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saint57 · Posted: Wed May 23, 2007 9:37 am Post subject: Quick Suuggestions Please

I have a group project/presentation due tomorrow. I want to find a way to assess how much each person honestly did.

I am planning on separating each group and having them do a group evaluation.

Some of the things I'm planning on putting on the evaluation:

A) Rate each member's contribution from 1-5

B) Comment specifically on what each group member contributed.

C) Explain your personal contributions in detail.

I'll then match what they say with their group's comments.

I know some people will be honest and hammer people who didn't do anything. The problem is when people try to protect each other.

So my thoughts are that this particular evaluation will be effecitive for the first two periods on the first day. After that, the exact content of the evaluation will be known by everyone before they step into my class. Most groups will coordinate their answers and the whole thing will be useless.

I'm looking for suggestions on how I can modify this at least twice, so it will be effective for two days.

Thanks,
Saint57

dmb · Joined: 12 Feb 2003 Posts: 8397

Is it possible to video the work or change groups around?

Glenski · Joined: 15 Jan 2003 Posts: 12844 Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN

saint57 · Posted: Wed May 23, 2007 1:45 pm Post subject:

Well, pretend I didn't. Any suggestions? I gave them rubrics for the presentation and reports a long time ago. Just finding out who did what is difficult no matter how long you try.

spiral78 · Joined: 05 Apr 2004 Posts: 11534 Location: On a Short Leash

The approach to this exercise seems punitive to me. What teaching system requires you to ask students to rank each other's performance? I would think that if the learners are adults, they will be kind to each other. If teenagers, they can use this system to pick on others at will.

Why not just ask them to rank the group performance overall (as a whole)? And, inside that, you could ask learners for a self-report (specifically, what did I contribute to this exercise)?

I'd take even a self-report with a grain of salt, as there could be many reasons for more/less contribution, including task topic (interest, prior knowledge), affective atmosphere (working with others that you like/don't like as well), and simply feeling well or not at that time.

saint57 · Posted: Wed May 23, 2007 2:00 pm Post subject:

coffeedrinker · Joined: 30 Jul 2006 Posts: 149

I think it will depend on their language skills (and culture) how effective something like this is, but what about a more open question like - "describe how each team member contributed" - without the ranking? I also think spiral's suggestion of writing about their own contribution is good (now I see you mentioned this in the OP too). I wouldn't want to make it obvious that I'm looking to find out who did the least (and if that is what you need to get at, this is likely to let them know to cover it up if that's what they intend to do).

Also, even aside from the issue of people being kind to others, I think people can have a lot of difficulty putting contributions towards a group project into words; people can make valuable contributions without producing something easily measurable (or easily explainable in a second language.)

spiral78 · Joined: 05 Apr 2004 Posts: 11534 Location: On a Short Leash

I taught in Holland in a uni where everything's done in teams. And it's a team grade. And some students do nothing, and others have to carry them. However, this is considered to be a realistic example of what happens in business and real life all over, so no teacher/administrative effort is made to spur on the laggards - it's up to the teams. Maybe that's a bit extreme, but I have to agree it's realistic.

Are you teaching Canadians? Or immigrants? It still seems to me that the approach may be doomed to failure because it's asking students to police each other. It seems difficult to me to form good working relationships if you have to rat each other out, particularly if you're dealing with adult learners. I might be able to see this if you are working with teenagers, but even then I think it would create bullies.

saint57 · Posted: Wed May 23, 2007 2:17 pm Post subject:

spiral78 · Joined: 05 Apr 2004 Posts: 11534 Location: On a Short Leash

I'm still curious who your learners are. Adults? Teenagers? From where?

When I'm teaching in Canada, I've always found that it takes some time (meaning a week or two) to accomplish team-building with new Canadian (adult) students. I can't see this happening successfully on day one - so I'm supposing that your teaching context must be different.

saint57 · Posted: Wed May 23, 2007 2:53 pm Post subject:

My context is extremely complicated. I teach in a Canadian pre-university program in Malaysia. Let me give you an illustration of the kind of thing I have to deal with. My school provides an online learning forum where I can post assignment and communicate with students.

Message received at 5:00 pm: Sir, we can't do our presentation tomorrow. Student E is not here and he has all the information

Message received at 10:00 pm: Sir, student E is no longer in the program. He got accepted to a university in Japan and will no longer be attending. The group will have to present without him.

It's no secret that students in Malaysia leave everything until the last minute. Some groups will stay up all night working on this project, others will let one student do it or they will ask for an extension.

spiral78 · Joined: 05 Apr 2004 Posts: 11534 Location: On a Short Leash

Ah, this makes more sense now. I can see the need to ensure that they are focused and on-task. What about a short self-report daily? "I accomplished this, this, and this today." Then if the project or the deadline falls through, you can examine the records with the entire group to find out when/why/where the job wasn't accomplished.

Another thought that may/may not be useful is to consider the perceived relevance of what they are doing.

Can this be tied to goals other than language learning? Working in an international workplace? Probably you're already doing this - but I think the more we can tie language learning to the real purposes for it, the higher-stakes our tasks, presentations, and projects appear to learners.

saint57 · Posted: Wed May 23, 2007 3:23 pm Post subject:

Here is what I do to try to overcome problems:

- Give them the project in small parts throughout the semester.

- Tell them to hand in every part to check their progress.

Some groups hand in every part, but most don't until the final due date.

Also, this is a business class, not an English class. Although, I am also a qualified ESL teacher and recognize that most speak English as a second language.

spiral78 · Joined: 05 Apr 2004 Posts: 11534 Location: On a Short Leash

Can you relate this process to work culture in international/western businesses? Here is how we do this: deadlines along the way. Maybe they could prepare periodic meetings with you (simulating appropriate business meeting language) to report on progress.
And maybe daily self-report to you would provide backup to consider breakdowns when deadlines aren't met.

In any case, I can see that you've got a tough situation, and I wish you all the best!

saint57 · Posted: Wed May 23, 2007 3:43 pm Post subject:

Good idea about the meetings. I think the students would actually get into that. Also, since it is an international business class and we do touch on the importance of time to different cultures, it's a perfrect opportunity to stress its importance.

Great tips!