#PWboleh? The Truth About Project Work
An unvarnished look at the toils and tribulations of PW. With tips, of course.
Project Work (PW) is intended to provide a learning experience for students to have the opportunity to synthesise knowledge from various areas of learning and apply it critically and creatively to real-life situations. Working in groups, students enhance their knowledge and gain important skills to prepare them for future learning and challenges.
Oftentimes when the topic of Project Work is brought up, people reminisce of the times that they were able to work with their classmates on a project, watching it come to fruition and finishing off with a satisfying Oral Presentation.
No teacher would tell you the difficulties that can arise from PW, what teacher would? Thus, in this article, I aim to uncover the underlying issues of PW to give the readers an uncensored look into how students can experience PW. One stained with disagreements and arguments, a 180° from the typical rose-tinted recount one would get from most teachers or students.
I would like to add a disclaimer that while I do acknowledge that Project Work can bring about good memories and is not entirely bad, I am simply playing devil’s advocate and showing the less portrayed side of Project Work, one that most teachers would not warn their JC students.
The recounts shown in this article are purely subjective and readers are advised to read at their own discretion.
Trials of the PW: Teammates
The issue of team dynamics arises from the differences in each member’s personalities. As simple as a difference in work styles can lead to disagreements and possible inefficiency in the group.
Of course, this is part and parcel of every group and one is expected to deal with this as Project Work is supposedly a student’s peek into the workforce. To work with people you might disagree with is normal and they are expected to work with what they have, whether they like it or not. However, this is not addressed by most PW teachers.
An extreme instance would be an uncooperative teammate, someone who doesn’t have the same drive for the ‘A‘ as others. This teammate will put in significantly less effort, making the rest of the team pull more than their weight and giving this teammate a “free pass”.
Typically this nightmarish instance would not cross the mind of an idealistic J1 just starting out in PW. After all, who would want to picture this happening to them? But it’s more common than you think.
By bringing this to light, both students currently taking PW and those who are going to take PW can realise they aren’t the only ones experiencing this situation.
Experiences with Difficult Teammates
A J2 student, Ashley (not her real name), recounts their experience with a difficult teammate:
We would split the work, each of us doing a respective section of the WR after discussion. Every time, we would check the Google Docs and their work section would be blank.
We made sure to check in with them throughout the week and they assured us that the docs would be updated, but the night before weekly reviews it would still be empty.
Our angle was that if she was unable to finish her work, she had to let us know instead of leaving it empty for us to rush out the night before.
So the teacher asks her gently and she starts sobbing. Straight up crying. She says the workload has been too much.
This experience, though seemingly extreme, is not uncommon. Difficult teammates are something that one brace themselves for when entering Project Work.
A Perspective from a ‘Slacker’
Another recount is from a student on the other side, one who reflected upon their actions as a “slacker”. They regret not doing more for their team, forcing their other teammates to have to pick up the slack and spending more time than they had to on the subject.
In their case, this “slacker” student received an A for PW while their teammates received a B, due to the student having received a good individual Oral Presentation score.
As unjust as this situation is, I would like to stress that there are methods to work around this with the tips listed further below. These situations are unfair and should not happen to students. However, that does not mean it will not happen.
Trials of the PW: Teachers
Moving away from students, there are other experiences with students pinning their results on their teachers. Personally, I received a teacher that put in a lot of effort into my class in terms of the WR creation as well as OP preparation. Some concerns raised from the experiences were both students’ tutors as well as invigilators during the OP.
A student speaking about their class’ PW grades in comparison to the other classes stated:
Our class got all B and C grades while other classes got about 80% As. Our teacher was quite new compared to the teachers of the A classes were more experienced
Another student recounts that their teacher’s methods were too rushed:
From the start of the year until June, we were learning ‘skills’ and picking a topic. From July to late September, we were trying to write the first section, having to rewrite it after the Promotional Exam.
They completed the Written Report (WR) 2 weeks before the submission date, which is very late in comparison to most schools who are normally touching up their WR in preparation for submissions at that point. They also add that they had to pull an all-nighter to complete it at the 2-week mark, showing how behind their group was.
