps and resource kits meant to aid the teacher in creating meaningful collaboration where creativity can exist. Some authors say that group work (particularly within certain fields or parameters like having members selected by administration rather than participants) restricts the ability of the group to function sufficiently for creativity to take place. Others suggest that only in collaborative environments can innovation be truly present. Authors such as Thousand, et al have even amassed collections of papers on the topic to be published as books with such helpful titles as, "Cooperative Group Learning as a Form of Creativity," that seem to redefine what creativity even means for a group work scenario.

How do you handle group work in the classroom so that creativity can occur? How do you set up assessment and guidance to ensure that collaboration doesn't get bogged down before higher-order thinking can develop?

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Sources:

• Amabile, T.M., Goldfarb, P., & Brackfield, S.C. (1990). Social influences on creativity: Evaluation, coaction, and surveillance. Creativity Research Journal, 3(1), 6–21.

• McWilliam, E., & Dawson, S. (2008). Teaching for creativity: Towards sustainable and replicable pedagogical practice. Higher education, 56(6), 633-643.

• Thousand, J. S., Villa, R. A., & Nevin, A. I. (2002). Creativity and collaborative learning: The practical guide to empowering students, teachers, and families. Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co., PO Box 10624, Baltimore, MD 21285-0624.