Academic Accountability in Groups

Posted by Douglas Parker Oct 28, 2007

“It never seems to fail,” Mrs. Jones was lamenting to her neighbor. “Every time my Betty gets put into a group, she winds up doing all the work while the other kids sit back and let her slave away.”

Gifted kids working in cooperative heterogenous groups sometimes do not benefit as much as they could because of a perceived shortage of difficulty, and non-gifted kids do not do better just because there are gifted students in the mix. Some teachers believe that gifted students can act like surrogate teachers in the groups; however, research does not really support that position.

This all leave the teacher with an interesting dilemma. Since different students in the group have different ability levels, how can both the group and the individuals be evaluated fairly?

Along with using differentiated teaching techniques, I have used a self-evaluation tool that allows each student the chance to honesty assess both his or her work and the work of the group, which then become a part of the overall evaluation.

On a separate sheet of paper, I ask each student to respond to these issues:

Self-evaluations of group work sessions focus on your role in the group and how much you committed to its progress. The four issues you must address each time the group meets are your roles in:

1) That you participated fully; 2) that you encouraged others in the group; 3) that you can explain what happened in that group; 4) that the others in the group would agree with your self-evaluation.

Rate each issue 1 - 10, with 10 being excellent and 1 being very poor. Feel free to add comments and examples. Also, rate yourself 1 – 10 overall for the session. Be sure to sign your self-evaluation form.