I've struggled getting students to self-evaluate well too. Mine often have difficulty providing good feedback on peer editing as well (which seems like a related skill-- evaluating writing in general is difficult), so I'll be curious to hear what you try. The best luck I've had is with requiring students to mention specific text examples in the self-evaluation (If the style is strong, which words or sentences make it so? Why? If the organization needs work, which paragraph seems hard to follow and why?) Not perfect, but it helped a bit.
I love your points about how ungrading allows you (and the students) to genuinely focus on process instead of product! The more I read about your class, the more I want to try this.
I've been thinking so much about this. I recently listened to a podcast episode where they interviewed students about their use of ChatGPT for their schoolwork. One student said something along the lines of "The teacher actually liked what ChatGPT wrote better than what I wrote." Which really brought home for me how much we've been focused on product rather than process. What we should value, obviously, is what the student has learned, not what they've produced. But everything about our grading system says that the product is the thing they should be concerned about, not the (often messy) learning process.
Yes, exactly! I think I listened to the same podcast episode. Was it from the Daily? I was struck by the student who somewhat changed her mind about her own use of ChatGPT as she was talking. She was articulating her criteria for what was okay use of AI and seemed really thoughtful about what education is for-- but as she was talking she started realizing that she was actually using ChatGPT to replace critical thinking. Her change in thought further emphasized, for me, the importance of reflection and thought process in education. And it showed the benefits of engaging students (and teachers) in conversations about education and learning (like you're doing with your course) rather than assuming that goals are clear and shared.
Yes, it was from the Daily! (Fun fact: I was interviewed for the podcast, but my comments didn't make the final cut!) That was a super interesting segment. It made me want to sit down with the student and ask her more questions, because some of the things she was articulating felt, to me, like critical thinking shortcuts and some really didn't. Whether and how use of AI short circuits learning is so very context dependent. Could change from class to class and student to student.
The reflection part is critical, and I'm still working on techniques for helping students develop these habits!
In thinking about how to get students to get better at self-evaluation, your concern reminded me of something I picked up from a colleague in our Leadership program. She has her students do a bunch of commercial self-assessments: The DISC Personality Profile, the StrengthsFinder test, and the CMI Change test from Ashoka (all google-able). There are basic free versions of these on the internet (and then more extended reports that cost money). One direction might be to get students to do some self-assessment, and to reflect on the feelings and thoughts that came up when they did the test/s. In a different context, I n my public speaking class, I begin by having students take the (free) public speaking report on anxiety (PRPSA). I make them compute their own scores and then reflect on where they see themselves with respect to what their score says. I’ve found that just doing this helps them see where their areas of growth are, and before each assignment, they have to talk about their goals for the assignment in terms of the areas of growth. There may be a similar writing anxiety index in the psychology world, which would be the most direct. I’m guessing you could even have them do a meters-Briggs or an engram test and design reflection questions that would help them see how they approach expository and personal writing. In my public speaking context, I have used the index to help coach students in areas of improvement. I have never used “ungrading” but I can see how it would not be hard for me to adapt what I do with reflection to take that next step. Thanks for this series.
Thank you for this! I love the idea of giving students a kind of prop for reflection/self-assessment. I'll think about how this might work in the writing classroom...
I've struggled getting students to self-evaluate well too. Mine often have difficulty providing good feedback on peer editing as well (which seems like a related skill-- evaluating writing in general is difficult), so I'll be curious to hear what you try. The best luck I've had is with requiring students to mention specific text examples in the self-evaluation (If the style is strong, which words or sentences make it so? Why? If the organization needs work, which paragraph seems hard to follow and why?) Not perfect, but it helped a bit.
I love your points about how ungrading allows you (and the students) to genuinely focus on process instead of product! The more I read about your class, the more I want to try this.
I've been thinking so much about this. I recently listened to a podcast episode where they interviewed students about their use of ChatGPT for their schoolwork. One student said something along the lines of "The teacher actually liked what ChatGPT wrote better than what I wrote." Which really brought home for me how much we've been focused on product rather than process. What we should value, obviously, is what the student has learned, not what they've produced. But everything about our grading system says that the product is the thing they should be concerned about, not the (often messy) learning process.
Yes, exactly! I think I listened to the same podcast episode. Was it from the Daily? I was struck by the student who somewhat changed her mind about her own use of ChatGPT as she was talking. She was articulating her criteria for what was okay use of AI and seemed really thoughtful about what education is for-- but as she was talking she started realizing that she was actually using ChatGPT to replace critical thinking. Her change in thought further emphasized, for me, the importance of reflection and thought process in education. And it showed the benefits of engaging students (and teachers) in conversations about education and learning (like you're doing with your course) rather than assuming that goals are clear and shared.
Yes, it was from the Daily! (Fun fact: I was interviewed for the podcast, but my comments didn't make the final cut!) That was a super interesting segment. It made me want to sit down with the student and ask her more questions, because some of the things she was articulating felt, to me, like critical thinking shortcuts and some really didn't. Whether and how use of AI short circuits learning is so very context dependent. Could change from class to class and student to student.
The reflection part is critical, and I'm still working on techniques for helping students develop these habits!
In thinking about how to get students to get better at self-evaluation, your concern reminded me of something I picked up from a colleague in our Leadership program. She has her students do a bunch of commercial self-assessments: The DISC Personality Profile, the StrengthsFinder test, and the CMI Change test from Ashoka (all google-able). There are basic free versions of these on the internet (and then more extended reports that cost money). One direction might be to get students to do some self-assessment, and to reflect on the feelings and thoughts that came up when they did the test/s. In a different context, I n my public speaking class, I begin by having students take the (free) public speaking report on anxiety (PRPSA). I make them compute their own scores and then reflect on where they see themselves with respect to what their score says. I’ve found that just doing this helps them see where their areas of growth are, and before each assignment, they have to talk about their goals for the assignment in terms of the areas of growth. There may be a similar writing anxiety index in the psychology world, which would be the most direct. I’m guessing you could even have them do a meters-Briggs or an engram test and design reflection questions that would help them see how they approach expository and personal writing. In my public speaking context, I have used the index to help coach students in areas of improvement. I have never used “ungrading” but I can see how it would not be hard for me to adapt what I do with reflection to take that next step. Thanks for this series.
Thank you for this! I love the idea of giving students a kind of prop for reflection/self-assessment. I'll think about how this might work in the writing classroom...