Group Work Skills for Students

Group projects are seldom a favorite among students — unless you get to choose your own partners. But even then, group work often presents a lot of challenges and frustration. Sometimes, group projects can even cause conflicts among friends. 

On the flipside, group projects are incredibly important. After all, in the real-world, the most impactful projects are seldom done alone. There is power in teamwork. By pooling resources, skillsets, and areas of expertise, people are able to accomplish so much more than they would ever be capable of doing by themselves. This is why cultivating group work skills for students is so important. 

Yes, group work can be challenging. But it also has incredible potential. This is why it is important to gain the skills you’ll need to rise to these challenges so that you can engage in meaningful, collaborative projects. Projects that can have an outsized impact. All in all, developing good teamwork skills in high school is a great way to invest in yourself and prepare for both your future academic and professional life. 

In this article, we will share 5 essential group work skills for students and 5 strategies for improving group work success. We will also discuss topics like why group work skills matter, common challenges in group work, how teachers can support group work, and more. 

Why Group Work Skills Matter

Group work prepares students for the kinds of collaboration they’ll encounter in college and the workplace. From research projects to design challenges to business proposals, success often depends on being able to share ideas, divide responsibilities, and work toward a shared goal. This is why learning how to listen actively, communicate clearly, and resolve disagreements productively are invaluable skills.

Beyond effective communication, group work skills for students nurture leadership and accountability. When students take ownership of their roles, they learn how to manage responsibilities and support others at the same time. Overall, collaborative projects encourage students to balance their personal goals with the needs of the group, teaching them how to contribute meaningfully without overstepping. Not only do these experiences strengthen interpersonal soft skills, but they also build confidence and maturity.

Common Challenges in Group Work

It’s no secret that group projects can be challenging. In fact, it’s not uncommon for students to dread them altogether. Here are a couple of common challenges to keep in mind: 

1. Unequal participation or workload imbalance

2. Difficulty communicating effectively

3. Conflicts between personalities or ideas

4. Struggles with organization and time management

Group projects can be really stressful, especially if you don’t know how to approach these challenges. Thankfully, there are group work skills for students you can develop and practical strategies you can use to help along the way. 

5 Essential Group Work Skills for Students

Group work skills for students aren't just about managing personalities or dividing up tasks fairly. In order to thrive in group work settings, students must develop these 5 key skills:

1. Active listening and respectful communication

The group member with the most confidence isn’t necessarily the one with all of the best ideas. Every group member brings something valuable to the table, and it’s important to take the time to hear everyone’s ideas and perspectives. This takes active listening skills. 

Active listening means paying close attention to details, asking follow-up questions, waiting for your turn to speak, and giving each group member enough time to work through their ideas without cutting them short. In a group project setting, active listening may also involve taking notes, especially during the initial brainstorming and planning stages. Active listening is also a valuable job interview skill to develop, as it demonstrates focus, empathy, and genuine engagement with the interviewer.

Don’t assume you know what a group member is going to say or contribute. Give everyone a fair chance to share their ideas. You may be surprised by what some students may have to contribute! 

2. Setting shared goals and clear expectations 

Before you begin working on a group project and divvying up tasks, you’ll need to take time as a group to set clear expectations and shared goals. This ensures that everyone is on the same page and working towards similar results. If everyone has a slightly different idea of what the final project should look like, your group work efforts won’t be effective. 

Ideally, group projects should feel cohesive, not like a bunch of separate projects that have been mashed together at the last minute. Setting shared goals and clear expectations is the best way to set the tone of a group project and work towards presenting a cohesive final product. 

3. Time management and task delegation

Before you can start delegating tasks, you need to come up with a list of tasks. Breaking down large projects into smaller, more manageable steps is an important skillset — one that will continue to be useful throughout college and your future career. Then, after you’ve come up with your list of tasks, you’ll need to start delegating. 

It’s important to keep students’ strengths and weaknesses in mind while delegating tasks. For example, if someone is a strong writer but struggles with public speaking, you may want to assign them a large written portion of the project and a smaller section of the spoken presentation. Similarly, if a student excels at art but struggles with research, you may want to assign them tasks that draw on their artistic skillset and assign the majority of research tasks to the group member who is best suited for the task.

After you delegate tasks, it’s important to set deadlines. Developing time management skills is essential if you want to have a stress-free experience working with others. If everyone waits until the last minute to complete their portion of the project, there won’t be time to work on revisions or build on each other’s ideas. Again, you want to present one cohesive project, rather than several separate projects that are tenuously connected. This is why having several intermediate deadlines is so important. This will allow you to check in and make revisions.

4. Problem-solving and conflict resolution

Learning how to engage in conflict resolution is an important group work skill, one that will continue to serve you throughout your personal and professional life. Chances are, not everyone will get along in a group work setting and it’s your job to rise to the challenge. 

