Grading Intellectual Work Output by Fractional Approach to Excellence: A Score Sheet for Every Activity

Abstract

This communication relates experiences with peer evaluation and self-evaluation of individual and collective professional activities. Grading of intellectual work output proceeds by means of score sheets. A score sheet is a set of requirements for reaching a standard of performance. It assesses the quality of performance as fractional approach to the standard by dividing the fulilled requirements by their total number. Individuals and organizations establish their standards, which represent their values, according to their ambitions of excellence, and monitor the approach with the score sheets. Examples of experiences available so far refer to measuring the qualities of technical reports and essays, of oral presentations, of teacher performance, of environmental performance of schools, of marketing success of horticultural produce, of urban sustainability, and of life at old age. For each of the experiences, the text presents and discusses the pertinent score sheet, which indirectly measures a value by showing the approach to expected performance or behavior. Congruence exists if an organization and its members strive for the same standard of performance.