Francis,
The sad thing is I think even the students know what's right or wrong
or fair.
But the tyranny of "earning" a grade (as if a certain number of points
= learning) has caused some to become creative in ways we're forced to
guard against. I agree, sometimes the "guarding" gets to be more
trouble than it's worth.
But I do like Michael Sweet's approach.
Best,
John
John Fritz
Asst. VP, Instructional Technology & New Media
UMBC Office of Information Technology
410.455.6596 | [log in to unmask] | www.umbc.edu/~fritz
On Mar 12, 2008, at 1:12 PM, Francis Jones wrote:
> Hello colleagues,
>
> I have appreciated watching this and other discussions about Peer
> Evals.
> I have dropped using them altogether, but only because I haven't been
> able to come up with a peer/self evaluation procedure that suites
> what I
> perceive to be the needs.
>
> If peer evaluation is supposed to improve metacognitive skills and
> add a
> measure of accountability to the team and individual efforts, then I
> would prefer to implement a way for students to do self AND peer
> evaluations that makes them consider the extent to which they achieved
> the original goals of the exercise (small scale) or the course (larger
> scale). This instead of asking them to rank contributions of peers. If
> the team is working well then of course they all contributed.
>
> Assessing our selves and our peers against the goals of the work is
> after all what professionals and academics have to do. We (as
> professionals) rarely have to "rank" the contributions of our peers.
> Instead we are measuring degree of success, and hopefully acting
> appropriately upon the result of those (implicit or explicit)
> measures.
>
> If I had the time to come up with a rubric that helps students
> honestly
> assess the degree to which they (self) and their peers met the goals
> of
> (a) individuals, (b) the team exercise, and (c) the course, I would
> feel
> I had a good peer and self assessment process. Only then would I
> consider using these assessments as part of the grading process,
> probably as a multiplier to other team-based components of the grade.
>
> Unfortunately I an not teaching presently so I don't have an
> opportunity
> to work on this. Any thoughts?
>
> Cheers, Francis.
>
> --
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> | Francis Jones,
> | Lecturer (Geophysics) / Teaching & Learning Fellow,
> | EOS Science Education Initiative (eos-sei),
> | UBC Carl Wieman Science Education Initiative (CWSEI).
> | UBC Department of Earth & Ocean Sciences,
> | 6339 Stores Road, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z4,
> | [log in to unmask] or 604-822-2138.
> | http://www.eos.ubc.ca/public/people/faculty/F.Jones.html
> --------------------------------------------------------------
>
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