i hate group assignments

The frustrations of group projects

College is supposedly all about independence. And yet, for some reason, some professors feel the need to create assignments for which they insist, or at least strongly encourage, that we work with other people. Yes, I know that in the real world, and in most jobs, you must work with other people, at least to some extent. No one can coast through life entirely on their own. I understand that there are benefits to assigning group work. But that’s not what I’m talking about right now. While I have definitely had some positive experiences in the past, as a general rule, I hate group assignments — and here’s why.

For starters, I swear that sometimes on the first day of a class it can feel like everyone has a friend to talk to except for me. I look around, scouring my immediate neighbors for an especially friendly-looking face. Then it’s only a matter of seconds until I remember that after the tragically awkward conversation that ensued when I dared to put myself out there by talking to a random person sitting next to me in my first ever class at Stanford, I don’t typically feel inclined to make small talk with the people in my vicinity. So if I don’t have at least an acquaintance to sit next to within the first week, it’s highly unlikely that I’ll find one down the road, especially considering I don’t even necessarily sit in the same place every time. So when I look on the syllabus and slowly realize that I will have to find partners to join me, shudders run down my spine.

Aside from that, there are problems to be found even once the group work itself begins. The first can be summed up in two words: scheduling conflicts. Between classes, extracurriculars, jobs and those (highly likely to be flaked on) plans to “grab a meal sometime!” the odds are that a lot of the group members’ planners hardly even have any white space left in them. And the odds that the limited free time that each individual has actually coincides with a time that works for every other person are slim.

Even further than that, I like to be able to work at my own pace. In a group, the members have to move together, unless a select few are going to end up doing the bulk of the work by themselves. I mean, if I want to procrastinate, let me procrastinate. I can’t procrastinate when my actions (or lack thereof, for that matter) are going to affect people other than just myself. On the other end of the spectrum, if I want to get something done as far in advance of the deadline as possible, and my group wants to take it nice and slow, then I don’t have many options but to suck it up and do whatever everyone else decides to do.

And lastly, just in general, there’s something about doing assignments by myself that makes me feel like I’m being forced to understand them more, especially in one of those aforementioned classes where I hardly have anyone to engage in banter with, let alone to ask questions to. Again, this is not all to say that I haven’t had positive group project experiences. I’m just saying, if I never had another group assignment for the rest of my time here, it would be no loss to me.

Contact Kassidy Kelley at kckelley ‘at’ stanford.edu .

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Why you shouldn’t hate group assignments

Group assignments get a pretty bad rap – but there are good reasons why they exist. Here’s how to rethink your approach to group projects and ace your next assignment. 

1. Don’t create a Franken-signment

Resist the temptation to just divvy the work up to go and work independently – you’ll almost always encounter problems when you try and stitch together a bunch of completely different parts.

Dr Steven Hitchcock, associate lecturer at the University of Sydney Business School, knows what works – and what doesn’t. “We want you to work together and come up with something that’s greater than the sum of its parts, rather than an assignment with separate parts strung together,” he says.

Dr Hitchcock recommends creating a timeline with specific individual accountabilities. “The best way to divide work up is to do it in stages. Your timeline should have a helix structure, where you break away to think or research individually, then bring it back together before breaking away again.”

This will help you to spot any problems as they occur, rather than discovering them the night before submission. Plus, it will let you leverage your group’s different perspectives to come up with better and brighter ideas.

2. Invest in the relationship and let it grow

Take a bit of time to get to know your group members before diving straight into the task. This will make it much easier for you to overcome hurdles together later down the track.

“Being a good team member means being active in conversations. Learning to work cooperatively is crucial to your group’s success,” says Dr Clinton Moore from the University’s Counselling and Psychological Services. “Speak to the whole group, not just the people you already know.”

If you view your team as a relationship, not a burden, you’ll be more likely to succeed as a group. “Research shows that organisational support – when people believe in you and want you to succeed – is a huge predictor of positive outcomes,” Dr Hitchcock points out. So if you think a team member isn’t pulling their weight, try asking if they need help instead of jumping on the offensive (or on Facebook to rant).

3. Conflict happens. Deal with it

You’re always the only one who actually does anything, right? Well, therein lies the classic group assignment paradox. “Generally, every one of us thinks that we’re the one on the team that does all the work,” says Dr Hitchcock.

With all those clashing ideas, opinions and timetables, it’s natural that conflict will occur.  But don’t shy away from this – instead, understand it as a normal and even productive part of the process.

Determine whether the conflict is healthy and useful, or unhealthy. “Conflict is unhealthy if it becomes personal or aggressive,” advises Dr Moore. “Instead you should aim for calm and assertive interactions that attempt to bring everyone to the table, by empathising with the other points of view.”

So, if you find yourself facing a stalemate, try taking a vote as a group and just moving forward. You can take comfort in the knowledge that these situations present useful learning experiences, and are great examples for you to give in future job interviews.

4. It’s not all about the grades

Marks are important, sure, but your transcript isn’t the only thing you’re meant to take away from your time at university. If you exclusively focus on your individual grade or section of the assignment, you’re missing the bigger picture. Treat group assignments as an opportunity to develop your interpersonal skills, which are vital employability qualities.

“Companies hire people, not resumes,” says Dr Hitchcock. “It’s really important that students have an opportunity to figure out how to negotiate and communicate with empathy – a lot of people don’t figure out how hard and complicated this can be until it’s too late.”

Career Development Officer Angela Harrow also points out the importance that companies place on teamwork skills. “Most graduate employers consider teamwork an essential employability skill and they will expect students to demonstrate their capabilities during the recruitment process as well as in the workplace,” she says.

5. Know when you need help

If you’re really not getting anywhere, make sure you get in touch with your tutor.

“Every teacher wants you to succeed, so recognising when you’re stuck and asking for help is really key – and not asking for help is a mistake that all students make,” says Dr Hitchcock.

They can give you advice on how to tackle the problem, or sit down with the group and help you to negotiate. Just don’t leave it to the last minute – there’s not much your tutor can do when it’s T minus 2 hours to submission!

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I’m a Student. Here’s Why Group Work Feels So Unfair

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On a recent Saturday, I stared at my group’s ongoing assignment for English class, getting lost in thought and wondering if anyone else in my group would work on it over the weekend.

As a high school senior in a big magnet high school of approximately 2,400 students, I have met and worked with a large number of students. Many students are very intelligent and academically motivated, but there are also many students who are rather uninterested in their academic success. When group work is assigned, I often get a sinking feeling of dread from the fear of an uneven distribution of work.

I hoped that I would not, once again, need to do an unfair portion of a group assignment. I talked to a friend about my feelings and was met with resounding agreement about the frequent unfairness of group work. In a fit of passion, I emailed a long appeal to my English teacher.

Here’s what I said—and what I want other teachers to know as well:

In most schools, students will be required to participate in group work at some point. Unfortunately, many academically motivated students dislike it because they anticipate that some group members will not do nearly as much work as others. For this reason, I am proposing that teachers should try to give less group work outside of class and instead contain it within the classroom, possibly in exchange for more individually assigned homework.

