Student Team Project Trauma: The (Not-So) Hidden Emotional Cost to Students
The other day, I saw a Reddit post from a graduate student that troubled me. This student wrote that student team projects were "changing (their) perception about people and further trashing (their) mental health." Troubling? Yes. Surprising? Not really. Poorly designed student team projects can really take a toll on students' wellbeing, and as instructors, we need to tackle this head-on.
So why do we keep assigning student team projects? Simple - companies across all fields (not just business) want graduates who know how to collaborate. It’s not a frivolous request. Collaborative work is becoming increasingly common in today's workplace, and students need real experience working with others before entering the job market.
The emotional fallout from bad student team experiences is real. Students mention stress, anxiety, and feeling emotionally drained. Many avoid confronting teammates about issues because they don't feel safe asking questions, raising concerns, offering suggestions - that's a lack of what we call psychological safety. Over time, students can develop learned helplessness - the feeling that nothing they do will make any difference.
The result? Students who absolutely dread group work. Research backs this up too. A 2023 NIH study found that 61.7% of students preferred working independently, while only a tiny 0.9% reported liking “just” collaborative learning in a class.
What's causing all this angst? The biggest culprit is social loafing - aka free riding or "slacking". The Reddit poster mentioned, "I'm the one asking for updates and sending reminders all the time." As a professor with many student team projects under my belt, I can attest that many students end up feeling like they're shouldering the entire project while others coast along.
But flip the coin, and you'll find students who feel micromanaged by "bossy" teammates who "take over the entire assignment and do everything before we can get to it." This points to another common issue: differences in work timing. Some people like to chip away at projects steadily, while others prefer to tackle things closer to the deadline (and no, that's not the same as waiting till the last minute - it's about work style).
Sometimes, problems occur even when instructors try to make things better for students in team projects. The instructor thinks, “I’ll let them select their own teams – that will make them happy.” However, research has shown that the end results prove the opposite. In one study, students reported by a two-to-one ratio that their worst group work experiences were with self-formed groups!
In my next post, I'll share some practical strategies for designing team projects that don't just work but actually build self-confidence, trust, and team cohesion. Because teamwork doesn't have to be a nightmare.
