There have been several instances in my schooling where I have been asked to engage in less “traditional” forms of assessment and many times, I have struggled with it. For example, last spring I took a history class where we had to lead a group discussion/debate in front of the class. It was worth 10% of our mark and we were placed in random groups of 5. This assignment seemed easy at first but it was the method of assessment that really frustrated me. My group or at least two of my group members actually worked on the assignment. The others just showed up on the day of our presentation and knew very little about what we were discussing. As such, those group members did not contribute to the discussion. When we received our assessment and feedback for the assignment, I was disappointed and surprised that we had received a 60%. I emailed my professor to ask why we had received that grade. He explained to me that it was because some of our group members had not contributed to the discussion and as a result our grade as a whole suffered.
I was very angry about this method of assessment. Typically, teachers will give a lower grade to those who don’t do the work and a higher grade to those that do. In this case, the professor didn’t care who did what. He just noticed that some people didn’t participate. I was upset about his decision and I didn’t think that his method of assessment was fair. How come I was being graded based on the choices of my peers? Why were they not being punished for it? Instead, it was my entire group that was being punished for the decisions of a few. I really struggled with this assessment process as I didn’t think it was a fair method to use to assess students. It did not reflect the efforts of everyone, only the limited effort of a few individuals. The lack of fairness with this assignment was an underlying theme the really bothered me. As a teacher, I will not punish the students who work hard. I will reward them for their efforts and those that do nothing will receive a lower grade.
It is really frustrating to receive a grade that doesn’t reflect your efforts. It is also frustrating that other students will receive a grade that you worked for and they didn’t. I think that assessment should be fair to all individuals. It shouldn’t encourage an individual to take advantage of their group members. Group work, and the assessment that is related, should promote good relations and teamwork. That is the mentality that I believe is critical to have when engaging with and creating assessments. Students’ work should be valued and their grades should reflect their individual efforts and contributions. Group work is only meaningful when the assessment reflects individual differences in effort. I think that my professor was grading our group as a whole and he expected the other group members to encourage everyone to contribute. This is a nice idea in theory; however, in actuality there are students who care more about their grades than others. As such, group members should not be required to babysit other members of the group in order to receive the grade that they want.