An uneven workload can happen for a variety of reasons. For instance, some group members are less capable than others. However, as someone who has worked with people that have more trouble contributing to the group assignment, I am generally satisfied with the distribution of work, as long as everyone expends the same amount of effort. It is also possible for group members to fall sick during a group project, causing them to take a break from work. However, when a classmate contracted COVID during a recent group project, my group mates and I were understanding that they needed to rest.

What is much more vexing is when certain students do not try as hard as others—either because they simply do not care about the grade or because they assume their group members will do their work for them. This often creates a kind of domino effect with otherwise motivated students becoming unwilling to contribute because of the unfairness, thinking, “Why should I work on this if my group mates don’t?”

I’ve felt that way, too, but I still end up working on the assignment, as do the majority of students who care about their grades. When the assignment still ends up getting finished, it can be easy to overlook the unfair inner workings of the group members.

The possibility of unequal workloads in groups can certainly apply to students during class as well as outside of class, but the classroom setting is more likely to motivate students to work. When outside of school, students are more averse to doing schoolwork. It is much easier to procrastinate in an environment outside of a classroom, with thrills of instant gratification close at hand and no authority figure to regulate what they are supposed to be doing.

In addition, some group assignments require students to find time to work together outside of class, which is hard for some students. Because many students have family responsibilities, part-time work, and extracurricular activities, it can be challenging to find a specific time when all group members are free. For instance, I work in my family’s business for about 20 hours a week, attend track practice nearly every day after school, and tutor science and math in the mornings before 8 AM.

Assigning only individual work outside the classroom removes the risk of group members being overly reliant on others.

Assigning only individual work outside the classroom removes the risk of group members being overly reliant on others. The individual gets credit for their effort and output, which is the main factor of how students are graded. In addition, it is easier to manage time and allows the student to work at their own pace.

Removing group work entirely might eliminate the unfairness and challenges associated with it, but group work certainly does have benefits for students. It can help us learn to develop stronger communication skills, share different perspectives, and work together to solve complex problems.

Therefore, without completely removing group work, I urge teachers to consider changing their curriculum to accommodate for more class time to work on group assignments. It’s only fair.

A version of this article appeared in the November 30, 2022 edition of Education Week as I’m a Student. Here’s Why Group Work Feels So Unfair

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The New Groupthink; Or, Why I Don’t Like Group Assignments

Group projects are not on my list of favorite things.  I understand their purpose, and sometimes they even go well.  But I don’t like them.  More time is spent in explaining each individual thought process and in negotiating how to approach the assignment than in doing the actual assignment.  Quite simply, I get frustrated.

I’m not aiming this complaint at LIBR559 in particular.  I’m in my 21st year of formal schooling and concluding four years of graduate school (one MA, one MLIS).  Think about how many group assignments I’ve done in those 21 years.  There are the assignments when someone flakes on due dates, meetings, or their assigned portion. There are the assignments when it becomes an ego death-match.

Like I said.  I understand the value of collaboration and group work – I really do.  I recognize that humans are social creatures, and that there is great potential value in sharing ideas and working together.  I know they will be a part of my professional and personal life, and I am perfectly well able to pull my weight, and even take pride in the final product. That doesn’t mean I have to like the process!

I’m posting about this here, rather than my personal blog, for good reason.  The subject of the current module in class is collaboration, and we’re finishing up a group assignment to create wiki entries.  Within a page or two of the 2013 article by Forte & Lampe, my mind went scampering back to a TED Talk I watched last year for another class.

Susan Cain TED

Last year, Susan Cain published a book called Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Won’t Stop Talking .  In her TED Talk and the book, she puts her finger directly on what I think is the source of my frustration with what seems like a continuous bombardment of group assignments.  She describes “the new groupthink,” a rapidly-increasing trend that privileges group work over individual.  When we were children, our desks at school were probably in rows, and much of our work was done autonomously.  Now, go into any classroom, and the desks are in “pods” with groups of four or five children all facing each other.  Cain acknowledges it is important for children to learn to collaborate, and that casual interaction at work can be very beneficial.

However, “the new groupthink” privileges the extrovert mind.  Introvert and Extrovert are terms that indicate how a person reacts to stimulation.  It has nothing to do with shyness, social anxiety, or antisocial behavior.  Everyone falls somewhere in the introvert/extrovert spectrum – some are ambiverts, right in the middle.  Others, like me, identify strongly with one side or the other.  I am an introvert.  I am easily overwhelmed by large social situations, I spend a lot of time inside my own head, and I prefer a quiet dinner at home with a friend or two to going to a large party or a club.

Cain doesn’t argue that all group thinking is bad, or that group work should be abolished entirely.  Instead, she says, there needs to be a greater balance between collaboration and individual work.  Some of the greatest innovators and thinkers in history were introverts, preferring long solo walks to dinner parties.  Indeed, Cain remarks, introverts make some of the best group leaders because their natural ability to listen well and not micro-manage lets their colleagues develop ideas and run with them, thus encouraging innovation.

Introverts make up 1/3 to 1/2 of the population, yet those of us who identify as introverts are taught by society to feel guilty for our preference for solo thought or quiet pursuits.  How many of us were told by teachers, camp counselors, parents, or siblings that we needed to be “more outgoing,” get our noses out of that book, and go play outside?

Extroverts and introverts have different skill sets – neither is better than the other, and we need both.   Collaboration is by nature an extrovert’s milieu, but couldn’t there be ways to encourage the introvert to make use of their skills?  It would only be to the group’s benefit.

Maybe education is the answer.  While most people I know are in the middle of the introvert/extrovert spectrum, I do know a handful of people who identify strongly at one end or the other, just like I do.  As a strong introvert, it’s interesting to talk to a strong extrovert – we compare notes, and explain the how and the why of how we react to different situations.  One extrovert friend, with whom I have discussed this at length, says it’s very enlightening to hear my explanations.  The natural extrovert response to someone who isn’t speaking is to interpret them either as unhappy or unenthusiastic, while the introvert might read the silence as thinking about the subject at hand.

Social media plays into this in a lot of different ways.  At times it may seem to contradict itself.  Collaboration is no longer tied to geography – one need not be in the same room with one’s collaborators in order to work.  Options like GoogleDocs or videochatting via Skype or Facetime are useful, allowing the collaborators to decrease what might otherwise be an endless stream of inane “yes, that looks good” type emails clogging the group’s inboxes.  Depending on the situation, this could either help the introvert by allowing them to be in their own space and work without the distraction of other people around, or hinder them by leaving them feeling harried by never really having a quiet time to work through their own thought process.

Every few months, articles show up in magazines and newspapers exclaiming over how isolating the online world can be, in spite of the now global social pressure to be actively social.  We’re supposed to post to Facebook, Twitter, and blogs. We’re supposed to comment on other peoples’ posts, and keep up with the newest technological developments.  We’re supposed to have a handle on programs, software, and applications that will enhance the group work that is so popular right now, whether it’s videochatting, cloud storage, or group access to documents.  I’m not saying group work is a bad idea.  The whole “greater than the sum of its parts” thing is real.  I take issue with the unspoken social censure that occurs whenever someone protests group work and indicates a preference for working alone.

We need both extroverts and introverts doing what they do best.  We need them thinking and creating and working, together and apart.  Education and communication – it always seems to come back to that, doesn’t it?

