Karl Fisch
There's a lot of great research on effective group work out there, I'm sure Ray and Melissa could hook you up with some of it if you want to go that route.
And, while I think learning how to work effectively in groups is of vital importance, I think your second point is spot on - it has to be meaningful and relevant group work, and they have to know that they are ultimately responsible for their own learning.
The group grading part is a tricky area, but I think it's one we have to think more about. I was just listening to someone the other day who talked about how our metrics aren't matching up with some of our values. That we value collaboration and the importance of teams and organizations to accomplish more collectively than we can individually, yet we still measure our educational success using tests of individuals working alone.
mc c1
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