We aren’t grading the students for the students’ benefit.
Which isn’t entirely unacceptable, it just is not honestly applied and therefore there is no easy way for the students to have a clear picture of where they stand on their own path.
In what “real world” scenario has the GPA of the team members ended up as a factor? I have worked at a university for twenty years and my own GPA has never been a part of any job related task. At a university. If we aren’t doing it, then I can only assume that other industries are even less likely to do it.
No. The students need to know where they lie on the path towards the competencies that they need to master in order to fill the role they have imagined (or are beginning to imagine) for themselves.
However, there needs to be easily identifiable and quantifiable progress and reporting for each student that is directly linked back to standards.
The data that we as educators choose to analyze just needs to change from the “Winner take all” mentality that large point assessments and projects can engender and evolve into student progress through data analytics. Biometrics, logging and journaling of the student experience, project based learning that judges the research and work done as much as the final product.
Here is a fun idea – simulate a real world working environment by changing the requirements for the project part of the way thru – OR – just cancel it entirely and make the students come up with a back up plan without as much time and/or resources.
If a concept is already understood by a student at a surface level then we can allow them to adjust what they are required to demonstrate to move beyond the initial foundations – (but we will still have them reinforce those foundations and repeat them in a journaling reflection) and into the next steps of the project without either wasting the students’ time nor overly rewarding them for prior knowledge of the assignment. Instead – find a way to utilize this initial difference in student knowledge – have this student assist the class with any beginner pitfalls or direct experience they can provide.
What data should we look at?
Everything?
- Biometric data can be shown to the students themselves to help them to understand their own body chemistry and how it reacts to stress, motivational factors, rewards, success, etc.
- Student pre testing can take the form of students re-reading the instructions to themselves to begin a video journal for the project.
- Stating what prior knowledge they have for the project, and then
- Explaining to each other what their prior knowledge is so that a pre-test is also a sharing of information amongst the groups’ members as well
- Time spent in digital environments and on assignments can be logged by the students as part of their project and research data and/or provided as part of system reporting.
I think that the “boring” reporting should be done by the computers and the systems that we utilize in education and I think that the “cool” competency evaluations should be focused on by educators – and I think we should make it fun and gamify it.
I need to write more on this – The Hero’s Journey… the monomyth and you!
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