8 thoughts on “ The New Groupthink; Or, Why I Don’t Like Group Assignments ”

Consider adding a section on how to problem solve collaborative/creative work.

If you can find librarian or archivist specific materials, I find it’s a good way to inform your readers.

I love that Susan Cain talk!

While I completely agree on what you said and I consider myself an introvert, I think that this kind of collaboration (for this class I mean) is a great way for us introverts to do teamwork, like a middle point, let’s say, between an open, face-to-face collaboration and no collaboration at all. I definitely like this collaborative work a lot more than all those excruciating team meetings we’ve had for other classes.

I agree with you to a certain extent, but I think a lot depends on the group and the subject of the collaboration. With some groups in-person meetings are more efficient! With others, the online collaboration is much more streamlined. Maybe I’m just feeling cranky because ALL of my major assignments this term are group projects 🙂

Yessss!!! As an introvert, I will (quietly :D) weigh in on the conversation. I hate group projects too, although for the most part, all the ones I’ve done at SLAIS have been quite rewarding. I feel as if, at the end of it all, we’ve accomplished and learned more than we could if we’d been working by ourselves. It’s a sort of economy-of-scale thing, but applied to learning.

That said, I still hate group projects, and much prefer a combination of the two – you go away, do your own work and bring it back to the group. This can lead to collaboration and discussion, and the “creation” of new products, projects or thoughts that wouldn’t have happened if people were working solely by themselves or completely in groups.

That does seem to be an effective compromise between the extrovert and introvert styles!

I think doing something like also eliminates the negative side of “group think”, where the more extroverted individuals unintentionally pressure the more introverted people into agreeing with them.

I’m no fan of group projects and would prefer solo assignments. This course has been a breeze regarding group work, but last semester one ornery, mean, negative group member made the other three of us in our group cower online.

We did everything we could think of, employed every strategy we read about and this woman never got cooperative. The result was a project that never gelled. I learned a lot less than I would have.

As a teacher, I now allow students to opt out of a bad group at any stage in the process. They could opt out in the real world and sometimes people do.

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• Effective Classroom Management , Effective Teaching Strategies

Dealing with Students Who Hate Working in Groups

• May 26, 2009
• Joseph Byrnes and MaryAnn Byrnes

Some students tell us they hate groups—as in really hate groups. Why do faculty love groups so much, they ask. I work hard, I’m smart, I can get good grades by myself, these students insist. Other students are a waste. I end up doing all the work and they get the good grade I earned for the group. Why do you, Professor Byrnes, make me work in a group. I hate groups!

Sound familiar? We call these bright, motivated, annoyed students our lone wolves. They demand learning activities where they know they can excel and are fearful that our emphasis on group work will mean lower grades for them. The least of the students will drag down the best, seems to be their constant refrain. Get me out of these groups and let me show you what I can really do.

[report_ofie=2440]

We have developed an unusual way to deal with these bright, motivated lone wolves—we form groups of lone wolves! On the first day of class, we have students fill out a data sheet. Here is the question that deals with groups:

Think about your experience working in groups. Please select the one response that best suits your experience.

• I enjoy working in groups because my group members usually help me understand the material and tasks and therefore I can perform better.
• I question the value of group work for me, because I usually end up doing more than my fair share of the work.
• I have little or no experience working in groups.
• I have a different experience than the choices given above. Please describe.

When we form groups, we place the students who have selected 2 (our lone wolves) in the same group. There are usually sufficient numbers to form one or even two groups of these lone wolves.

The result is delightful to observe. Often for the first time, the lone wolves are challenged by group-mates. They must learn to negotiate, trust, and share with others who are equally driven and equally intelligent. Another positive outcome is that students in other groups have the opportunity to develop and demonstrate leadership capacity, without the interference of these lone wolves who tend to control others in groups.

At the end of the semester, many of our lone wolves make a point of telling us this is the best group they have ever had. They are shocked about their experience and they ask us for our secrets about forming groups. When we tell them we placed them in a group where every student hated groups, they inevitably smile and thank us.

Joseph F. Byrnes, PhD, is a professor at Bentley College. MaryAnn Byrnes, PhD, teaches at the University of Massachusetts Boston.

Excerpted from I Hate Groups! The Teaching Professor, May 2007.

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Group Projects Don't Need To Be Miserable

By  John Warner

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I’m hard pressed to think of someone else in higher ed who is more influential in starting conversations about teaching and learning than James Lang ( Cheating Lessons  and  Small Teaching ), and  writing recently at the  Chronicle , he started a conversation about group projects, using his daughter’s frustrating experiences as a college sophomore as examples of the kinds of things that students who hate group projects routinely experience.

If you say the words “group project” in front of a typical college student, be prepared for some kind of moaning sound, like they’re in the midst of an attack of appendicitis. 

In fact, I’m confident if you offered some students a choice between minor surgery and a 10-week long group project, they’d opt for the minor surgery. 

And yet, group projects are ubiquitous in higher ed.

Lang says, “If you are assigning and grading group projects and: (a) not giving your students any explicit guidance or resources for how to work together effectively, and (b) not checking in and intervening when groups show signs of dysfunction, then you are engaging in pedagogical malpractice.”

I agree. Assigning a group project without also supporting students in navigating the group part of the work is not just to risk, but to guarantee some kind of disaster.

As both a student and instructor, I was once a dedicated loather of group projects myself. As a student, if at all possible, I would drop any class that promised a group project. [1]  As an instructor, I would not assign them, no matter how tempting a large class size might have made them seem as a mechanism to reduce the amount of grading.

And then I found myself teaching a course called Communication Skills at Virginia Tech, where group projects were a mandatory part of the course. I don’t know that I groaned out loud like someone was prodding an inflamed organ when I found this out, but I was certainly feeling it on the inside.

Fortunately, I was working under the guidance of Professor Marlene Preston, who had designed the Comm Skills curriculum, and who helped me see that if you want students to succeed in a group project, you must treat the group work as an important part of the curriculum itself.

Later, when I moved on to Clemson and was teaching a 12-week long group project in a technical writing course, I drew upon all I’d learned, and – I’m being serious here – teaching that course became one of the real pleasures of my entire career preciscely  because of the group project .

Many students even agreed with this after completing the group project in that technical writing course, expressing gratitude to have had the opportunity to learn how to work effectively in groups, often citing how they anticipated that learning being useful to them in their future endeavors.

Indeed, if you think about it, the average adult’s working life will likely resemble one long group project. Even faculty who do much of their work as a solo enterprise will find themselves having to collaborate as part of a larger department and college.

There is never a guarantee that a group project will turn out successfully, but there are a number of things I learned over the years that I pass on here for others to make use of as they see fit.

Embrace process as more important than product

I think this is good advice in general, and often results in improved end results, but it’s extra important in group projects. Recognizing that the journey itself is where the learning is happening, as opposed to being housed in that end product reorients how both instructors and students see the group project. 

This may also require an adjustment in how projects are assessed. If you say that the process is important, but only grade the product, students get the message and all the negative behaviors Lang describes (unequal contributions, social loafing, etc…) come into play. 

Assessment should always reflect what the course claims to value. 

