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Empowering Students Through Evaluation: Over 50 Years Without Grades at Hampshire College

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Abstract

Hampshire College is a small liberal arts college that centers student learning by asking students to develop their own educational program and monitors student learning through faculty narrative evaluations and student self-evaluation, portfolio development, and reflective writing. Although it is unlikely that all institutions will shift to faculty narrative evaluation, we can all improve student self-evaluation and portfolio building to improve learning and diminish the negative effects of grading. In this chapter I share the purposes and practices of Hampshire College’s narrative evaluation system and share resources that might support your institution in shifting towards more learner-centered assessment methods.

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Correspondence to Laura Wenk .

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Wenk, L. (2023). Empowering Students Through Evaluation: Over 50 Years Without Grades at Hampshire College. In: Coburn, N., Derby-Talbot, R. (eds) The Impacts of Innovative Institutions in Higher Education. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-38785-2_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-38785-2_4

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