Organizing Your Social Sciences Research Assignments

Professors assign students to grade the work of their classmates because studies in educational research suggest that the act of grading someone else's paper increases positive learning outcomes for students. Professors use peer grading as a way for students to practice recognizing quality research, with the hope that this will carry over to their own work, and as an aid for improving group performance or determining individual effort on team projects. Grading someone else's paper can also enhance learning outcomes by empowering students to take ownership over the selection of criteria used to evaluate the work of peers [the rubric]. Finally, professors may assign peer grading as a way to engage students in the act of seeing themselves as members of a community of researchers.

Other potential benefits include:

1. Increasing the amount of feedback students receive about their work;
2. Providing the instructor with an opportunity to verify student’s understanding, or lack of understanding, of key concepts or other course content;
3. Encouraging students to be actively involved with, and to take responsibility for, their own learning;
4. Providing an opportunity for reinforcing essential skills that can be used in professional life, including an ability to effectively assess the work of others and to become comfortable with having one's own work evaluated by others, and facilitating key skills, such as, self-reflection, time management, team skills building;
5. Fostering a more in-depth and comprehensive process for understanding and analyzing a research problem through repetition and reinforcement of key criteria essential to learning a task;
6. Providing motivation for improvement in course assignments and a more comprehensive perspective on learning; and,
7. Can assist in deepening the student’s own perception of their learning style and ways of knowing [at a higher cognitive level, this is known as reflexivity, or, the process of understanding one's own contribution to the construction of meaning throughout the research process].

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I.  Best Practices

Best practices in peer assessment vary depending on the type of assignment or project you are evaluating and the type of course you are taking. A good quality experience also depends on having a clear and accurate rubric that effectively presents the proper criteria and standards for the assessment. The process can be intimidating, but know that everyone probably feels the same way you do when first informed you will be evaluating the work of others--cautious and uncomfortable!

Given this, if not stated, the following questions should be answered by your professor before beginning:

• Exactly who [which students] will be evaluated and by whom?
• What does the evaluation include? What parts are not to be evaluated?
• At what point during a group project or the assignment will the evaluation be done?
• What learning outcomes are expected from this exercise?
• How will their peers’ evaluation affect everyone's grades?
• What form of feedback will you receive regarding how you evaluated your peers?

II.  What to Consider

When informed that you will be assessing the work of others, consider the following:

1. Carefully read the rubric given to you by the professor. If he/she hasn't distributed a rubric, be sure to clarify what guidelines or rules you are to follow and specifically what parts of the assignment or group project are to be evaluated. If you are asked to help develop a rubric, ask to see examples. The design and content of assessment rubrics can vary considerably and it is important to know what your professor is looking for.
2. Consider how your assessment should be reported. Is it simply a rating [i.e., rate 1-5 the quality of work], are points given for each item graded [i.e., 0-20 points], are you expected to write a brief synopsis of your assessment, or is it any combination of these approaches? If you are asked to write an evaluation, be concise and avoid subjective or overly-broad modifiers. Whenever possible, cite specific examples of either good work or work you believe does not meet the standard outlined in the rubric.
3. Clarify how you will receive feedback from your professor regarding how effectively you assessed the work of your peers. Take advantage of receiving this feedback to discuss how the rubric could be improved or whether the process of completing the assignment or group project was enhanced using peer grading methods.

III.  General Evaluative Elements of a Rubric

In the social and behavioral sciences, the elements of a rubric used to evaluate a writing assignment depend upon the content and purpose of the assignment. Rubrics are often presented in print or online as a grid with evaluative statements about what constitutes an effective, somewhat effective, or ineffective element of the content.

Here are the general types of assessment that your professor may ask you to examine or that you may want to consider if you are asked to help develop the rubric.

Grammar and Usage

The writing is free of misspellings. Words are capitalized correctly. There is proper verb tense agreement. The sentences are punctuated correctly and there are no sentence fragments or run-on sentences. Acronyms are spelled out when first used. The paper is neat, legible, and presented in an appropriate format. If there are any non-textual elements [e.g., charts, graphs, tables, pictures, etc.], assess whether they are labeled correctly and described in the text to help support an understanding the overall purpose of the paper.

Focus and Organization

The paper is structured logically. The research problem and supporting questions or hypotheses are clearly articulated and systematically addressed. Content is presented in an effective order that supports understanding of the main ideas or critical events. The narrative flow possesses overall unity and coherence and it is appropriately developed by means of description, example, illustration, or definition that effectively defines the scope of what is being investigated. Conclusions or recommended actions reflect astute connections to more than one perspective or point of view.

Elaboration and Style

The introduction engages your attention. Descriptions of ideas, concepts, events, and people are clearly related to the research problem. There is appropriate use of technical or specialized terminology required to make the content clear. Where needed, descriptions of cause and effect outcomes, compare and contrast, and classification and division of findings are effectively presented. Arguments, recommendations, best practices, or lessons learned are supported by the evidence gathered and presented. Limitations are acknowledged and described. Sources are selected from a variety of scholarly and creative sources that provide valid support for studying the problem. All sources are properly cited using a standard writing style.

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