Abstract:

This paper presents a qualitative study on the evaluation work performed by students of two first-year courses, Physics and Electricity, included in the Electronic and Automatic Engineering Degree (School of Design Engineering) at the Universitat Politècnica de València. The teaching methodologies used include continuous and formative assessment. The activity analyzed, based on peer assessment, consist of a problem to be solved by students. The solution is reflected in a document to be evaluated.

In order to guide students in the evaluation process, a rubric was provided including aspects related to the resolution of the problem. In addition, effective communication transversal competence was assessed. Both tasks, problem resolution and evaluation, were performed in teams. Each team was made up of six members. The teams were the same in the two courses since they are consecutive, taught in first and second semester. Each team had to solve 6 problems and evaluate 6 resolutions (from other teams) throughout both courses, without repeating the evaluated team. 144 evaluations, corresponding to two consecutive academic years, were analyzed.

The study has been developed in three parts. In the first part, the aspects in which the teams focus their attention on carrying out the evaluation have been analyzed. In the second part, it was observed how the evaluation work of the teams evolved throughout the academic year, and finally, in the last part, the evaluations carried out by two different teams on the same resolution of a problem were compared.

The result of the study shows that students carry out thoughtful and rigorous assessment work. It was also found that evaluations of the same work carried out by different teams resulted in very close ratings, which supported the credibility of the evaluations. Therefore, we can conclude that methodologies based on peer assessment encourage the active participation of students and enhance their learning.

Keywords:

Peer evaluation, rubric, teamwork, active learning.