Group assignments that students must work together to complete should replace a substantial amount of traditional lecture-based instruction in college and university courses.

Claim: Group assignments that students must work together to complete should replace a substantial amount of traditional lecture-based instruction in college and university courses.

Reason: It is vital for students to gain experience collaborating with peers to study a topic and to achieve a common goal.

Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree disagree with the claim and the reason on which that claim is based.

The given statement contends that group assignments should replace a substantial amount of traditional lecture-based instruction in higher education for the reason that the teamwork experience is vital for students. I concede that collaboration experience is important to gain for students in higher education, but cannot join the statement in claiming that traditional lecture-based instructions have to make room for group learning, the former possesses irreplaceable merits while the latter is not a panacea either.

First, one has to admit that the statement is on the correct philosophical side of the issue in emphasizing the magnitude of the collaborating experience, as teamwork really matters in modern society. Most students will be expected to find jobs where collaboration is a must, for instance, big corporations. It is therefore really unimaginable how can students thrive, or survive, without abilities to work and collaborate with others in contemporary society.

Important as teamwork may be, the claim has gone too far in nurturing teamwork skills, since it proposes to sacrifice lecture-based instruction, perhaps the most traditional and effective way to learn knowledge. It is true that collaborative learning is beneficial as students will have a chance to help each other and exchange ideas, but it is equivalently undeniable that lecture remains the most effective way to transfer knowledge from one to another, as it is a one-to-N process. Studies have shown that students in East Asia have a more solid command of basic knowledge, compared with their western counterparts, and one reason is probably that higher education institutes in this region still feature intensive lectures. Similarly, as the internet is becoming increasingly accessible to people, we can also witness a trend in college students of taking online courses on platforms like Coursera, whereby they can study whenever and wherever they want. Should group assignments replace these helpful self-study tools, how can we meet this self-study need then?

On the other hand, group assignments are also not the only way available for college students to learn how to work as a team. There are tremendous occasions and activities on campus that require them to work in teams so as to achieve their collective goals. For example, in law school, many students participate in law journals as editors, where they work together to publish cutting-edge scholarship every year without prejudice their regular study in law school, which features primarily lectures. As there are other approaches to cultivate teamwork skills, the speaker’s proposal looks unnecessary.

In conclusion, although teamwork really matters, as the group assignments are not the only way to cultivate students’ teamwork skills while lecture-based instruction remains indispensable in learning, I have to disagree with the given statement.