Be transparent with students

At the start of the project, I encourage students to own their feelings when it comes to group projects, even declaring a  Festivus Holiday airing of the grievances  about group projects at the very start allowing them to vent amongst each other about past negative experiences. [2]

Acknowledging that group projects are hard and it takes effort and care to keep them going off the rails orients students to what they’re going to be facing and in my experience increases initial buy-in.

I also remind them that if they played sports or did band or theater or had a job that went well, they’ve likely had success in a group project, it’s merely that they didn’t realize they were in a group project at the time. Showing them that they have collaborated successfully in the past shows them it can be done in the future as well.

Make sure the group project is something that is properly done in groups

I sometimes see folks take assignments that are better done as individuals (like a standard class paper) and try to port them to a group project. This is a mistake. The best results on group projects come from designing an experience that requires a group effort and division of labor to complete, while also benefitting from collaborative deliberation and problems solving of the “wisdom of crowds” variety. 

This literally means conceiving something that cannot be done unless it is done by a collective, coordinated effort. [3]

Instruct students on what they need to know about working effectively in groups.

This is a list of just some of the topics I would cover in a course with a group project: Styles of leadership, group and organizational communication, collaborative problem solving, ethics, team building, calendaring/scheduling, collaborative writing processes, taking minutes, etc….

Some of this was lecture, some was reading, some was discussion, but everything was touched on because these are the skills that are employed when it comes to working successfully in groups. 

Give students some autonomy over forming groups

In a previous post, I shared a method  borrowed from a former colleague for gathering student input to help form groups combining instructor judgment and student input. 

Essentially they bring a personal statement along with their weekly schedule into class, we spend the class period with students reading each other’s statements, and then at the end, students tell me which students they’d most like to work with, and which student they’d rather not work with. 

I then use that information in order to form the groups, mixing their input with my discretion. [4]

I won’t repeat everything in that post, but my experience using the technique showed me that students can be trusted to understand which of their colleagues are most compatible in terms of working well in a group. [5]

Let students express their preferred group culture

The method above not only reveals things like scheduling conflicts. It can also bring students with similar academic goals together, increasing the chance for group harmony and therefore maximizing performance. At Clemson, many students put off the technical writing course requirement until their final semester, and therefore treated it as a box to be checked for graduation and not much more. 

One semester I had a group of young gentlemen on the cusp of graduation who were interested in doing as little work as possible while still passing the course find each other  through the preferencing process  from that previous post. 

They named their group: “D Stands for Done” and declared from the outset that they did not care about their grade as long as they passed, and I worked with them accordingly, letting them know the threshold for their own goals. The group’s operations went incredibly smoothly because of the shared ethos around the project. 

As it turned out, because of their great group cohesion and managing to get interested in their own project, they got a B. When they turned the final project in, they joked that they knew they’d overshot the mark. 

Have students practice succeeding as a group

I had a number of brief, in-class activities both related to the project and unrelated to the project that were designed to reinforce what successful collaboration looks and feels like, and how collaboration results in better end products.

For example, the first class period after forming the groups, I used a silly little team-building exercise in which I gave each group a random object purchased from a dollar store, told them they had to invent a new (theoretical) use for it, and then write and perform an “infomercial” for the product to the rest of class, all in a single class period.

Students immediately experienced the benefits of collaborative problem solving, being forced to build quickly on each other’s ideas to complete the task. The results were often inventive, funny, and haphazard, requiring students to look a little silly in front of each other in a safe and supported environment. This kind of bonding from the outset paid dividends throughout the semester.

Once or twice during the semester I would give them specific problem solving tasks to do in class, so I could monitor group dynamics and debrief in real-time in order to have them self-assess how they were relating to each other.

Give students tools to manage the logistics

In the early part of the project after the group is together and has begun its work, I would come into a class period and ask how many groups had made a shared calendar of deadlines. Over the years, I would estimate no more than 15% answered in the affirmative, and those that did, it was always initiated by a single, super-organized individual.

At that moment, I would share a sample calendar, built with the project progress deadlines mandated by me to start, and then require them to complete the calendar to reflect their plan for completion. (This is one of the problem solving tasks referred to above.) This small thing has saved much angst for both students and myself.

Students themselves will have lots of ways that they manage communication with each other (group texts, et al.), and when I see a group come up with a novel method, I ask them to share it with the rest of the class and explain why and how their approach works to see if other groups want to borrow it.

Make students practice autonomy

While the group project has lots of structure, with a final deadline and lots of check-ins along the way, I try to give groups latitude that requires them to develop the skills of group coordination and individual agency. 

One trick of many is to ask them early on to develop a short set of guidelines for how they’d like their groups to run in order to establish shared expectations. For example, when someone emails or texts, how soon is a response expected? How do people feel about starting meetings strictly on-time versus having a more laissez faire attitude? Will groups meet even if not every member can be present? If someone isn’t present, who is responsible for filling them in? What are the responsibilities for the group member who was absent?

Asking students to establish and then manage these expectations makes for a far superior group experience, as it provides groups a mechanism for managing the inevitable hiccups along the way by discussing those issues before they’re a problem.

Check in and assess progress

This is both a formal and informal task for the instructor. Every class period I would sit down amongst each group for a couple minutes and ask what had been accomplished since the last time I saw them, keeping a running ledger in my notes. If not much had been done, I’d probe on what the problems seemed to be, whether they were transient and circumstantial or more substantive. Often, simply making students articulate that they hadn’t done much would snap them from the inertia of inaction. 

Informally, when they were working as a group in class, I was observing their interactions and dynamics. In Lang’s original article he asks his daughter what her instructors were doing while groups were working, and was told that they sat at the front of the room, doing something on their computers.

At times, I would sit at the front of the room and  pretend  that I was working on my computer, but I’d do this only so students didn’t sense that I was watching them. 

The cliché of “an ounce of prevention beats a pound of cure” has never been as true as when it comes to student group projects. If something seemed awry that looked likely to derail the process, I would intervene proactively.

Over time, I developed a better sense of what to let students figure out for the sake of their learning, and what merited intervention, but in my view, it’s better to err on the side of caution and insert yourself if you fear something is amiss.

Remember that it’s all about what was learned along the way

As with all learning, there’s a lot of devil in the details. The above precepts served me well, but it didn’t mean that every group arrived at the end of the semester with a high quality product, feeling bonded as a team. 

Sometimes things just don’t work out, even when everyone is trying their best. 

At the end of each course, I required individual reflection/analysis papers on the group process part of the group project, asking students what worked, and what they would do differently if they had to do it over again. This is a great opportunity for a little metacognitive learning, and using my ungrading/alternative grading approach, for the groups that hadn’t had great success it was also a chance to show that they had learned from the experience and to still earn a high grade. 

Even 2600 words in, I actually find myself with much more I’d like to say on this topic, but let this be the start of a longer conversation to be continued.

[1]  In some cases, I was not interested in joining my fate with others. In other cases, I knew that I did not care enough about what was being asked of me to deliver on my responsibilities to the group. I’d rather do my B- work solo, thank you very much.

[2]  The worst story I recall is a student from an engineering class where they required to build a bridge out of balsa wood. The group splintered into factions, working independently. When it came time to test the bridge in class, the professor would only allow one entry. The students in the same group with different completed designs got in a fistfight in class over whose bridge would be used.

