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!) This is an interesting situation. As a teacher you want to take into account the cultural believes and views of Aishsa. I think that allowing her to work in a girl groups would be okay. But it could also affect how the other students are allowed to work with all of their peers on different group assignments. I feel that Aishsa will encounter many of these same situations in the future and different teachers may feel differently about this. I think that discussing the situation with her family could be beneficial. Maybe they might be more open minded and aware that allowing her to work with all different students (make and female) will actually benefit her in her future social interactions.