Active listening and respectful communication go a long way in conflict resolution. Do your best to remain calm and hear everyone out, without showing unfair preferences. Then, after everyone has had a chance to share their piece, you can go into problem-solving mode and start brainstorming practical steps you can take to address a challenge or setback. 

5. Adaptability and collaboration across diverse perspectives

Independent projects don’t challenge our viewpoints the same way as group projects. Group projects draw on diverse perspectives by design, so do your best to lean into the process. Remember, diversity is the primary strength of group projects. People won’t necessarily have the same ideas, strengths, or values as you, and that’s okay! In fact, it’s key to the process. 

While in some instances, an independent project may feel more polished and comprehensive, especially if you are a talented and motivated student, learning how to collaborate effectively is an invaluable job skill for high school students. Remember, in the real world, the projects that make the biggest impact involve lots of people! True excellence doesn’t exist in a vacuum. 

5 Strategies to Improve Group Work Success

Now that we’ve identified 5 key group work skills for students, let’s shift our attention to 5 practical strategies that can help you cultivate these skills:

1. Using project management tools or shared documents

Shared documents help ensure that everyone is on the same page, literally. This helps keep people accountable for completing their portion of the work. Commenting and suggesting features also encourage active collaboration and periodic feedback throughout the process. With shared documents, you don’t have to wait until the end to find ways to integrate everyone’s work into one cohesive project; you can work on it gradually as you go. 

Project management tools can also be helpful for managing deadlines and gauging progress — another way to increase group members’ sense of personal accountability.

2. Creating clear timelines and dividing responsibilities

Group members can’t feel personally accountable for completing their portion of the work if clear expectations aren’t set at the beginning of the process. This is why creating clear timelines and dividing responsibilities is so important. Every student is on their own journey in terms of their academic strengths and weaknesses, and time management might not necessarily be a strength for all students. In order to set everyone up for success and avoid conflict later on down the road, set clear timeline goals that everyone can stick to.

3. Practicing empathy and recognizing teammates’ strengths in your group

Not everyone will have the same strengths or share the same ideas in a group setting. This is why practicing empathy by engaging in active listening is so important. Just because a student may struggle with a certain aspect of a project, doesn’t mean that they don’t have something meaningful to contribute. So try your best to be patient, give everyone an equal opportunity to speak, and find ways to work as a group to delegate tasks effectively based on strengths and weaknesses. 

4. Holding regular check-ins to track progress with your team

Holding regular check-ins with group members is a great way to track progress and keep group members accountable for completing their portion of the work. It’s also a great way to work towards completing one cohesive project — rather than having a bunch of disjointed sections that don’t necessarily work well together as a final product. 

5. Celebrating group achievements together

Teamwork takes hard work. It’s important to recognize this and celebrate group achievements together. Not only will this help maintain morale, but it will also help frame collaborative projects positively in your mind, so that you look forward to working on a team, rather than dread them. 

How Teachers and Mentors Can Support Group Work

There are lots of challenges associated with group work and teachers and mentors play a key role in setting the tone. In addition to modeling effective collaboration strategies and providing tools for managing conflicts constructively, teachers can assign written reflections after group projects. 

Not only is it helpful for students to articulate what went well and what was challenging, but it is also a great accountability tool. After all, if students know that every group member will be submitting a reflection, everyone will feel more motivated to complete their best work. Written reflections can also provide teachers with valuable insights as they assign grades that recognize both individual and collective contributions.

Building Long-Term Collaboration Skills

Learning how to organize tasks, motivate peers, and navigate different perspectives are valuable skills. In fact, these collaboration skills consistently play roles in real-world situations, especially in terms of internships, jobs, and extracurriculars. This is why group projects are more than just classroom assignments. They’re practice for developing leadership and collaboration skills that students will need their entire lives, both personally and professionally. 

By developing professional communication habits early, such as setting expectations, following through on commitments, and giving constructive feedback to a team member, students prepare themselves for the demands of the workplace. As students gain experience working with others through group projects, they begin to understand what makes a group function effectively and how to take initiative when needed. This is why cultivating long-term collaboration and social skills is so important. 

Conclusion: Strengthen Teamwork with Polygence

Participating in a meaningful and successful group project is key for setting the tone of your academic and professional journey. If the majority of your group work experiences feel stressful and draining, you’ll likely avoid group projects. Not only is this a shame, but it can also be very limiting. While teachers can encourage collaboration in the classroom, what do you do if group work doesn’t play a prominent role in your school’s curriculum? 

By participating in a collaborative research project with Polygence, students have the opportunity to work with expert research mentors and like-minded team members on a project with real-world applications. What’s more, Polygence has flexible and innovative programs that can fit a variety of student schedules and goals. Interested in learning more? Check out our series of Polygence Pods and our Work Lab. 

Whether you’re interested in learning more about neuroscience, AI, the stock market, gene editing, cancer research, or anything in between, Polygence has something for you!