Listening In: Negotiated grading in a capstone course

Study snapshot
This study offers an examination of what
happened when senior journalism
students (editors) were invited into the
assessment and evaluation arena in a
capstone masthead course, entitled
Online Editorial Board.
The assessment method. Three times
through the term, each student acted as
a guide, taking me on a tour of their
learning. Each student was required to
show me evidence of the degree to
which they were meeting goals set out in
a previously negotiated personal
learning plan.
The negotiation. To arrive at a grade, we
used a grading schema that connected
A work to meeting all or nearly all goals
set out in student learning plans, B
work to meeting most goals, C work to
meeting some goals, D work to meeting
few goals, and F work to meeting no
goals.

Findings: Above surface ~ a look at the numbers

42 Nego(ated Grading Sessions
(71%) Professor
agrees with student-
proposed grade
(19%) Professor raises
student-proposed
grade
(10%) Professor
lowers student-
proposed grade

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aw

Findings: Below surface ~ Whats going on?

Grade nego(a(on makes
visible rich learning problems

Grade nego(a(on exposes

unexpected learning gains

I had not realized the degree to

I learned much more about
which some students had gone
students personal struggles as they
above and beyond their proposed voluntarily shared feelings of being
The grade. Each of the 3 sessions
learning acHviHes. Presented to me overwhelmed, stressed, even
concluded with students proposing a
as evidence to back learning
depressed. Some of their struggles
letter grade worth 25 per cent, for a
claims, some examples of their
seemed directly connected to this
total of 75 per cent of their final grade.
learning included:
capstone course, but more oOen,
The analysis. A thematic analysis of

students connected their struggles
transcribed conversations was
Developing and producing
to the overall experience of
undertaken. This poster offers an early
unsolicited content packages for managing jobs, full course loads,
snapshot of findings.
our online news publicaHon
and worries about life beyond the
Interviewing local experts and university.
reviewing the literature to help
Sally Haney
our publicaHon make more
My analysis of 14+ hours of
Assistant Professor,
informed
d
ecisions
a
bout
b
est
assessment
c
onversaHons
l
eads
m
e
Journalism
pracHces
to believe that for some, the need
Mount Royal University,
Calgary, Alta.
Filling in for absent or struggling to tell me about their struggles was
shaney@mtroyal.ca
colleagues in the course
simply a maSer-of-fact sharing of
403-462-9086
Voluntarily parHcipaHng in
where and how this course t into
With thanks to MRU
mediaHon aimed at resolving
their lives.
Institute for Scholarship of
Teaching and Learning
conicts


I also observed that for some, the
more pracHced they became at
arHculaHng learning problems and
Questions
strategizing soluHons, the more
1.
What do you find most challenging about assessing and evaluating
likely they were to vocalize and
student work?
troubleshoot some of their life
problems.

2.
To what degree to you involve students in determining their grades?

3.

Student editors brought forth an

array of complex problems that we
tried to reframe as problems
worth studying and solving. They
included issues such as:

Personality clashes among the
group
Lack of understanding about
best pracHces in the world of
online journalism
Time management problems
FrustraHon with not knowing
how best to communicate with
colleagues

Our assessment conversaHons
resulted in many individual plans
of acHon which were embedded in
student learning plans.

Grade nego(a(on reveals

much in the aec(ve domain

To what degree should assessment and evaluation be a negotiation

between learner and teacher?