For
what it’s worth, I’ve found it helpful to put the following
statement on the back of the peer evaluation form (Michaelsen’s version)
and ask them to sign it.
I hereby certify that I have provided
an honest assessment of the contribution of my teammates to our team’s
productivity. My team maintenance scores are not based on any ‘in or
out-of-class’ agreements among my teammates and myself to distribute
points in a particular way (i.e., a way that does not consider the quality or
quantity of individual efforts).
Karla
Kubitz
From: Team Learning
Discussion List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Maureen Jonason
Sent: Wednesday, January 24, 2007
12:41 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Forced Ranking in
Peer Evaluation
I usually do not tell students about this
ahead of time. They read it to themselves on the last day of class and
figure it out and quietly do what I ask. In the past, I made the mistake of
giving the team evals out to fill out outside of class. One team simply ignored
me and gave everyone equal scores. Another team cleverly figured out a way to
give equal points by each agreeing to make one of the others the low-pointer
and, so they all ended up with equal scores anyway! I had to give them credit
on that one. I am not bothered by rule-breaking, so I accepted their
decisions/choices. AS others have pointed out, if the teams bond and everyone
does truly contribute equally in their view, then the lesson has been learned.
usually, when there is clearly someone who does less work, they are more than
happy to give points accordingly.
From: Team
Learning Discussion List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Don McCormick
Sent: Wednesday, January 24, 2007
11:32 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Forced Ranking in Peer
Evaluation
Hi TBLers
I teach management and I used the peer evaluation form that requires
students to rate their peers and give at least one a "9" (which is
one below average) and one "11" (which is one above average). When I
announced it last night, the class exploded in a revolt, objecting that it
wasn't fair because "in my group everyone did an equally good job of
contributing," they couldn't figure out a basis for rating others one way
or another, etc.
I know the form says "If
you give everyone pretty much the same score you will be hurting those who did
the most and helping those who did the least, " but I also am sympathetic to the
students' point of view.
I understand the reason given above for forcing some minimal ranking
and I also realize that students are often terrified of giving negative
feedback to other students. I want to help them learn to overcome this fear
because they need to learn how to give negative feedback in the workplace. If
they don't learn to do this, they will truly suck as managers. But it isn't
clear that in the cases where they genuinely feel each person in their group
has contributed equally how forced ranking will help them learn this.
Is there more to the requirement of forced ranking that I am missing?
From your point of view, what is the learning objective that this helps
students to meet?
- Don
---
Don McCormick
Department of
Management