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!) I would begin by meeting Aisha personally before or after class. I would ask her to explain her fears or concerns with working with males in the classroom. I would also ask her how I could accommodation her wishes without changing groups. I ultimately think that if this issue arose in my classroom I would put her in a group with maybe three other girls and one male to see how she responded. It might simply be a factor of getting acclimated working and sharing ideas with males. It is important to provide a comfortable environment to learn. I do not believe that making her comfortable by pairing her with other females is a disservice by any means. I would find a way for her to slowly become acclimated to interacting with males.