Is learning in groups just fun or adds to peer pressure?

The process of assimilation of information depends on a number of factors, including the environment that one negotiates. A critical part of this environment of learning is peers, friends or family, who either distract or add to the process of learning. Group studies, for instance is a common mode of studying which greatly affects one’s learning abilities as well as personality.

Studying in groups has a number of positives, and is often encouraged in schools. Apart from creating a healthy environment for learning, and stoking the interest among children, it helps them develop greater social skills.

Since there are more people studying together, there is a greater exchange of ideas and fostering of creative and lateral thinking. Communication skills also get enhanced naturally when a child negotiates in a group. That learning can be fun, and an enjoyable process is discovered only when a child is in a group, not when he is studying alone.

Given that group studies are suffused with positives, most educationists stress the need for studying in groups, than alone. However as with any group activity, the downside of learning in a group is also exists.

Since children, are more susceptible to peer pressure given their impressionable minds, this is an aspect that usually worries parents while sending their children to study in groups. Unless the group is actively monitored, studying together as a group is bound to also produce some disadvantages. Research shows children get motivated to work harder when they are in a group. Conversely for those students with poor learning abilities or low motivation, groups make them feel inferior.

Group studies can directly affect a child’s sense of self-worth too. It often makes him grow jealous of someone else’s success, or compete with another child’s social status and his material belongings. For example, often children are driven to stealing another’s belongings like a smarter pencil-box or pen, or bag which he does not own. It can also lead to a child picking up unwanted habits – like smoking, alcohol, or indulging in unsafe sex when influenced by another peer.

In spite of all its disadvantages, educationists stress on the need for studying in groups. According to them its positives far outweigh the negatives associated with this form of learning. Group studies are a stepping-stone to building greater relationships, social skills and above all widen a child’s scope of learning.