Review by: Steinbeck, Reinhold (2004-09-13)

McGourty, who is a psychologist by training and Associate Dean of the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science at Columbia University, introduces in his paper a computer-based survey instrument (TeamDeveloper) designed to provide students with constructive, developmental feedback regarding his or her effectiveness on several cognitive and behavioral skills. He addresses several powerful pedagogical and technical approaches that have great potential to add value to students’ learning processes, in particular in groups settings:

• The potential of small group work as an increasingly recognized powerful learning tool in higher education that can be used both as a means towards enriching students’ learning experiences as well as an end towards teaching students important communications and team work skills that future employers demand more and more;
• A need for a stronger alignment of assessment activities and learning activities, especially in collaborative learning environments, and a shift of emphasis of peer assessment from summative appraisals of individual effort (assessment OF learning) to formative feedback designed to advance the learning of collaborative skills and knowledge (assessment FOR learning) by making available critical information from several sources, such as peers, self, and instructors on an ongoing basis;
• Assessment of group performance not only for assessing the tangible end product of the group (Product), but also the performance of individuals in the group in achieving the end product (Process);
• The potential of technology in providing students with continuous feedback on their own learning process (reflection), as well as on their peers’ learning process, in an unobtrusive and efficient way.

The TeamDeveloper software that McGourty developed is a peer review data collection and feedback instrument for use in assessing team behaviors. Rather than asking students to assess their peers’ personality characteristics, it asks them to assess observable behaviors that are described in the context of a task (listens attentively to others without interrupting). The software provides students with the opportunity to rate their peers as well as themselves in four categories: Communication, Decision Making, Collaboration, and Self Management. Each student is then provided with a computer-generated feedback sheet with his or her self score for each question, and the average of the score his/her team-mates gave them.

The powerful formative aspect behind this instrument is the fact that the software can highlight the areas where students’ self assessment varies significantly from their peers’ assessment, and the system can then provide the individual students with a development plan that includes specific steps that they can undertake to improve in these areas, as well a structure that allows them to monitor their own progress over time. In addition to the feedback that students receive, instructors will also benefit by these peer assessment activities allowing them to review whether their own curricular objectives are being achieved, and whether they need to make adjustments for the future.

McGourty recognizes the potential of such an instrument as a way to improve on learning outcomes by administering it several times over a period of time. The challenge will be to find ways to integrate these formative assessment tools and processes into ongoing courses, and to train students and instructors to use them effectively.