[3]  This also short-circuits one of the most common occurrences where a single student, fearing their classmates will screw things up, volunteers to do all the work as a kind of self-sacrifice/martyrdom move. The task must be large enough that there is no temptation for anyone to take this route.

[4]  A couple of times I ran a fun little experiment, asking students at the end to tell me which students they initially expressed a preference to work with. They were much more likely to name their actual group members than people who they actually named that weren’t in their group. It seemed like successful groups convinced themselves ex post facto that they’d selected each other, even when they hadn’t.

[5]  The anonymous nature of the preferencing allowed students who were friends to say that they didn’t want to work with each other, knowing that they’d rather not interact with their friends that way. I always found this interesting.

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5 Reasons I Hate Group Projects

By Sarah Hooker

You know what I’m talking about.

It’s the beginning of the semester and you take a look at your syllabus and see the dreaded words… “Group Project”. These projects are supposed to teach communication and synergy, among other things. Yet time and time again I am left frustrated and disappointed in my classmates. Here’s why I don’t like group work in graduate school:

5. “The Procrastinators”

In situations where I am the only one affected by whether or not I do my homework, I admit that I tend to procrastinate. However, when I know that other people are depending on me, I do my work more efficiently and always complete tasks early or on time. Unfortunately, this is not everyone’s mentality. Even if I do my part on time, if my teammate waits until the last minute to complete their tasks then our project will wind up looking sloppy and thrown together.

4. Someone always winds up doing the majority of the work…

…And somehow it’s always me!! I know everyone must walk away from a group project feeling that way. The teachers make it impossible to divide the work easily and someone gets stuck doing more work than everyone else.

3. They teach us to hate working in teams!

I find that group projects leave me so frustrated that I would rather have just done the entire thing myself. Working in teams at work or in a social setting does not have this effect on me. Perhaps because the tasks done in teams in those situations are more hands on and engaging? A project in a class setting, where my individual success is affected by someone else’s effort, just drives me crazy.

2. How the heck is a group of people supposed to write a cohesive paper?

I understand that group projects are all about working together towards a common goal. But seriously, how is a group of three people supposed to write a 75 page paper that flows well and isn’t as choppy as Lake Pontchartrain during a hurricane? What’s worse is when your group members obviously didn’t do well in freshman English or aren’t from an English-speaking country. Can you say grammar nightmare?

1. Students are BUSY!

I pride myself in my time management skills. There is just enough time in the week for me to work, go to class, do homework, study, watch How I Met Your Mother, and have relationships with my family and friends. Add someone else’s schedule into the mix and then things become complicated. Then add a third, fourth, fifth, etc. and group meetings become nearly impossible to arrange outside of class (and when the project is an online class, the only way groups can meet is outside of class!). One person works nights, another works weekends, another has children… The list goes on and on. Ain’t nobody got time for group meetings!

The Strategic Introvert

Thrive as a Strategic Introvert in a Dominantly Extroverted World

Why Introverts Hate Team Building and What They Can Do About It

Introverts hate team-building exercises because it acts contrary to their hardwiring, and forced human interaction is a destabilizing experience for them.

Like leadership models, the idea behind team building is an attempt to get unwilling employees to work together but primarily serves as an opportunity for those who revel in entertainment.

From a corporate perspective, employees generally operate within silos to complete an operational piece of the corporate puzzle. Although there may be exceptions, the corporate structure mimics the capitalist or Free Market Structure.

Team building is geared more towards extroverts who need the social exchange endemic within most companies.

Along with coworker drop-ins, water cooler conversations, and smoke breaks, team building may be counterproductive. You must determine the best corporate culture for your personality at some point.

Team Bonding, a website that promotes team building, stressed the point of the challenges many people face when team building exercises are brought up:

Some people are always up for a bit of fun, while others approach “team building exercises” with dread.  They find the forced participation, the requirement to “share,” or general rowdiness horrible.

A recent thread for suggestions for icebreakers included comments like “kill me now,” “just don’t do any,” “there’s a special place in hell for people that think these are a good idea,” and “I just point-blank refuse to do anything like this” (para. 1).

Aziz (n.d.) posited that: We (introverts) don’t feed off the energy from multiple people and extensive group activities get us drained quickly. Having to yell, cheer, high-five random strangers and build up team spirit? Pointless (para. 6).

Instead, we prefer office activities that have us spending time in smaller groups where we won’t get overstimulated (para. 7).

Additionally, it is believed that the need for team building goes way beyond mere exercises. There are deeper problems that need to be addressed.

Ryan (2016) said: No one ever hired a consultant to put on a team-building workshop when there were no problems! We only think about team-building when the team isn’t working together well. That’s a leadership problem.

Richard Hackman is credited for pioneering the benefits of team effectiveness in the 1970s. According to Haas and Mortensen (2016), Hackman believed that “What matters most to collaboration is not the personalities, attitudes, or behavioral styles of team members.

Instead, what teams need to thrive are certain ‘enabling conditions.’”

Haas and Mortensen concurred with Hackman’s “enabling conditions” for team success through a clear direction, a strong structure, and a supportive context.

Unfortunately, Hackman’s analysis did not consider the hardwiring of 50% of the population when he asserted that personalities, attitudes, and behavioral styles are not crucial to collaborations.

Typically, introverts are inwardly focused, prefer solitude, and relish solo activities. To “force” conditions contrary to these preferences onto introverts is not enabling; it’s undermining.

If Ryan’s perspective holds any validity, team-building initiatives are geared to solving problems that are leadership oriented and may have little to do with introverts. Invariably, the whole class gets punished for a few misbehaved students or an ineffective teacher.

Perhaps one-on-one mentoring or individual counseling would help errant employees. And if managers and supervisors aren’t skilled at mentoring and counseling, they should be trained or replaced.

Since companies spend billions of dollars annually on team-building exercises, it is safe to say that team-building initiatives aren’t going anywhere soon.

What are introverts to do in these matters?

The short answer is to begin carving out space for yourself within the corporate structure until you can create your domain.

Here are a few ways you can begin doing this.

Choose either care or consistency as your brand .

Developing a personal brand requires a clear and concise understanding of yourself and the projection of this understanding to the world. If you asked the average person if they strove to be caring or consistent, they would say “Both.”

Although striving to be caring and consistent is admirable, choosing one as your brand. Is important. The department store Nordstrom is known for its customer service and thus is in the caring business. Amazon is known for its logistics and thus is in the consistency business.

By becoming clear about what’s most important to you in your human interactions, life becomes more transparent and more straightforward in how you see and are seen by others.

Create a system within a system .

Every company has a culture defined by its objectives and the personalities that serve it. In the course of a work day, there are tasks that you are expected to complete.

As you complete these tasks, set aside some time to invest in yourself by researching information online, watching a tutorial on YouTube, reading professional books, or writing in a blog you’ve created.

You are essentially using your current position to build a foundation for your long-term goals by creating a system within a system. Although there may be times when you may be asked to participate in team-building initiatives, look at this participation in two ways.

First, this is merely a part of the professional development training that companies mandate all employees to participate in. Any enhanced training benefits your future endeavors.