Despite this rushed schedule, they have stated that this teacher has the highest distinction rate, as the Head of Department (HOD) of PW. This shows that the most unique methods don’t mean the worst results, in this case, the takeaway would be the importance of time management, with or without teacher supervision.
In the case of Oral Presentation (OP), one student complained of the strictness of their invigilator. They made just one mistake in their presentation and had a perfectly recited Q&A section, yet still earned only a B.
Some discussion has arisen from whether the invigilation of OP by SEAB people and school tutors does affect one’s grades in the examination but this has not been confirmed by anyone.
I feel it is important to just do your best in this case. At least in the end, you can say you gave it your all and personally that’s what I feel is more important.
Tips and Tricks for PW
In this section, I will be addressing some tips brought up by interviewed students on how they got through their PW, I will also be adding some personal tips, although these methods are unconventional and arguably thread a thin line of legitimacy.
However as these were brought up by the interviewed students, these tips are included in this guide. Please use these tips at your discretion; if possible, consult your tutor before doing so.
#1 Difficult Teammates
The first tip would be addressing difficult teammates. Though this seems intuitive, this solution is hardly discussed by PW tutors as it is normally employed only when the tutor deems the situation of a teammate to be “affecting the group”, meaning that unless they see the issue first hand, nothing will be done. The solution would simply be reporting a teammate. When all else fails, after discussions and feedback from fellow teammates, if someone does not change their attitude, I personally feel it is important to raise this issue to the teacher.
In the case where their behavior is disruptive enough to the group, this issue can be raised to SEAB and their results will be affected, more importantly, special consideration will be taken for the other teammates.
#2 Help from Seniors and Classmates
One method raised by a student was seeking advice from seniors. Taking a look at their seniors’ WR would allow a group to see the base skeleton of how their WR should be looking like at the end of the project.
The student stated that getting advice from seniors would definitely help in making PW sessions more efficient as you have a better sense of direction for the end product. However, avoid entirely copying seniors’ WRs as that would be plagiarism.
Another mentioned tip was getting support from fellow classmates. In Oral Presentation, getting the help of fellow classmates to raise their hands when asking questions would help with the criteria of “Audience Engagement”. Having the familiar faces of classmates smiling back at you can considerably help in calming nerves at such a stressful moment.
Getting classmate support in responding to surveys can also help a group meet sample numbers faster.
#3 Survey Data
The next tip is not one I personally recommend, but one suggestion frequently raised was to change the results of surveys. It is technically possible to influence statistics to better illustrate one’s final graph, especially to better emphasize your group’s point.
With the unpredictability of survey results, in the unfortunate event that the final results of a small sample is not as expected, adding some results in a pinch could save a group when rushing for time.
However, such a practice is certainly not ethical nor legitimate by research conventions.
#4 Oral Presentation
For Oral Presentation, it is important to be confident over all else. A major criterion is one’s ability to speak; the test is not entirely on one’s content. Although it is certainly not recommended to tangent off to a random topic you’re confident in speaking about. While speaking, it is important to avoid pausing too long in between sentences or words as this shows a lack of preparation and possible hints of low confidence.
When preparing a script, it is important to avoid giving yourself long sentences to say without pause as that can be more difficult to get a point across, giving the impression of you droning on. For the benefit of the slide clicker, it would be good to highlight specific words to show when they should click.
By the time of OP, it would be good to have prepared for possible Q&A questions so as to not get stunned by the question thrown at you by the invigilator. Having the base points of answering the question would be sufficient but if you would like to go a step further, memorising a full response works as well.
PW: Boon or Bane?
In conclusion, I would like to consider the legitimacy of PW in achieving its goal. In simulating a work environment, I agree that putting students in randomised groups does encourage students to work better with unfamiliar faces.
However, this can be improved over time. After the novelty of having a “big project” to complete wears off, PW turns into a subject where students slog through, finding different ways to game it instead of focusing on the main objective of teamwork or problem-solving. Personally, I feel that students would learn more about these values like perseverance and teamwork from CCA camps or other leadership events.
The innovation of PW projects is also underutilised. Despite the emphasis on projects that can better our society, few or none of the projects end up being executed. If MOE had more incentive for students to continue the prototypes of their projects after the examination, perhaps the goal of inculcating teamwork would be achieved.
