The Solution to Learning Inequity – Eliminating High Stakes Exams
Concurrent Session 9
Brief Abstract
Learning inequity will remain a problem as long as universities rely heavily on high stakes exams to assess student performance. Learn how Dr. Chris Schunn at the University of Pittsburgh uses peer learning to achieve more equitable outcomes across all student demographic groups.
Presenters
Extended Abstract
Dr. Chris Schunn at the University of Pittsburgh has for years been a strong advocate for using peer assessment to offer deeper learning in his large undergraduate Cognitive Psychology course. With class sizes over 120 (now over 250), there simply wasn’t any other way to offer students the writing-within-the-discipline or other authentic assessments that allowed them to apply their knowledge and show a strong understanding of course concepts. Dr. Schunn is realizing more recently that peer learning serves a larger and much more important goal: learning equity. Research is now clear that high stakes exams produce inequities of outcomes both because of how they assess performance and what kinds of studying they encourage. The only practical way of offering all students equal opportunity for success, regardless of socio-economic background, gender, race/ethnicity, or other negatively-stereotyped group status, is to engage students as reviewers to their peers in a wide range of performance formative assessments and end forever the dependence on high stakes multiple-choice exams. As a result of the changes in teaching approach described here, the course shifted from having consistently large differences in grades across student demographic groups to now having no difference at all.
Many universities have done away with standardized tests for admission, yet high stakes midterms and finals have managed to survive as a common assessment model in many disciplines. High stakes exams only measure a specific type of rote knowledge and are strongly biased against 1st generation and traditionally underserved college students. These students are far more likely to struggle in the high enrollment courses common across higher ed, with 30% of first generation college students dropping out of four year colleges within three years. At a time when a college education should offer a gateway to more equal lifetime opportunity, the greatest predictor of college success continues to be one’s zip code.
Dr. Schunn offers a much better learning solution for the over 250 students in his Cognitive Psych course. Students actively engage as reviewers on submissions by their peers in a wide range of formative assessments, both individually and in groups. Students participate in a sequence of complex projects requiring students to select from a number of possible applications of central big ideas from each course module, find additional research related to that application, and explain the implications of the research. Students are given the choice to either participate in a group or work on the assignments as individuals. Allowing choice in applications and how students work together are motivating to students and creates a more equitable learning environment because it allows students to build upon their strengths and knowledge. The sequence of 4 projects are completed by students and then submitted for peer assessment. The peer learning platform Peerceptiv is used to manage anonymous document distribution within the cloud, and eliminates the implicit and explicit bias typically associated with peer review. Deep integration with Canvas allows Dr. Schunn to sync rosters and groups, and provides access to work on assignments directly in the LMS for the entire class.
Students receive more feedback than Dr. Schunn and his TAs could ever possibly offer themselves. Years of research validate the learning opportunity of engaging with classmates on the giving side of the feedback loop and the outcome improvement in evaluating the work of one’s peers. Actively engaging as reviewers on peer submissions that show a variety of applications of big course concepts against well-designed rubrics helps students internalize course concepts in ways not possible in more passive learning models.
Research-based AI algorithms in Peerceptiv allow grading done by students to be as valid and reliable as grading done by a single expert. Dr. Schunn uses the peer scoring for all primary grading, and then analyses learning data to focus on students doing poorly or artifacts where there is a relative lack of peer agreement. Dr. Schunn also uses benchmark grading to ensure that grades fairly reflect the performance of each course cohort. Using the benchmark grading option avoids curving, which inherently pits students against one another. It allows for transparent and equitable standards to be applied across projects and semesters.. Grades then automatically pass-back into the Canvas gradebook.
The combination of peer scoring and benchmarking eases the grading burden, enabling Dr. Schunn to assign more formative performance assessments in Psych 0422. Students are given more ways to express what they know and the essential feedback needed to improve outcomes. Students enjoy the opportunity to see in their peer’s work successful models and things to emulate, strategies they might not have otherwise considered. The formative assessment enabled by peer learning and the process of peer review naturally develop foundational skills, such as critical thinking and communication, essential for workplace success.
Groups can be established in the Canvas LMS to automatically sync into Peerceptiv, easily facilitating group submission for projects. Students individually review the work of their peers on submissions made by students in different groups. The final phase of a group project is Peer Evaluation, in which students anonymously provide quantitative scoring and qualitative feedback to group members on how they contributed to the team, developing vital teamwork and collaboration skills.
According to the World Economic Forum formative assessment takes students on a learning journey that promotes engagement, improves outcomes and closes the affluence gap. Dr. Schunn has demonstrated that peer learning allows formative assessment to scale for any size enrollment, giving all students an equal opportunity for success.