Students’ reception of peer assessment of group-work contributions: problematics in terms of race and gender emerging from a South African case study
- Authors: Thondhlana, Gladman , Belluigi, Dina Z
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: article , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/59784 , vital:27649 , https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2016.1235133
- Description: Participatory assessment is increasingly employed in higher education worldwide as a formative mechanism to support students’ active learning. But do students in an increasingly relationally diverse environment perceive that peer assessment of individuals’ contributions to group-work tasks enhances their learning? Recognising the impact of students’ conceptions on the quality of their learning, this study considers students’ perspectives of peer assessment of group-work contributions at a South African university. Questionnaires elicited students’ perspectives of and general attitudes towards assessment of and by their peers. A growing measure of discontent with the process of assessing peer contributions to group tasks emerged, including actual and perceived racial and gender stereotyping, and related rejection-sensitivity. These initial findings were checked against the students’ experiences in a report-and-respond process that enabled probing discussions of the interpretations. This paper examines and explores the implications of such identifications and receptions for learning engagement and group-work curriculum development in the context of a rapidly transforming higher education sector.
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Group work as 'terrains of learning' for students in South African higher education
- Authors: Thondhlana, Gladman , Belluigi, Dina Z
- Date: 2014
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/67636 , vital:29123 , https://journals.co.za/content/persed/32/4/EJC164258
- Description: Publisher version , A common global perception of group work in the higher education context is that it has the potential to act as a platform which can enable student learning by means of interactions, shared diverse experiences, deep engagement with subject concepts and the achievement of tasks collaboratively. Indeed, in different socio-economic, historical and institutional contexts, group work activities have become levers by which deeper learning could be achieved. Drawing on perceptions and experiences of group work among environmental science students at a South African university, we investigate the ways in which group work could be more expansively viewed as 'terrains of learning' for students. The results in general indicate that students have positive perceptions and experiences of group work, though problematic elements are evident. This particular case study points to the attention that should be paid to understanding issues of background, ethnicity and various student personalities which could hinder or enable the desired student learning. Such an understanding could contribute to debates regarding the achievement of higher quality learning, given issues of diversity and transformation in the South African higher education context.
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