A student should participate in study groups - Essay Example

For example, if two students, both equally intelligent and capable, completely complement each other’s skills in a physics course, then it is only logical that they work together in order to learn from the other’s experiences and abilities. Study groups, like a group in the workplace, seek to fulfill the goals of each member to the extent that each member’s objectives are aligned with the other members of the group. Usually, it is the case that members of a study group are interested in achieving a better grade, and this desire is what unites the individuals in their efforts to help others and in turn help themselves.

Students should participate in study groups because such groups offer knowledge, experience, and skills that individuals alone could not realize. Study groups have been shown to be successful, particularly in fields where knowledge is particularly specialized, such as in more in-depth fields like physics, chemistry, and computer science. Research has demonstrated that students retain more information by devoting time to hands-on laboratory work and with faculty. In addition, study groups are helpful to students insofar as they encourage individuals to become active learners and to become better collaborators with peers (Guo 190).

As such, study groups tend to produce higher results on academic performance than individual work. In a study of perceptions of academic support services by engineering students, researchers Charlotte Amenkhienan and Lori Kogan observed that students thought that study groups were invaluable. Individuals thought the chance to describe course material to others assisted in a clearer understanding of the notes. Moreover, in order to add more to the group talks, members of study groups retained an incentive to finish work in a suitable manner.

Students who had trouble in their classes found it difficult to identify fellow students with whom to make study groups. This was described as a limitation to freshman year academic performance. As the authors wrote, “Their inability to establish contacts with fellow students precluded their ability to take advantage of valuable peer networking and study group opportunities” (Amenkhienan and Kogan 536). In other words, the study groups were instrumental to some students’ success, while the inability to actually participate in them in other cases was a burden on their academic performance.

This corroborates findings from other research that study groups are an asset to students of specialized fields. In one case of study group effectiveness for students, a pre-medicine undergraduate student named John decided that he should form a study group with other pre-medicine students because he had trouble with mathematics. Sure enough, John was able to put together a study group of pre-medicine students, some of whom were strong in mathematics, others in physics, others in chemistry, and others in biology.

John was able to leverage his strength in biology to help a fellow member of the study group, Kevin, who was especially strong in mathematics. Together, the students could work collaboratively while doing well in their courses. This specialization of skills within the study group provides for personal improvement that one would not have access to outside of the group. If John had continued without participating in a group, his academic success would be