Dee what tool do you have the students use to arrive at their peer
evaluation rating that you use as the multiplier?
Thanks
Harry
From: Team Learning Discussion List [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of Dee Fink
Sent: Wednesday, April 16, 2008 6:54 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Peer Evaluations
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
234 Foreman Ave Email: [log in to unmask]
Norman, OK 73069 FAX: 405-364-6464
Website: www.finkconsulting.info
<http://www.finkconsulting.info/>
**National Project Director, Teaching & Curriculum Assessment Project
**Senior Associate, Dee Fink & Associates Consulting Services
**Author of: Creating Significant Learning Experiences (Jossey-Bass,
2003)
**Former President of the POD Network [Professional and Organizational
Development] in Higher Education (2004-2005)