How wonderful it is to be in a classroom full of curious, reflective and internationally minded learners whose way of learning is by inspiring each other to grow and develop through peer feedback? This formative assessment approach is designed to promote student agency and collaboration in the classroom and to develop students' evaluative judgment and understanding of "what is good".
Comparative judgment is an alternative assessment method that draws on the principle that people are generally better at making comparisons between two pieces of work, rather than making absolute judgments on quality. This method is now adapted as a valuable peer assessment tool for sharing feedback and to develop students' tacit knowledge about "what is good".
Our innovation focuses on the pedagogical design of peer feedback and the formative assessment cycle, rather than the technology or psychometrics of comparative judgment. Teacher observations and analyses of student work suggested that students taking part in this innovation have improved in their higher order thinking skills in literature. More importantly, teachers have reported higher levels of collaboration, student agency, motivation and international mindedness among their students (Please see video for details). We are excited about the positive impacts of this approach and are ready to share this with other educators.
The literature review and ideas behind this approach were initially discussed in the IB publication "Teaching and Learning Informed by Assessment in the DP", which has reached over thousands of IB World Schools across the world.
With the lead of two wonderful DP Literature teachers, Erik Brandt and Andrew Pastor, this approach is currently being piloted at Harding High School, Saint Paul's Public Schools in Minnesota, United States, supporting over 70 Diploma students across grade 11 and 12.
We have been pleasantly surprised by the positive impacts of this approach. The findings of this study will inform the development of IB teacher support materials and the next stage of our project, with the hope to reach out to over 5000 IB World Schools located in 150 countries across the world.
Identify a comparative judgment platform that is suitable for you. The most important is to provide guidance to your students on what makes good feedback, and to encourage them to share constructive, personalized and actionable feedback with one another. The design of the formative feedback cycle is also key so that students can engage with timely feedback and apply the insights to their learning.
https://ibo.org/
https://www.spps.org/harding