Secondly, this is the price you have to pay until you are in a position to align your ideal job with the core of your personality. Most people have to build a bridge from where they are to where they want to go.

Volunteer for solo-oriented projects (within or in another department) .

Act according to your self-interest. All too often, introverts go along to get along. It would help if you constantly scanned and seized opportunities within your organization.

Volunteer for projects of interest that allow you to work alone. The cliché “Out of sight, out of mind” is often true. Suppose you are placed in a position where you have limited direct reports. In that case, you may be absolved of participating in team-building exercises that are not connected to your job responsibilities. People who are viewed as “out of the loop” are left alone.

Use your preferred reading, writing, and solitude to create online courses, books, and software that solve industry problems .

Aligned with the two previous recommendations, creating intellectual property that allows you to scale a business is an investment in your long-term aspirations. Money-making projects will enable you to use your current position to fund your future ambitions.

With the advent of self-created online courses, digital publishing, and app development, everything can operate automatically without you having to keep things running manually. Remember, the necessity of team-building exercises suggests a current management problem within the organization.

Managers may be reassigned, but your objective is to free yourself of the dependency on a controlled and agreeable work environment that you don’t have any control over.

Look for jobs that align with your introversion .

If all else fails, look for another job. Many people are misaligned in their job selection. It’s not unusual to find artsy or creative people working as paralegals.

A paralegal’s job requires creative solutions but is more intellectual than artistic. However, many introverts assume positions for security reasons that don’t align with their personality. They can do jobs that are misaligned, but it’s not enjoyable.

Fortunately, companies may not host team-building exercises too often. However, companies that attempt to build morale may have food truck events, cookie parties, and pot luck meals, particularly during the holidays.

And these events don’t always feel as if participation is voluntary.

Ultimately, we live in a crowded and noisy society where tranquility and serenity come at a premium.

And it’s getting worse.

Introverts are on their own, and no one is coming to save them. Consequently, they must protect themselves from discovering self-empowerment and self-actualization.

It is essential more than ever not to betray ourselves. In the incomparable words of Williams Shakespeare, “To thine own self be true.”

—Raymond J. Melville

Aziz, I. (n.d.). 10 pains of being an introvert at work that no one seems to understand.  Vulcan Post . Retrieved from: https://bit.ly/3RYXqcF.

Haas, M., and Mortenson, M. (2016). The secrets of great teamwork. Harvard Business Review . Retrieved from: https://bit.ly/3vd5wVD

I hate team building-Icebreaker games for introverts and sceptics (n.d.). Team Bonding . Retrieved from: https://bit.ly/3zuJ1xH

Ryan, L. (2016, Sept. 22). The ugly truth about team-building. Forbes . Retrieved from: https://bit.ly/3b4WfrK

Related Posts

Strategic Mastery for Introverts in the Digital Era

The Introverted Advantage: From Wallflower to Strategist

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The Sydney Morning Herald

Group assignments prepare you for life, just not in the way you think, bella westaway, save articles for later.

Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time.

I can’t tell you how many hours of my life I’ve spent complaining about group assignments.

For three years, I listened to tutors and lecturers dish out the same vague explanation of their value, arguing that they teach us essential workplace skills such as “collaboration”, “negotiation” and “conflict resolution”, which, to be frank, I thought was BS.

More than 75 per cent of Gen Z workers want to spend two or three days in the office as part of a hybrid-work policy. Credit: istock

“In what workplace,” I would emphatically exclaim after a few glasses of prosecco on a Wednesday night, “would you have to work with a stoner who simply refuses to show up to meetings? Or someone who cannot, for love nor money, shut the f--- up?” I pretended the tutor could hear me. Is that why it’s called Dutch courage?

But over time, I’ve learnt that group assignments do, in fact, help prepare you for the workplace, and for life, but just not in the way you might think. Here are some of the lessons I’ve learnt from the dreaded endeavours.

Lesson 1. Life isn’t fair

Group assignments are not fair and neither is life. That person who doesn’t pull their weight in class is absolutely going to get a job one day and will probably continue to shirk responsibility and somehow get away with it.

Is it wildly unfair? Yes. Do you need to learn how to suck it up and get over it? Also yes. Dobbing on them is just not an option, so you need to call on your well-practised university skills and rise above.

Similarly, just like at uni, praise is rarely doled out fairly at work. The bitter frustration of pulling an overnighter to fix everyone’s work with zero appreciation is replicated in the workplace, as managers are mostly too busy to pat you on the back for doing your job. Instead, you get rewarded and acknowledged for the most random things, like helping the CEO convert a PDF to a Word document.

Lesson 2. You’re not the smartest person in the room

When you start your career, literally everyone is better than you at everything. So if you find yourself in a group project where your ideas are overshadowed by someone who is smarter or more creative, try to put your ego aside and learn from the experience. Build on their ideas. Ask them to help you. Keep trying. And enjoy being part of creating something that’s better than what you could do alone.

Lesson 3. You’re not the dumbest person in the room

While it can be humbling to learn that there are people more capable and clever than you are, it can also be confidence-boosting to work with people who have no clue what’s going on. You may find the readings confusing, but Jason can’t even work out how to log in to MyStudentAdmin. You might not know how to pronounce Nietzsche’s name, but at least you know he’s not a brand of German skincare, which is more than can be said for Sarah. Take comfort, you’re doing OK.

Lesson 4. You must respect other people’s contribution, even when it sucks

If you’re the type of person who wants to rewrite everyone else’s work at the last minute because it’s not up to scratch, I feel you.

But if you try to do this at work, you will end up at the office ’til midnight every night while your colleagues are at the pub (or, in this WFH era, watching Bridgerton on the couch). You need to learn how to get the desired outcome while respecting, and valuing, others’ efforts.

And it’s not just at work that this skill will come in handy. Whether you’re dealing with a new housemate who wants to deck out your sleek Japandi living room with prayer flags and salt lamps, or your new partner who has proudly cooked you risotto before learning the value of salt, your diplomacy will be put to the test when you least expect it. Practise up!

Lesson 5. Hard work always pays off in the end

It might not be today or tomorrow, this semester or even the next. But at the end of the day, at the end of your degree, everything comes out in the wash. It’s the same in the workplace. If you’re the hard worker who expects nothing less than excellence, your overall marks and career will reflect this. If you have other priorities like family, sport or travel, your efforts will be rewarded in a different way.

And if you’re happily coasting along on the coattails of your group mates thinking nobody has noticed? Everyone knows mate, everyone knows.

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I hate group assignments!

• Thread starter kretzy
• Start date Apr 11, 2006
• Sort by reaction score
• MacRumors Community
• Community Discussion

macrumors 604

• Apr 11, 2006

Moderator emeritus

mad jew said: Group assignments at uni always end up being done by a select few members of the group. The people who actually like group assignments tend to be the people who don't do the work. They suck, but they're a pretty good way of introducing us to real world work where, in many cases, a lot of work is conducted in groups. Click to expand...

Yeah. Some of my old engineering subjects had a pretty good system whereby each member was given a confidential evaluation form at the end of the project and were told to rate each member. The grade was then scaled accordingly.  

macrumors 68030

mad jew said: Yeah. Some of my old engineering subjects had a pretty good system whereby each member was given a confidential evaluation form at the end of the project and were told to rate each member. The grade was then scaled accordingly. Click to expand...

