Assessing personal attributes in the group rehearsal

Abstract

This is a study of the marks that were awarded for students' personal attributes, when used as peer assessment criteria, in their band rehearsals. Successive cohorts of first-year undergraduate students, from 2001 to 2009, were involved in the research comprising of 191 students and 84 bands. Data analysis focused on the strength of marking agreement and the variances between self- and peer-assessments. Personal attribute assessments that exhibited the greatest strength of marking agreement arose from when criteria were formulated together by bands, especially those attributes to which the group, as a whole, aspired; to a lesser extent, personal weakness criteria formulated by bands for each member. High flyers and female students underestimated themselves in their self-assessments, compared with those awarded by the band, especially when using criteria arising from their personal weaknesses; weaker students over-estimated themselves. In considering such misjudgements, this study raises questions about band members' self-efficacy belief.

Keywords:

• popular music rehearsals
• peer assessment
• personal attributes
• self-efficacy
• group work

Notes

1. In this paper, the term ‘marking’ can be regarded as being the equivalence of ‘grading’.

2. The final grade for each student was obtained from combining the peer assessments, arising from the rehearsals, with the tutor assessment of the band performance. This was calculated from the totalled peer assessment marks, dividing each by their mean and multiplying them by the ‘band mark’. It is a process sometimes described as the ‘zero-sum’ method (Sharp 2006) because any student who is peer-assessed as providing zero contribution receives zero marks. It can be expressed thus: