Group projects are a near universal part of, and can be seen in all parts of, the education-system. In collaborative assignments ranging from kindergarten to university-level group research projects. The goal is for students to learn, explain, formulate and to disclose the group-findings in papers or in front of the educational group. Students develop important 21st century skills during group-work projects such as the ability to collaborate, to think critically, to problem solve and to manage their own performance in relations to theirs and others academic goals. In all levels of education, the innate difficulties of group-activities can be seen and appear quite abstract to solve on an individual as well as on a group level. This paper aims to summarize the teachers view on group-activities in connection to social studies and what type of structuring can be done by the teacher to promote student-learning and achievement. The study concludes that teachers’ views are split between seeing the many benefits of the method such as greater academic achievement and the numerous skills that student develop, and against the fact that many dimensions of student group-work are outside of teachers influence. Perhaps the biggest caveat that teachers relate to are the difficulties in giving student an accurate assessment when they work according to the structuring that cooperative learning and the science promote. Scientific publications from both national and international perspectives have been selected to be the grounds of analysis and interpretation towards two research questions that have become clear through the theme of the results. Throughout this study it is clear that students may benefit from teachers learning to structure student group-work so that it may benefit the group-members more equally and so that it may be a time for cooperation for cognitive development.

The study explores the project manager’s perception of the competitive dynamic amongst the projects that utilize the same organizational resources in the multi-project context.   The method used is a qualitative research design with an inductive approach where the data corpus was analyzed through thematic analysis. Ten project managers with experience in multi-project environments participated in the study. The analysis resulted in three themes. Theme 1: Competing is outdated and unsavory with the sub-themes No competition, we work together, and Friendly competition for a common goal. This theme reflects the respondents’ perception of the competitive dynamic between the projects. Theme 2: Organization set precedent with the sub-theme Governance of projects shows the respondents’ perception of their work situation with the complex nature of projects. Theme 3: Obstacles are unsolved solutions with the sub-theme Do the best you can with what you got and be a good sport about it; demonstrates the respondents’ attitudes, behavior, and view of their part in the dynamic between the other projects, the project managers, and the rest of the organization. Unexpectedly, the respondents did not appear to agree that there are competing dynamics amongst the projects that utilize the same organizational resources in multi-project organizations. Instead, many respondents were averse to competing and saw it as outdated and problematic for the organization’s success and the work environment. The results show that the respondents prefer cooperation instead of competing and choose to prioritize interpersonal relationships with their fellow project managers instead.