It Takes Village People

Yesterday the students changed groups, and the change seemed to have brought a whiff of fresh air to the class. The first groups were formed geographically, so to speak, in that the students turned around and grouped with the people closest to them—which for at least 3 of the groups meant that the members already knew each other. These new groups forced the students to move around the class and to introduce themselves to new people. My observation is that many of the students took the change as an opportunity to hear new perspectives and to re-present themselves to others.

Before the change, the students turned in their peer assessment forms, which used a Leikert scale with statements about their partners’ group participation. I haven’t read them closely yet, but my initial response is that students are nice and honest—in that order. My own assessment of some students’ work in the groups would have been different from their partners, and I’m guessing two things: students don’t want to damage each other, and they don’t have much experience assessing things.

The first thing I can’t change, and I’m not sure I would want to. Students really are “in it together,” in that many classes present a teacher v. students approach. Or maybe it’s that students perceive the class that way—and surely the media helps with that perception. These students have to live with each other (literally, in some cases), and who wants to play the role of fuddy duddy by dissing a peer. The social nature of the classroom is under-appreciated in a lot of what we think we know about student behavior.

The second thing—assessment experience—I can do something about. I might have the class discuss what it means to agree, somewhat agree, or disagree with statements about the performance of others. We should talk more about what we expect from our peers. (Suggestions?) In general, we need to think more about the extent to which the class becomes a community.

Maybe that’s the larger point to this post. Is it reasonable to expect a college class to become a community? And what would that mean? Critical pedagogy—even in the way I’m presenting it—assumes (there’s that word again) that learning is a community-based event. But doesn’t the whole assessment fetish and the general discourse surrounding higher education work against that assumption?

I’m at a loss for more right now. Clearly, more work to be done.

Suggestions?