Administrator

mad jew said: Group assignments at uni always end up being done by a select few members of the group. Click to expand...

nightdweller25

Macrumors 6502.

That's a very funny story Doctor Q! I like the idea of group members marking each other, it would make things a lot fairer I think.  

macrumors regular

• Apr 12, 2006

In fact profs hate group assignments too. They realize that it leads to unfair grading, but often the decision comes from "above" (in the case of engineering, it is mandated by various accreditation boards).  

Applespider

Macrumors g4.

Perhaps they should teach project management before they ask for group assignments. The only way I've ever found any kind of group assignment gets done (in the real world or in school) is to agree an earlier time limit for the material to be collected together - and if you don't meet it, your name gets scratched from the final entry.  

gauchogolfer

Macrumors 603.

I agree with Applespider about the project management suggestion. As a scientist I find myself working in groups constantly, it's just a fact of life for the field. The most significant factor in success usually lies in the structuring of responsibility and accountability before the work gets started. This is linked of course to the ability of the leader (and there always needs to be someone in this role) to hold the team members to account. Typically in school this falls to the person most concerned about getting a good grade. Managing people and getting those who don't necessarily want to carry their share of the load can be a frustrating task, but vital to success in the future. Sorry to sound like an old fart (especially since I'm not yet 30), but "it'll be good for you" . *gets off of soapbox*  

superbovine

well once you start working, it is a big old group assignments, expect you get paid and can be fired for not doing working. Not to say that there is fairness in life because there are people that work jobs that they pick all the co-workers slack and get no return.  

Yeah I think some management tips would be very beneficial. I must say though, that when we got started I made sure we'd split everything up so that everybody knew what they had to do. They were just too lazy to do the work. I think the idea of inner-group assessment would be a really good incentive for people to get more work done.  

macrumors member

I'm kind of surprised that more teachers/professors don't do inner-group assessments. I mean, they should know how the real world works so they should look to try and find out who within the group actually contributed and how much. Teamwork reminds me of a construction site where one person's digging the hole while five others are standing around watching.... Anyway, off to work....  

macrumors 68040

The best way to be in a group in college is to be in a smart group but pretend to be the dumb one. This involves asking some simple questions and an often puzzled look on your face. The group will assign you the easiest part of the project. You complete the project to the best of your knowledge and when you show it to the group, say something like I tried really hard and worked on it for a while, and i think its pretty good .... Now the fact that you have better work than they were expecting never hurts in evaluations because people assume you did your best. This is the best way to get through college groupwork but the truly anal can't handle letting another anal person do their work so .... You become the leader, and set some firm deadlines and make people follow the deadlines ... If people aren't at all respecting you, its a reflection on the leadership usually  

macrumors 601

max_altitude said: Yeah I think some management tips would be very beneficial. I must say though, that when we got started I made sure we'd split everything up so that everybody knew what they had to do. They were just too lazy to do the work. I think the idea of inner-group assessment would be a really good incentive for people to get more work done. Click to expand...

macrumors 68000

I agree entirely. Group projects have no place in higher education, where much more is at stake than in previous schools (middle school, high school, etc). Often times, some hard working student, who works 40 hours a week to pay for school, and does their best to retain their 4.0 gets in a group with some people who are only their because their parents pay for them to be there. The hardworking student's grade should never be given the oppertunity to be affected by any other student. I do believe teamwork and cooperation is important, but not when it can have an affect on something so influential as one's education. But to be fair, there are good experiences and bad ones. Sometimes, which I believe to be the less often, a group project actually ends up a very, very good thing.  

macrumors 6502a

When I first started college, we had a group project in my American Gov't class. Me and one girl did a lot of work and the other two never showed up to any of the study sessions we set up. A week before it was due, the two of us went up to the professor and told him that since they weren't showing up to any of the meetings, we had no idea if they were going to contribute or what they might contribute. Luckily they did show up with some stuff but it sucked not knowing whether the project was going to suck or not. Last semester we had a group project for my Writing Class but the professor only weighed it at 5% of the grade so there was little to worry about. All the people showed up and did their part and the project gave me an excuse to cut a video. So I've seen it both ways but overall I am not a fan of the group project at all.  

Applespider said: Perhaps they should teach project management before they ask for group assignments. Click to expand...

I've taught several college level courses, and I think group work is important. No, teachers don't assign them because they are easier to grade, they assign them because students need to learn to work together, like they do in the real world. The real problem is, the classroom model is nothing like the real world. There's no "boss," and no one can get fired. Some students want A's in everything, and some students are happy with B's. So some students are less motivated than others. I think the solutions where peer evaluations are a large part of the grade work the best compromise. Then everyone is motivated to at least impress their peers.  

Yes I agree that group projects have their purpose. The problem I find is that there isnt a clear leader in most groups. things fall apart at that point. Whenever I work in a group I take over the leader spot even if there officially isnt one. The group I am in tends to get the highest marks in class just because we have our stuff together.  

Applespider said: Perhaps they should teach project management before they ask for group assignments. The only way I've ever found any kind of group assignment gets done (in the real world or in school) is to agree an earlier time limit for the material to be collected together - and if you don't meet it, your name gets scratched from the final entry. Click to expand...

wordmunger said: I've taught several college level courses, and I think group work is important. No, teachers don't assign them because they are easier to grade, they assign them because students need to learn to work together, like they do in the real world. Click to expand...

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What’s behind the anti-immigrant violence that has exploded across Britain? Here’s a look

A top UK police chief on Monday vowed to prosecute those involved in rioting across cities in England over the past week which has resulted hundreds of arrests.

A man is detained as people attend the ‘Enough is Enough’ protest in Whitehall, London, Wednesday July 31, 2024, following the fatal stabbing of three children at a Taylor Swift-themed holiday club on Monday in Southport. (Jordan Pettitt/PA via AP)

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Police officers face protesters outside the Holiday Inn Express in Rotherham, England, Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024. The violence erupted earlier this week in cities and towns across Britain, ostensibly in protest of Monday’s mass stabbing in Southport. A 17-year-old male has been arrested and charged with murder and attempted murder in connection with the Southport attack. False rumors spread online that the young man was a Muslim and an immigrant, fueling anger among far-right supporters. (Danny Lawson/PA via AP)

Members of the public place and look at the tributes outside the Town Hall in Southport, England, Monday Aug. 5, 2024, ahead of a vigil to remember the victims of the stabbing attack last Monday. (Ryan Jenkinson/PA via AP)

Tributes are seen outside the Town Hall during a vigil to remember the victims of the stabbing attack last Monday in Southport, England, Monday, Aug. 5, 2024. Violence and unrest erupted in cities and towns across Britain, ostensibly in protest of last week’s stabbing. (AP Photo/Darren Staples)

Children form bubbles outside the Town Hall during a vigil to remember the victims of the stabbing attack last Monday in Southport, England, Monday, Aug. 5, 2024. Violence and unrest erupted in cities and towns across Britain, ostensibly in protest of last week’s stabbing. (AP Photo/Darren Staples)

Members of the public take part in a vigil outside the Town Hall in Southport, England, Monday Aug. 5, 2024, to remember the victims of the stabbing attack last Monday. (Ryan Jenkinson/PA via AP)

Members of the public blow bubbles outside the Town Hall during a vigil to remember the victims of the stabbing attack last Monday in Southport, England, Monday, Aug. 5, 2024. Violence and unrest erupted in cities and towns across Britain, ostensibly in protest of last week’s stabbing. (AP Photo/Darren Staples)

LONDON (AP) — Britain has been convulsed by violence for the past week as crowds spouting anti-immigrant and Islamophobic slogans clashed with police. The disturbances have been fueled by right-wing activists using social media to spread misinformation about a knife attack that killed three girls during a Taylor Swift-themed dance event.

