Reading Roundtable 5B Meeting of March 28, 2008, Chapter 6
Attending: Abby Brooks-Fitzgerald, Discussion leader
Margery (Marney) Collins, Recorder
Virginia DeRoma
Stacy Kluge
Barbara Nixon
Bill Yang
Absent: Melissa Weddell
The discussion of methods of evaluation was far-ranging, including both faculty assessment of student work and student evaluations of their own and each others’ work. Copies of peer review questions for student group work on drafts of essays, distributed by M. Collins, were examined. Significant attention focused on the extent to which the necessity to assess enhances or detracts from student learning. Points covered included the following:
- Peer editing and the value of revising papers
- Grading of papers, revisions, exams
- Methods of grading, e.g., averaging, dropping, offering extra-credit options
- Effects on learning of the importance of assessment
- Effects of not focusing on assessment
- The prevalence of plagiarism and other forms of cheating
- Procedure of reviewing correct answers on tests-does it result in learning or evoke emotional response?
- Encouragement of love of learning and treatment of motivated learners
- Role played by number and scheduling of core courses
- Possibility of student participation in constructing tests and other assessment vehicles
The overall reader response to Chapter 6 is that it provides thorough analysis and raises all the important questions about the issue of assessing student work and its effects on the assessors and the assessed.
Respectfully submitted,
Marney Collins
Becoming Learner Centered 