I think working in groups on assignments is a good idea when the class sizes are fairly large. I think its unfair to allow large classes AND disallow group work since its probably difficult for most of the students to get any real attention from the instructor. So group work definitely helps here.
At the same time if you're skeptical about these folks learning anything at all : higher level classes tend to be a lot smaller and you should be able to design higher-level courses to filter students who really don't know enough to advance.
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I think working in groups on assignments is a good idea when the class sizes are fairly large. I think its unfair to allow large classes AND disallow group work since its probably difficult for most of the students to get any real attention from the instructor. So group work definitely helps here. At the same time if you're skeptical about these folks learning anything at all : higher level classes tend to be a lot smaller and you should be able to design higher-level courses to filter students who really don't know enough to advance.