The violence, some of Britain’s worst in years, has led to hundreds of arrests as the government pledges that the rioters will feel “the full force of the law” after hurling bricks and other projectiles at police, looting shops and attacking hotels used to house asylum-seekers.

As Britain’s new government struggles to quell the unrest and announces a “standing army” of specialist police to deal with rioting, here’s a look at what’s happening and why.

When did the violence begin?

Tributes are seen outside the Town Hall during a vigil to remember the victims of the stabbing attack last Monday in Southport, England, Monday, Aug. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Darren Staples)

People across Britain were shocked by what police described as a “ferocious knife attack” that killed three girls between 6 and 9 on July 29 in Southport, a seaside town north of Liverpool. Eight other children and two adults were injured.

Police detained a 17-year-old suspect. Rumors, later debunked, quickly circulated on social media that the suspect was an asylum-seeker, or a Muslim immigrant.

The next day, as people gathered to comfort one another and lay flowers at the site, hundreds of protesters attacked a local mosque with bricks, bottles and rocks. Police said the rioters were “believed to be supporters of the English Defence League,” a far-right group that has organized anti-Muslim protests since 2009.

Authorities on Aug. 1 took the unusual step of identifying the underage suspect in an effort to stop the rumors about his identity, which were fueling the violence.

Axel Muganwa Rudakubana has been charged with three counts of murder and 10 counts of attempted murder. The suspect was born in Wales in 2006 and moved to the Southport area in 2013. His parents were originally from Rwanda.

How did the violence spread?

The rioting spread to cities and towns in many parts of the U.K. as far-right activists circulated misinformation about the attack, according to the government and police.

Less than two hours after the stabbing, a social media user known as European Invasion said the attacker was “alleged to be a Muslim immigrant.” The allegation posted on X later appeared on Facebook and Telegram, according to Logically, a U.K.-based company that uses artificial and human intelligence to combat online propaganda.

The rumor was included in an article published by Channel 3Now, a site with suspected links to Russia, Logically said. The article was then cited by Russian state-affiliated news organizations including RT and Tass.

“It is likely that Channel 3Now is a Russian asset aimed at seeding information intended to cause online harm and create division in the U.K.,” Logically said in analysis posted on X.

Social media videos encourage like-minded people to engage in the types of unrest they see online, said Stephanie Alice Baker, a sociologist at City University of London who studies crowd behavior and the far right.

“There is always a tipping point where people feel emboldened and enabled to act on those feelings, and it’s typically when they see others doing the same thing, right?’’ she said.

Where has the unrest occurred?

More than a dozen towns and cities have been caught up in the unrest including London, Hartlepool, Manchester, Middlesborough, Hull, Liverpool, Bristol, Belfast, Nottingham and Leeds.

Some of the worst violence occurred Sunday, when hundreds of rioters stormed a Holiday Inn Express housing asylum-seekers in the town of Rotherham, outside Birmingham. Police in riot gear were pelted with bricks and chairs as they tried to defend the hotel from attackers who kicked in windows and pushed a burning wheelie bin inside. Hours later, another group attacked a hotel in Tamworth, 70 miles to the south.

What is the background to this violence?

Agitators are exploiting long-simmering tensions over immigration and, more recently, the growing number of migrants who have entered the country illegally by crossing the English Channel in inflatable boats.

Those concerns were a central issue in last month’s election, with former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak promising to stop the boats by deporting “illegal immigrants” to Rwanda. Although current Prime Minister Keir Starmer cancelled the plan after he won a landslide victory, he has promised to reduce immigration by working with other European nations and speeding up the removal of failed asylum-seekers.

Fueling the frustration of voters was the previous government’s policy of housing asylum-seekers in hotels at a cost of 2.5 billion pounds ($3.2 billion) last year. That came against the backdrop of failing public services as the government struggled to balance the budget.

The attack on the dance class feeds into latent feelings of discontent, Baker said.

“These are tensions that you see in a lot of countries right now. I would include the U.S. to some extent in that, where you have emerging feelings of nationalism, a sense that people are being left behind, a sense that people’s freedoms are being denied, that the sovereignty of the nation is at stake,’’ she said. “And a lot of this really coincides with a rise of immigration and a cost-of-living crisis.”

Have police responded adequately?

Police officers face protesters outside the Holiday Inn Express in Rotherham, England, Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024. (Danny Lawson/PA via AP)

While police have worked hard to restore order, they have been hurt by poor intelligence, forcing officers to respond to demonstrations rather than take steps to head them off, said Peter Williams, a former police inspector who is now a senior lecturer at the Liverpool Centre for Advanced Policing Studies.

“If they knew where they’re going to happen, they obviously could do something about it,’’ he told The Associated Press.

Police forces are still struggling to recover from budget cuts that largely dismantled neighborhood policing, Williams said. “One of the key pluses for the policing side of neighborhood policing is that you have a consistent intelligence flow,’’ he said. “Well, that’s missing,” particularly in minority areas.

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Who Are the Far-Right Groups Behind the U.K. Riots?

After a deadly stabbing at a children’s event in northwestern England, an array of online influencers, anti-Muslim extremists and fascist groups have stoked unrest, experts say.

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By Esther Bintliff and Eve Sampson

Esther Bintliff reported from London, and Eve Sampson from New York.

Violent unrest has erupted in several towns and cities in Britain in recent days, and further disorder broke out on Saturday as far-right agitators gathered in demonstrations around the country.

The violence has been driven by online disinformation and extremist right-wing groups intent on creating disorder after a deadly knife attack on a children’s event in northwestern England, experts said.

A range of far-right factions and individuals, including neo-Nazis, violent soccer fans and anti-Muslim campaigners, have promoted and taken part in the unrest, which has also been stoked by online influencers .

Prime Minister Keir Starmer has vowed to deploy additional police officers to crack down on the disorder. “This is not a protest that has got out of hand,” he said on Thursday. “It is a group of individuals who are absolutely bent on violence.”

Here is what we know about the unrest and some of those involved.

Where have riots taken place?

The first riot took place on Tuesday evening in Southport, a town in northwestern England, after a deadly stabbing attack the previous day at a children’s dance and yoga class. Three girls died of their injuries, and eight other children and two adults were wounded.

The suspect, Axel Rudakubana , was born in Britain, but in the hours after the attack, disinformation about his identity — including the false claim that he was an undocumented migrant — spread rapidly online . Far-right activists used messaging apps including Telegram and X to urge people to take to the streets.

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