The claim made by the author seems compelling for many reasons. There are a variety of ways in which a students understanding of a subject can be tested and one such way is group assignments.
Group assignments are a useful technique to improve many skills of students, such as interpersonal skills, communication skills, and presentation skills. By collaborating with peers, students are able to communicate with individuals with similar mindsets and thinking patterns. Hence they will feel more comfortable in being inquisitive and asking questions among the group. Some peers feel overwhelmed to ask their lecturers questions as they feel that it may be a stupid or illogical questions. Hence group assignments do provide a safe space for students to question and be innovative with the fields of study that they are pursuing. For example, a student may feel more comfortable asking her friend why inflation increases the cost of living than opposed to asking a lecturer who has a PhD in Economics.
Secondly, Peers are able to relate to one another better than Lecturers relating to students. Hence, when a peer is dubious about a certain topic, a fellow peer might make it more easier to understand by relating it to a real life example that he or she may face. For example, for the question on why inflation increases the cost of living, a peer may provide the example of how its more expensive to go out to the cinema now that ticket prices increases, hence your cost of living increases. Whereas lecturers may provide a more convoluted example such as inflation affects cost of living because the purchasing parity index falls. which may end up being more confusing for students. Hence students are able to relate more to one another.
In addition, it is also a good opportunity for the lecturer to identify is students have understood the course material that they are studying by allowing them to carry out group assignments such as presentations to the class. The lecturer can identify weak students and perhaps give them more attention in the future as well.
Furthermore, traditional lecture-based teaching can be quite banal and mundane for some students. Students may get physically tired and mentally distracted whilst sitting for hours at a stretch and listening to a lecturer speak about a certain topic. Sometimes, traditional lecture-based teaching allows students to be aloof as their minds are distracted with thoughts. Group assignments on the other hand compel them to be aware of their surroundings as they need to engage in physical activity such as talking, organizing the structure with their peers and presenting their work.
However, It is not cogent to substantially replace traditional based lecturing with group assignments as ultimately it is the lecture that has vast knowledge in the field of study and students must receive most of their knowledge through their lecturers rather than through their peers. There can be instances where students completely misunderstand their topic due to the absence of the lecturer's knowledge and have to spend time unlearning. Further, group assignments tend to be time consuming and unfair to certain students as well. Unfortunately, not all students are enthusiastic about their fields of study and may completely not contribute in the assignments leading to unfair scoring for some eager students.
In conclusion however, i believe group assignments are important for the reasons above
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 2, column 278, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: Hence,
...similar mindsets and thinking patterns. Hence they will feel more comfortable in bein...
^^^^^
Line 2, column 497, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: Hence,
...may be a stupid or illogical questions. Hence group assignments do provide a safe spa...
^^^^^
Line 5, column 176, Rule ID: MOST_COMPARATIVE[2]
Message: Use only 'easier' (without 'more') when you use the comparative.
Suggestion: easier
...tain topic, a fellow peer might make it more easier to understand by relating it to a real ...
^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 634, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: Which
...ause the purchasing parity index falls. which may end up being more confusing for stu...
^^^^^
Line 5, column 686, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: Hence,
...d up being more confusing for students. Hence students are able to relate more to one...
^^^^^
Line 12, column 389, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'lecturers'' or 'lecturer's'?
Suggestion: lecturers'; lecturer's
...d their topic due to the absence of the lecturers knowledge and have to spend time unlear...
^^^^^^^^^
Line 14, column 24, Rule ID: I_LOWERCASE[2]
Message: Did you mean 'I'?
Suggestion: I
...ger students. In conclusion however, i believe group assignments are important...
^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, furthermore, hence, however, if, may, second, secondly, so, thus, well, whereas, for example, in addition, in conclusion, such as, on the other hand
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 26.0 19.5258426966 133% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 16.0 12.4196629213 129% => OK
Conjunction : 16.0 14.8657303371 108% => OK
Relative clauses : 11.0 11.3162921348 97% => OK
Pronoun: 36.0 33.0505617978 109% => OK
Preposition: 74.0 58.6224719101 126% => OK
Nominalization: 10.0 12.9106741573 77% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2919.0 2235.4752809 131% => OK
No of words: 561.0 442.535393258 127% => OK
Chars per words: 5.20320855615 5.05705443957 103% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.86676880123 4.55969084622 107% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.93791857591 2.79657885939 105% => OK
Unique words: 259.0 215.323595506 120% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.461675579323 0.4932671777 94% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 894.6 704.065955056 127% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59117977528 101% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 3.0 6.24550561798 48% => OK
Article: 5.0 4.99550561798 100% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 3.10617977528 32% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.77640449438 56% => OK
Preposition: 3.0 4.38483146067 68% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 25.0 20.2370786517 124% => OK
Sentence length: 22.0 23.0359550562 96% => OK
Sentence length SD: 56.8089288757 60.3974514979 94% => OK
Chars per sentence: 116.76 118.986275619 98% => OK
Words per sentence: 22.44 23.4991977007 95% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.36 5.21951772744 122% => OK
Paragraphs: 7.0 4.97078651685 141% => Less paragraphs wanted.
Language errors: 7.0 7.80617977528 90% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 12.0 10.2758426966 117% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 6.0 5.13820224719 117% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 7.0 4.83258426966 145% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.307068299834 0.243740707755 126% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0944304761014 0.0831039109588 114% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0513576980101 0.0758088955206 68% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.160174476269 0.150359130593 107% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0530576343054 0.0667264976115 80% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 14.3 14.1392134831 101% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 49.15 48.8420337079 101% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.92365168539 111% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.9 12.1743820225 98% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.18 12.1639044944 108% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.13 8.38706741573 97% => OK
difficult_words: 121.0 100.480337079 120% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 9.0 11.8971910112 76% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.8 11.2143820225 96% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.7820224719 76% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Maximum six paragraphs wanted.
Rates: 66.67 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.0 Out of 6
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Note: the e-grader does NOT examine the meaning of words and ideas. VIP users will receive further evaluations by advanced module of e-grader and human graders.