Going Gradeless: Student self-assessment in PBL - By Matt Meyers
The subject for this post centers
itself around a middle school teacher’s discovery of a new teaching style and
how it completely changed his philosophy and teaching as he knew it. It seems to be more of a teacher’s blog that
discusses his findings from Mark Barnes’ ‘role reversal: achieving uncommonly excellent
results in a student-centered classroom’ and how he applied them to his
classroom. The generalized concept is
using Narrative feedback in such a way that there is no need for assigning
grades. Instead of assigning grades for every assignment, at the end of the
grading period the student and teacher would discuss and agreed on a final grade
based off feedback. The teacher in the following post was as perplexed as I was
when first reading about this concept. At this point one is left with the
questions: is that type of classroom possible? Would it be more beneficial for
students? How would it effect their learning, and so on. This 6th grade teacher decided to
test this concept and implemented into his own classroom with the goal to, “simultaneously promote mastery learning as well as increase
students' ability to meta-cognitively assess their work against a given set of
standards.” His results were astonishing, student interest had sparked
high, with students consistently emailing him, asking about how they can do
better. With the worry of backlash from parents, he surprisingly didn’t get as
many emails from parents as expected (only 3 that said “sounds awesome”). This blog makes one think twice about the
traditional grading system, and whether or not it’s beneficial to student
learning. It seems to be one of those
concepts that’s important to consider but still to be cautious of. Through application
and trial and error, a teacher can discover for themselves how it effects their
classroom and student learning. As I find it could be beneficial and the better
option for some and not so much for others.
This topic makes me think of the first spider man movie where Peter Parker is told "with great power comes great responsibility". I think that student self-assessment can be a healthy and beneficial tool in the classroom so long as it is implemented correctly, if not I feel that I could have disastrous effects. The first thing is to make sure that the students in the class are really engaged in the process and are motivated in learning. Especially if it is an art project or writing piece, I think it is important for students to learn about how to grade subjectively and how difficult it can be sometimes. It can also be beneficial best students get to walk in the teachers shoes as well as have an insight on how their peers may be approaching class room and a fresh look on accomplishing the work. It can be dangerous if the students are not well engaged or motivated because they may just give themselves or each order a score without actually taking the opportunity to reflect on their work which will result in a missed opportunity for learning. In addition to the lack reflection, students may also missed the opportunity for feedback from a teacher.
ReplyDeleteGreat find for an article!
ReplyDeleteThe subject of motivation is very intriguing to me. I have found students are more motivated when they like the subject or have some personal interest beyond a grade to get, or a class to pass. the approach in this article reminds me of the metaphorical "carrot on a stick" that teachers hold out in front of their class, that carrot representing a grade. in this instance, the stick has been placed in the hands of the students, and the length of the stick is determined by the teacher. in this way the students feel like they have control, and so they become more attentive and interested as a byproduct.
Great find for an article!
ReplyDeleteThe subject of motivation is very intriguing to me. I have found students are more motivated when they like the subject or have some personal interest beyond a grade to get, or a class to pass. the approach in this article reminds me of the metaphorical "carrot on a stick" that teachers hold out in front of their class, that carrot representing a grade. in this instance, the stick has been placed in the hands of the students, and the length of the stick is determined by the teacher. in this way the students feel like they have control, and so they become more attentive and interested as a byproduct.