ARGUMENTATIVE RESEARCH PAPER
Depending on members and atmosphere of the group, group can help a student grow or also can pull student down. Studying preferences and priorities are different for every student. Some prefer to study individually while others prefer to study in a group. Some prefer to study during certain times of the day. These choices have very strong impact on student’s grades. No matter your preferences or learning style, there are certain things to consider while deciding to study in group or study individually. So obviously it is a serious decision to make. Academic research conducted on different students for more than 20 years has proven that group studies are more effective than the individual studies. Here the effective group is that which contains all the students who have equal interest in completing the given task. These companions should be chosen very wisely. Large number of students form study groups to prepare for an exam even though they were not asked by professor to do so because they themselves found it helpful. This is also proven by decades of research by educational psychologists that the concepts were learned better when the students try to form collaborative teams among themselves than studying alone at their desk. Students should work in groups because it helps them to develop certain set skills which will be important in professional world.
Studying in group improves student’s retention. Explaining the concepts to other students helps us improve our knowledge and is more likely to be in memory for much longer time. The more you repeat the concept, stronger the memory will become. Different people in the group will have different material to study. This helps the students to gain the thorough knowledge of the concept. Students can help each other during the understanding process. One student may be perfect at one concept and the other may be perfect at different concept. They can discuss mutually and help each other. Instead of spending valuable time on one concept to understand, they can learn quickly by asking a question and clear it. Also many people always feel pleasured to help other fellow students when they have difficulty in understanding something that he/she clearly understood. While listening to lecture, lot of students can’t absorb what the professor is really explaining and they get busy with writing their notes. They may miss some key concepts during lecture but they can gain those concepts knowledge by discussing them with fellow students.
Group studies can expand your thinking skills. Various views and insights of different people can be discussed and shared. If you study by yourself, you will end up having same perspective on the concept. But getting different perspectives by discussing with other people will help us to learn the concept thoroughly. As you understand and listen different questions from others, you will get to understand the different view of point on the same concept. After the end of group study each student will have knowledge of all other people from table apart from his own knowledge. Student can also be benefited by group study by seeking help from others if he was stuck at certain concept which he can’t understand. This saves large amount of time and student can wisely spend that time on broadening his understanding of the subject focusing on other concepts. New studying techniques can also be learned, which will improve your learning abilities and sharpens your mind. Also you can help other students by telling your successful learning tip and help them. Studying individually for long period of time can become a monotonous activity and we can lose interest in less amount of time, this can also be avoided by studying in group.
Studying in group can really boost up the students motivation. They will get motivated when they directly visualize how their fellow students are taking academics seriously. They can help each other by conducting mock tests among themselves, they can quiz one another. Other students can assist the ones who have struggle with understanding the subject. They can give and take feedback on each other’s performance. This also improves the social life of a student and he will be confident enough to address a big crowd. Having others who are studying with right focus and concentration will prevent the other distractions and allows to give the maximum effort to understand everything. Stronger communication skills will be developed by often interacting with many other fellow students. After finishing college, all these skills can be very important for their future in whichever area of career they choose. You will often find yourself working in a group with your colleagues with same group dynamic. Thus Collaboration abilities can be developed right from the beginning of career. All this can be a great practice for “Real World”
Many psychologists also claim that studying alone minimizes the distraction that studying in group. Groups can always deviate from academic discussions to nonacademic discussions like vacations or other classroom issues. But these can be avoided by following a systematic schedule and sticking to that schedule. Because a systematic schedule can compel the focus and concentration. Each concept should be allotted a certain amount of time. Thus students can keep track of time without distracting and finish the task in given time. This can be done by setting the practical targets by dividing total number of available days to each part of syllabus topic wise and allot certain time for each. Procrastinating the work can also be avoided by forming a schedule because studying groups meet at regular times, students who attend will start studying without procrastinating it. By studying alone, they can procrastinate to study the concepts till night before the class. Following a systematic schedule will also help the students to work for less than 7-8 hours per day and getting enough sleep and rest which improves the quality of learning and reduces the distractions. These study many students struggle with procrastination, for those group study can be more helpful.
People often argue that studying alone will allow you to pace yourself. They can read and revise the topics at their own speed and spend maximum amount of time at the concepts which might be difficult for them. This can also be avoided by clearly following a systematic schedule and focus on the difficult part of concept when they are alone. They can listen to all the explanations given by the fellow students and understand everything clearly and should revise it individually. By following this way student will be more beneficiated and lot of time will be saved.
Opponent of study in group may say that studying alone may let them think profoundly and have more concentration. They also think that individual studying students will have ideas of their own and they do not depend on other people’s opinions. Besides studying with others can help all students by getting feedback from one another and allows them to study progressively. All the students in group should make themselves sure that they do not waste any time discussing non relevant subjects and use the time wisely. Complicated tasks can be shared between the individuals in group making them less hard by working together. Some projects and presentations should require team effort to get effective results. So the people who cannot concentrate while studying in a group can get clear understanding of the task assigned to them by discussing with professor or other teammates and work individually. They should discuss the outcome with their teammates and get the feedback from them. Thus everyone should be able to give their maximum effort to complete the project or task and they are now very likely to get a higher grade.
In conclusion, students who studies in group have higher rate of graduating than those who study alone. Because as student’s largest part of lives is preparing for exams, conducting the lab experiments and giving presentations. All these tasks require more than one people’s decisions to make the correct choice. Effective groups should be formed when they include the students who motivates everyone and inspires them to make strong effort than those who finds a simple way to get a passing grade. Study groups can also turn out be bad when they involve too many people in group. Less than five people should be involved in a group to make it effective. Because if there are more number of people it can get difficult to make all those people to meet and coordinate at certain time suitable to everyone. Many people may also lead to have less disciplined group. Also by preparing the material for reading before meeting can make the group meeting successful by having more amount of time on discussing everyone’s views. Studying in group can also be fun and One should always study with others to have extraordinary studying results.
References:
1. https://ed.stanford.edu/spotlight/stanford-study-shows-college-student-coaching-improves-retention-and-graduation-rates
2. http://www.academia.edu/6252608/THE_IMPACT_OF_STUDY_HABITS_ON_THE_ACADEMIC_PERFORMANCE_OF_STUDENTS
3. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3046890/