Christine,
Peer Evaluations: How often to do them?
I have always done them at the end of the course. That is
when they get plugged into the final grade I give to each student.
But a few years after first doing TBL, I noticed that there
were often one or two students (in a class of 70 or so) who were
getting "blind-sided" at the end of the course by their peer
evaluation. They thought they were going to get either an above
average or at least average peer evaluation score, but got much less
than average. I didn't mind students getting a below-average score
if that is what they deserved but I did not like them getting blind-sided.
So I started doing a classwide "grade calculation" exercise
at mid-semester, ~week 8. We simply plugged their test scores, etc.
that had occurred to date; this let them see what all the different
activities thus far added up to in terms of a letter grade. But a
major reason for doing this was that this required a peer evaluation
from all the groups, since some of the activities were graded group
activities - and I wanted them to see what the impact of peer
evaluations were on their overall grade. (Note: I use the system
whereby peer evaluations come out as a "percentage multiplier" of the
graded group activities, so it can have a significant impact on the
overall grade.) This peer evaluation score did not go into the
gradebook; it was just for information purposes.
Doing this at mid-semester accomplished just what I wanted
it to. Most everyone got a peer evaluation score that was close to
what they expected. But for the one or two students who got much
lower peer evaluation scores, it did two things: it alerted them to a
potential problem and it created a wonderful "teaching moment."
Almost always these people were trying to be the leaders in
their group but were too aggressive about it, and they usually came
in to complain to me about the scores. So I simply pointed out that
no one complained that they weren't working hard or weren't smart;
they just didn't like the way the person was trying to lead the
group. Good news: the person now had specific suggestions for what
the others did not like about their leadership style - and they had 8
weeks to make some changes. They always did, always got good
end-of-semester peer evaluations, and learned a something about
important about themselves that, in my view, might have been the most
important thing they learned in the course, maybe in college: how to
be a better leader of a small group!
As a result, I have continued to do a mid-semester calculation of
peer evaluation scores (not for the gradebook, just for feedback) ever since.
Good luck with your efforts to find the right way to use TBL in your
own courses!
Dee
At 01:20 AM 4/15/2008, Christine Kuramoto wrote:
>Hi all,
>
>Thank you for all of your comments and suggestions on the RATS and IF-AT
>forms!
>
>My next question is, how often and when do you do the peer evaluations?
>
>And further, since I'm teaching Japanese students and cuturally they may
>not be very willing to help in setting up the percentages for grades
>(how much weight goes to individual work, group work, exams), any
>suggestions for weighting the grades that have been successful for you
>would be welcome!
>
>Christine
>
>--
>*******
>Christine Kuramoto, Assistant Professor: Medical English
>Kyushu University, Department of Medical Education
>Faculty of Medical Sciences
>3-1-1 Maidashi, Higashi-ku, Fukuoka, 812-8582 Japan
>Phone: (+81)92-642-6186 Fax: (+81)92-642-6188
>E-mail: [log in to unmask]
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
L. Dee Fink Phone: 405-364-6464
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Norman, OK 73069 FAX: 405-364-6464
Website: www.finkconsulting.info
**National Project Director, Teaching & Curriculum Assessment Project
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**Author of: Creating Significant Learning Experiences (Jossey-Bass, 2003)
**Former President of the POD Network [Professional and
Organizational Development] in Higher Education (2004-2005)