Monday, May 09, 2011

Drowning in end of semester evaluation! No, make that - I'm treading water. Or how about more positively -  swimming. I suppose that's the most apt because I'm making progress. As I mentioned in my last post, I made many changes this semester in assessment and I think it will pay off. It is also resulting in some interesting observations. I won't elaborate a lot until I'm finished, but something that is emerging from the revised approach is that many more students than in the past gave themselves and their group a score (I require peer, self, and class assessment of a project, but the form it takes for the "self" is a short essay, and for all class, students are not required to include their own group). In one class in particular, the vast majority scored themselves and their group the highest. Quite a few chose A+. This is true even for groups that obviously didn't perform as well as other groups, and for students who tended toward slacker. Well, that's the essence of constructivism, right?

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