Home | How It Works | Stats Login | Register         Case: Cannot Cooperate Aisha is known as a responsible and smart student. I have known her for the last two years, but this year is the first time she is taking one of my classes. She is in my 10th grade US History class. Recently, I started using small group projects in my class. I simply want my students to learn to cooperate, exchange ideas, and produce the project together. Although Aisha is willing to take part in these small group projects, she does not want to be in groups with male students because of her religious beliefs. When she told me about this, I told her that she was in the United States and that she had to work with whoever she is in a group with. In the first group project, Aisha was in a group with three males and one female students. She simply did not participate in any of the group activities. I wonder if should reconsider my original position on this issue and accommodate Aisha by having her work only with girls. Would I be doing her a disservice? What should I do? Solution: (Rates are posted for this solution!) As many have mentioned in the previous solutions I think a combination of things should happen. If I were the teacher, the first thing I would do is accommodate the student. There is no reason that she couldn't be put into an all female group if that is where she is comfortable. However, after she has worked in this kind of group for a while I'd arrange a conference with her parents so that I may better understand their stance. During that meeting I'd suggest that we gradually add a male student (and later two) to Aisha's cooperative learning experience. I'd recommend this because I do believe that she'd be better adept for the real world if she had experience working with males, as it will be expected of her later. I would explain this to her parents and then describe the culture she might face in the US workforce as she enters adulthood. I feel that as her parents and I share our suggestions and reasoning we could come up with an adequate solution for Aisha as a team.