Question

You recently joined a study group for your biology class. Prior to joining the study group you read and took notes on each chapter before attending class. Since joining the group you only take notes on the portion of the chapter that you must explain to the group and rely on the photocopies of your groupmates' notes for the remaining sections. Your instructor considers this behavior social loafing and is concerned that it will affect your retention of the course content. How can she attempt to decrease the social loafing effect?

Answer 1

Answer:

The social loafing effect is understood as the phenomenon that happens when study, or work groups, are created and one, or more of the members of the group, literally start to slack off on their responsibilities, limiting themselves to only the barest necessary to still meet the requirements of the group membership, but not do anything extra for the group, only relying on the effort of the other members.

In this case presented here, you start presenting that particular behavior and limit yourself to just the portions that will require your utmost attention, as they are the minimum expected of you, but you do not take extra care with the rest of the chapters for study, just with the bare minimum (the notes from your group members) because they are not what you need to fulfill your task. Literally, you are depending entirely on the work of the other members to have full knowledge of all the coursework, because your focus is entirely on the small portions alloted to you.

One way in which the instructor can avoid this situation is by setting tasks for the group that will test the knowledge you have acquired on all the chapters in the coursework, and not just your own. As such, for example, in a presentation activity, the teacher might ask you to come to the front and present the chapters that another member worked on, without having access to his/her notes. This whill show the instructor how much you truly worked on your own coursework independently from the other members of your study group and assess you independently.