This semester I am provided a sample of a successful paper submitted by a 1st year student last semester to test the idea that identifying a peer who succeeded with similar challenges will provoke greater effort and ultimately greater success. For the full background on this CATS please see "Will Providing a Peer Sample Motivate Growth?"
Results: The average score for the students who completed this assignment during the semester a peer sample was included was 27.6 out of 30. The average score on the assignment for the preceding two semesters without the peer sample was 21.1 and 20.8 respectively. Providing a peer sample of what is expected appears to have a significant positive effect on student success in this assignment, beyond providing a professor written sample and other previous scaffolding attempts.
Comments
YAY! I am so glad this worked for you. Thank you so much for taking time to submit a CATS and update us on this. Putting more work in the hands of students and giving them more responsibility in the learning process seems to give them more power, and they step up to it.
This is a great idea! I use peer assignments to model for my students what a quality assignment looks like. I believe this helps our students who have a stronger visual learning style to understand what is expected from them.
Thank you for sharing!
Catherine