Peer Assessment How to help students give good quality feedback

Mylène DiPenta

Faculty, Electronic Engineering Technician, Kingstec Campus

mylene.dipenta@nscc.ca

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Introductions and Definitions

Evaluation: giving students a grade.

Examples:

• Homework

• Chapter test

• Exam

Examples of peer assessment in my program:

Assessment: helping students improve.

Examples:

• Informal conversation with teacher

• In-class exercises

• Homework

Peer Assessment: students helping each other

improve.

Examples:

• Two students compare their shop work before

turning it in

• A student helps a classmate troubleshoot a lab

that’s not working

My questions about peer assessment:

Peer Evaluation: students grading each other.

Examples:

• Students assign a grade to each other’s

participation in a group project

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Peer Assessment: How and Why?

Why use peer assessment?

• Students benefit from getting more feedback

• It’s easier to see other people’s mistakes than your

own

• It’s easier to see other people’s strengths than

your own

• Students practice using good judgement and

respectful criticism

• Teachers spend less time giving simple feedback,

so they can focus on more complex feedback that

students can’t provide

Rate the quality of this feedback

1. This joint is shiny and clean, but it is lumpy.

2. This joint will be better if you redo it at a higher temperature.

3. This is a good-quality joint.

4. This joint is nice and shiny, well-cleaned. I can see my face in it!

5. This joint is a bit lumpy, but it’s really clean and shiny. I can tell that you

worked hard at cleaning it.

6. This joint is shiny and clean, but it is lumpy. I can tell it’s clean because I

can’t see any flux, and I can’t feel any sticky chemical residue.

7. This joint is shiny and clean, but it is lumpy – you might have used a

temperature that was too low. Try using a higher temperature and it

should come out smoother.

8. This joint is shiny and clean, but it is lumpy. Try using a higher

temperature next time. Other than that, you have a natural talent for

this!

Write an example of high-quality feedback:

Score

(out of 3)

Good-quality feedback should:

□ Identify strengths and weaknesses using clear

criteria

□ Give specific suggestions for how to improve

□ Focus on persistence, quality, and hard work, not

talent or intelligence

Example #1: Assessing a Performance Task

Criteria for good quality soldering:

• Smooth

• Shiny

• Clean

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Example #2: Assessing Writing

Some criteria for good-quality writing:

□ The writing is clear enough that a student can

summarize it

□ The source is recent, relevant, and has been

reviewed by experts

□ The writing shows a relationship between cause

and effect

□ The writing relates to what we’ve learned in class

□ The writing answers a question

Your classmate, Robin Moroney, has written a summary of

an article in the New York Times. Use the rubric on the

next page to give Robin some feedback.

(http://on.wsj.com/bw13cy)

Example #3: My plan for peer assessment

Skill or task that students will assess:

Criteria:

Examples of good-quality feedback:

Examples of poor-quality feedback:

Notes about how to incorporate this in my teaching:

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Question: ____What Type of Praise Should A Child Never Hear?________

Presented by: Robin Moroney

Assessed by:

Date:

Proposed answer:

Summarize in your own words

so your classmate knows you

understand their point

How does my real-world experience

contradict or support this?

Title and author of original

source

How Not to Talk to Your Kids: The Inverse Power of Praise

(Po Bronson, New York Times Magazine)

Original Source is Reviewed? __ Recent? ________ Relevant? __

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Ask at least one question about

clarity

• What exactly is… ?

• What do you mean by…?

• Is it always…?

Questions that need to be answered to accept

this:

Cause:

What does the source tell you

about cause and effect?

What questions do you have

about what causes what?

Questions for the future:

Connections:

How does it support what we’ve

learned in class?

How does it conflict with what

we’ve learned in class?

What ideas are new, or not

connected to other ideas at all?

My conclusion: □ Needs revision □ Accepted

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More Information about Peer Assessment and Feedback

Files from Today’s Workshop

http://shiftingphases.com/2013/07/20/peer-assessment-workshop-resources/

All the files from today’s workshop, including this handout, are available online at this link. Shiftingphases.com is

Mylène’s blog about the trials and tribulations of community college teaching. Feel free to leave a comment or get in

touch.

Example Criteria for Good Quality Feedback

http://www.criticalthinking.org/images/Poster_Int_Standards.jpg

I get most of my ideas about criteria for good-quality feedback from the Foundation for Critical Thinking. Here they

explain 8 possible criteria that can be adapted for many situations. The rest of the site is also full of useful ideas.

Helping Students Give Feedback When They Don’t Know the Right Answer

http://tinyurl.com/cd3ep83

Students can still write feedback to each other, even if they don’t know the right answer. Jason Buell uses “sentence

frames” to help students assess each other’s clarity and completeness when the right answer is unknown, and discusses

the link between peer-assessment and self-assessment.

Managing Feedback

http://tinyurl.com/c3so7r9

Includes a discussion of when it’s helpful to give feedback right away, and when it’s helpful to delay feedback until

students are going to use it. Also talks about asking students what kind of feedback they are looking for.

Post Game Analysis 2.0 – Instant Replay

http://tinyurl.com/6uq8e2o

John Burk explains how to help students write feedback to themselves. Many of the ideas also apply to students writing

feedback to each other. In the Comments section, there’s a good discussion of how to improve the quality of feedback.

My Revised Quiz Reflection Assignment

http://tinyurl.com/cntcx5t

Great examples of how students can improve their feedback. Focussed on self-assessment but applicable to peer

assessment.

Categorizing My Feedback

http://tinyurl.com/cnt6hl2

A collection of sentence-starters and examples of “growth-mindset focused” feedback to students.

How Not to Talk to Your Kids: The inverse power of praise

http://tinyurl.com/3y7zud

Praising people for talent makes them perform poorly and avoid risks, while praising them for their work improves their

ability to learn (Po Bronson, New York Times, discussing Carol Dweck’s research)

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Bibliography

[1] R. Moroney, "The Wall Street Journal," 13 February 2007. [Online]. Available:

http://blogs.wsj.com/informedreader/2007/02/13/the-praise-a-child-should-never-hear/. [Accessed 7 July 2013].

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