I like group work where I'm in a position of leadership, or at least in a position where I can bounce ideas and plans off of people and know that they will legitimately listen.
Reasons why I dislike group work:
- The end result isn't always better than what I could have done myself. I don't mean to say that I'm better than everybody else, but when an inadequate worker who happens to have leadership qualities steps up to lead, good ideas usually don't make it through his "I have to make all the decisions because I'm the BOSS" filter. The group needs to colaborate and work efficiently, it can't just be one person dishing our orders. In other words: The purpose of the group should not simply be to make the leader's project but with a bigger team (got a bit carried away with that one o_o)
- Groups make the assignments more structured than I like my assignments to be. Sometimes I work best at 4:00 AM on a Tuesday, sometimes at 2:00 PM on a Friday. Structure cripples me, as a general rule. (I understand that this is a personal issue and I need to learn to deal with it, I am just giving input from my perspective)
- I usually end up picking-up someone else's dead weight. Seriously, do your jobs people.
Reasons why I like group work:
- If I am the leader, I love it. I make sure that everyone is given a chance to have their input fairly considered, and I get to toss my ideas to a ready-and-willing panel as well. I generally try to promote mass brainstorming sessions, and the results have always been amazing projects. What we come up with when I've done this has -always- been far better than I could have come up with alone.
- They provide a means to see how far you've come. I like to measure how much I've improved in terms of leadership and skills by how my group reacts to me, and how our projects turn out. I understand that this isn't always a valid means of measurement, but it's nice to have the reactions of others readily available to use in self-improvement.
- It can be much more fun than working alone. I love talking and joking with people as I work, it makes things go by much quicker. If I'm ever worn out, I can just close the laptop for a bit, and strike up a conversation. I'd imagine this only works really well for us Es though.
-Careless errors and common grade-lowering mistakes are generally absent, since odds are someone will catch it. This is especially useful to me, since I'm horrible about details.
Obviously, the actual group members you get matter the most, and can make or break.
That about sums it up for me...