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]

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L. Dee Fink                                         Phone: 405-364-6464
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Norman, OK 73069                                   FAX:   405-364-6464
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**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)