Why Gifted Kids Hate Group Projects

All individuals need to be able to work with others of differing abilities. It is an authentic concept, and reflects the work world's realities.

Gifted students don't like to work in groups because they are elitist and want to only work with students of the same ability.

There are criteria that can make or break any collaborative group (here are a few examples):

• Fear that if they don't do it all, they will get a bad grade
• Fear of judgement - being made fun of
• Feelings of inadequacy - not feeling like you can contribute
• Fear of confrontation - if you don't agree with the leader
• Lack of understanding of the goals of the group or the assignment - and being afraid to ask
• Expectations (or lack thereof) of others
• Fear of being blamed for failure of the project - it's safer to do nothing or everything
• Lack of appropriate scaffolding for all students

• When students were asked what the most important factor for them when working in groups is
• 69.6% said work ethic (blue)
• 30.4% said academic ability (red)
• No one said willingness to listen to their ideas was a factor.

When students were asked how they feel about "re-teaching" the information the teacher already taught to the class,

• 60.9% said they weren't thrilled, but they could deal with it if the other student was at least trying to understand (red)
• 34.8% said they don't mind at all (yellow)
• 4.3% said they resent it (blue).

When asked to check all their biggest stressors when working in groups:

• 87% of students said whether or not the group members would turn in quality work.
• 60.9% of students said whether or not the teacher could see what work they did compared to the group members
• 34.8% of students said whether or not the group used their ideas
• 60.9% of students said that if they didn't do the work it wouldn't get done
• 65.2% of students said that if they didn't do the work it wouldn't get done right
• 91.3% of students said working with students who just don't care

Looking at the survey results, it is obvious that academic ability of other group members is not the biggest stressor for most gifted students. Students who just don't care or who have a poor work ethic are much more likely to cause the gifted student to try to "do it all."

In order to provide appropriate opportunities for gifted students to complete group work, occasionally grouping them with students of different abilities provides the real-world experiences they will need as adults. However, much of the time, they should be grouped with students closer to their level of ability or understanding of the content. This provides gifted students with the opportunities to learn humility, democratic values, and trust born of collaboration rather than respect born of cooperation.

Will often be completed by one person, usually the gifted student, because there is a "right" answer.

• Positive Interdependence
• Face-to-face interaction
• Individual accountability
• Social skills
• Group processing

Student interest and autonomy are motivating factors and essential to the success of group learning.

Teach them explicitly how to work in a group successfully:

• How to ask for assistance
• How to help others
• How to take responsibility
• Gifted students do not intrinsically know how to work in a group

Heterogeneous Grouping:

• Students see first-hand that everyone has an important contribution to make
• Help students assign/choose equitable roles within the group
• BE AWARE: Often the high-achieving student is the only one providing assistance

Homogeneous Grouping:

• Provides for opportunities for gifted students to "sharpen" their skills against others of similar ability levels
• Allows lower level students the opportunity to be the "explainer"

Flexibly moving between these two options allows all students to work with others of varying abilities, and to learn to value the differences between themselves and others.

Embed cooperative learning within your curriculum:

• Students share creative ideas
• Build on each others' knowledge
• Draw on diverse skills
• Odyssey of the Mind, Future Problem Solvers, Writing Workshop, Political Discussion, etc.

Matthews, Marian. “Gifted Students Talk About Cooperative Learning.” ASCD, Educational Leadership, Oct. 1992, http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/oct92/vol50/num02/Gifted-Students-Talk-About-Cooperative-Learning.aspx