Allow me to begin with a cliche: Humans are inherently social. We use others, we often rely on them, and knowing how to interact is a major predictor of success. However, the way children are being taught to do so is wrong, and cripples them from the start, forcing those that realize the importance of collaboration to relearn how it’s done.
Schools try to push groupwork, but the methodology leaves most involved bitterly opposed to the idea. Groups are decided arbitrarily by an authority - you don’t work with people you know you can rely on, but instead with randoms, a gamble. Usually you end up with at least one deadweight, and one person that cares enough about their grade to be the “leader”, with the rest just drifting along.
There isn’t a strong incentive to talk to each other, to think together, but instead to split up the work, parallelizing so that work is done most efficiently at the cost of leaving the quality down to the weakest link. The work assigned to each person isn’t a reflection of what they are best at, but just who got there first when choosing parts.
Projects are done in a disconnected manner, detracting from learning, as one person ends up diving into their part and their part only, skimming the rest to check for vague quality, but not absorbing information to the intended extent.
The “leader” gets put off of working with people, as they feel that they are doing most of the work, coordinating and filling in the gaps of the deadweights. The workers just accept their roles, do as they are commanded, and get nothing out of it. The deadweights benefit the most out of the arrangement, promoting an enjoyment of freeloading over productivity.
This is perhaps a reflection of groupwork anywhere - humans tend toward power structures, and there will always be lazy people and those that are more motivated taking charge. But it could be so much better.
Allow students to choose who they work with. “They’ll just be distracted and not work on the project” … doing so is at the cost of their grade. When they have something to lose, they will pull together and provide some output, enjoying the process and actually collaborating.
Don’t coddle students. Don’t check in on them or set up a collection of “soft” deadlines. Don’t set limitations on how work is done (“don’t split it up”). Groupwork distribution and organization is for the group to decide. No one will learn anything if there’s a teacher holding their hand and leading them through the work.
Only require groupwork on projects that would benefit from it! There is no point in assigning busywork that everyone can and will do individually. Groupwork should only be assigned when conversation about the topic at hand will inspire conversations that spark new ideas.
Alternatively, don’t ban groupwork on anything but assessments. This comes with a caveat - ensure the students are mature and motivated enough to realise what is better done solo. People benefit from working with others on topics you may not have anticipated. Provide the option.
Ultimately, students are forced into “working” on things at the same time as other random people as opposed to collaborating with people they work well with. There is value in working with individuals you don’t like but if that is the only thing you do and they are often intolerably incompetent or lazy and your grade depends on them … it truly ruins groupwork, for adolescence and life.