Do you agree or disagree with the following statement?

When teachersassign projects on which students must work together, the students learn muchmore effectively than when they are asked to work alone on projects.

Use specificreasons and examples to support your answer.

424 words，1小时10分

Inhigh schools and especially in college, students are from time to time asked towork collectively on assigned projects, from routine presentation duringseminars to graduate engineering designs. I believe this kind of group workproves more productive and conducive to students’ learning than the one wherethey have to work on a task alone.

First,individual student benefits a great deal more in a heterogeneous group. Theproject assigned by the professor who asks it be completed within a team isusually demanding and requires different talents. Naturally, it would be extremelytime-consuming, if not feasible, for a single student to accomplish the entiresystem of job, let alone to perfect, at every aspect. If a team of students areworking on one project, say, a presentation of English literature in Renaissance,different sub-tasks can be allocated to students with different strengths in powerpointdesign, storytelling or public speaking, data assortment, etc. In this way, studentslearn more in a relatively limited time span, drawing on the differentintelligence types from their fellow classmates in the group.

Second,working on projects together offers a great “organic” environment for studentsto develop their capability, exerting far-reaching effect on their long-termlearning. Schools do not bring a number of people and let them study together juston account of financial strains. Students are not robots any more than schoolare machines churning out products on assigned tasks. Real effective learning willonly happen when the pupils are motivated to full extent. The time spent in amorebondingenvironment, through communicationand comparison, will in turn reinforce the elements of academic success,including stronger motivation, more confidence in problem-solving and intangibleinspiration or concrete guidance from peer models. Therefore, students get toknow themselves better, both strength and weakness----the critical feedback anyyoung adult needs to improve and thrive. Through either the serious academicconversation or the casual bantering during work intervals, they will behearing different focuses or new perspectives that each group membercontributes towards an issue at hand; the discussion or even the debate thatfollows will inevitably trigger their critical thinking on whether the focus iscorrect and meaningful and why. This shaping process of mindset is bound toempower students with more drive to learn faster and more effectively.

Tosum up, pooling heads together is always a constructive approach to both trouble-shootingand learners, especially so if students, or anyone for that matter, want toachieve new height in their life and work in this ever-interdependent world.