Last saved by: PJD

From: 	Robert Mauldin
To:	Patrick Desrochers
Date: 	1/5/2012 9:19 AM
Subject: 	Fwd: Teaching Professor Issue Update

FYI - This article made me think about our seminar course.

Student Presentations: Do They Benefit Those Who Listen?
Written by: Maryellen Weimer, Ph.D. ( http://www.magnapubs.com/bio/82/ )

Almost everyone agrees that student presentations benefit the presenter in significant ways. By doing presentations, students learn how to speak in front a group, a broadly applicable professional skill. They learn how to prepare material for public presentation, and practice (especially with feedback) improves their speaking skills. But those of us who have students do presentations in class know there’s a downside—and that’s how the rest of the class responds to these presentations. When the teacher talks, students more or less have to pay attention, at least some of the time, but when their classmates present, they can be comatose. Not only does this make it more difficult for the presenter, it means the students listening are not likely having any sort of learning experience.

Peer evaluations are one way to get students listening and learning from the presentations of others, as the authors of the article referenced below have documented. Students attend more carefully to what their classmates are saying when the evaluations they are doing “count.” In this article, which describes the use of peer evaluations in ten 300-level political science courses, students evaluated every presentation and those evaluations constituted between 3 and 5 percent of their course grade—an amount the authors describe as “just enough to make the students take this assignment seriously.” (p. 806) The quality of the feedback students provide is improved when they use criteria (in this case the same one the teachers used) to assess the presentations. Without much experience critiquing presentations and with no specific guidelines, they are likely to offer feedback that is generic and not particularly helpful, such as “Good presentation.”

These authors had students in each of the 10 classes evaluate the peer evaluation assignment, and that feedback indicates the merit of having students do the evaluations. Seventy-three percent of the students agreed or strongly agreed that completing the evaluations made them pay more attention to the presentations. Almost 60 percent said doing the evaluations gave them a different perspective. “Students indicated they gained a different insight into the process, rather than just sitting through presentations without having any objective or direction as an audience member.” (p. 806) Another sizable majority, almost 74 percent, agreed or strongly agreed that completing the evaluations clarified expectations for the presentation assignment.

Students were equally clear that they did not want the evaluations of their peers to have any role in determining their grade for the presentation. This response is interesting in light of the fact that an analysis of a subset of the data revealed a high correlation between instructor and student grades (r = .740). Instructor grades were slightly higher than student-assigned grades. Even though small, this difference was statistically significant. And even though students didn’t want the assessment of their peers to count, over 80 percent agreed or strongly agreed that the feedback of peers would be helpful in improving subsequent presentations.

It is appropriate for teachers to consider the learning potential of presentations, not just for the presenter, but for the audience. Peer evaluations can be used to increase the level of attention paid to those presentations and the learning that might result from listening. They can also develop critiquing skills. Rather than incorporating peer critiques into the grade of the presenter, maybe part or all of the critique grade could be determined by the presenter, who rates the quality of the feedback provided. As these authors note, sometimes the logistics of peer evaluations discourage faculty from using them—multiple evaluations to collect, record, sort, and return. What about an online system of peer reviews? Or assign a certain number of peer reviewers to each presentation. That ensures that at least a portion of the audience are attending, and with fewer evaluations to prepare, students could be expected to provide more detailed feedback. Or how about some bonus points to the students whose presentations are rated highest by their colleagues? The details associated with using peer evaluations can be handled in a variety of interesting and useful ways.

Reference: Baranowski, M., and Weir, K. (2011). Peer evaluation in the political science classroom. PS, Political Science and Politics, 44 (4), 805-811.
 
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January 2012
Issue Update: The Teaching Professor
Listed below are the new articles for the issue of The Teaching Professor posted January 1, 2012. Simply click a title to go to that article page on our site and read the full article.Capstone Courses: Many Options ( http://magnapubsemail.com/a/hBPBH1fB8XEciB8fR9jAADp1uey/article1 ) 
Capstone courses are now a requirement in many departments, programs, and college curricula. They vary across different dimensions, indicating that although their value is universally recognized, they share few common features. For starters, they are offered at various levels; at the department level for students in a particular major, at the college level, say, for students in engineering, and at the university level as a general education integrative experience.Reading Groups Get Students Reading ( http://magnapubsemail.com/a/hBPBH1fB8XEciB8fR9jAADp1uey/article4 ) 
Given how difficult it is to get students to do their assigned reading, we continue to share strategies that encourage students to read, that develop their reading skills, and in this case, that also develop their abilities to work with others in groups. Rubrics: Worth Using? ( http://magnapubsemail.com/a/hBPBH1fB8XEciB8fR9jAADp1uey/article5 ) 
Use of rubrics in higher education is comparatively recent. These grading aids that communicate "expectations for an assignment by listing the criteria or what counts, and describing levels of quality from excellent to poor" (p. 435) are being used to assess a variety of assignments such as literature reviews, reflective writings, bibliographies, oral presentations, critical thinking, portfolios, and projects. They are also being used across a range of disciplines, but so far the number of faculty using them remains small.Student Presentations: Do They Benefit Those Who Listen? ( http://magnapubsemail.com/a/hBPBH1fB8XEciB8fR9jAADp1uey/article6 ) 
Almost everyone agrees that student presentations benefit the presenter in significant ways. By doing presentations, students learn how to speak in front a group, a broadly applicable professional skill. They learn how to prepare material for public presentation, and practice (especially with feedback) improves their speaking skills. But those of us who have students do presentations in class know there's a downside-and that's how the rest of the class responds to these presentations. When the teacher talks, students more or less have to pay attention, at least some of the time, but when their classmates present, they can be comatose. Not only does this make it more difficult for the presenter, it means the students listening are not likely having any sort of learning experience.Students and Textbooks: Not a Good Relationship ( http://magnapubsemail.com/a/hBPBH1fB8XEciB8fR9jAADp1uey/article8 ) 
Are your students doing their reading? A survey of 311 psychology students who were queried as to their perceptions regarding the role of the textbook in their psychology courses offers some interesting evidence and insights about how students do and don't relate to their textbooks.Test Review Sessions: A Better Design ( http://magnapubsemail.com/a/hBPBH1fB8XEciB8fR9jAADp1uey/article9 ) 
Terence Favero begins where many teachers are with respect to review sessions. Students request them. Teachers don't like to give up class time to essentially go over material they've already covered. It's difficult to find a time that works for everyone-students don't want to come in early, and professors don't want to review at bedtime. Then there's the issue of who shows up for the review session. Usually, it's not the students who most need to be there. And finally, there's how review sessions are generally structured. Students ask questions, which the professor answers, while the students take notes. Favero notes, "Rarely does this approach lead to deep learning or prepare students for an exam." (p. 247)The Effects of Collaborative Testing ( http://magnapubsemail.com/a/hBPBH1fB8XEciB8fR9jAADp1uey/article3 ) 
Although letting students work together on exam questions is still not a common instructional practice, it has been used more than might be expected and in a variety of ways. Sometimes students work together in groups; other times with a partner. Sometimes those groups are assembled by the instructor and sometimes students are allowed to select their partners or group members. Sometimes the groups share multiple exam experiences; other times they work collaboratively only once. Sometimes the group submits one exam with everyone in the group receiving that grade; other times students may talk about exam questions and answers but submit exams individually. Using the E-Portfolio to Validate Student Learning ( http://magnapubsemail.com/a/hBPBH1fB8XEciB8fR9jAADp1uey/article )
As teachers, how do we get students to understand that the work they do in our classes-such as team projects, community service, technical papers, and even research-is relevant to what they will be doing after they graduate? How do we encourage them to keep their materials and use them to validate their work as students? I think I have an answer. Teaching an e-portfolio capstone course for several years has given me a perspective that I believe should be the framework for validating student learning outcomes across all institutions of higher education.

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