The role of an editor

And what is the editor’s role if that other is also a student?, someone that comes to the text because he wants/needs/has to learn, and even more, to self-learn?

In these cases, the responsibility is even higher. An error in a book is duplicated not only once, but many times, as used to say the monks from the middle ages when, nostalgic from their scriptorium, refused to accept the novelty of the typewriter. They would wonder «How will we know now the truth?», «now that we cannot compare the differences between the manuscripts to know which one is the real one, the error will be repeated no only once, but many times; to amend it will be impossible»

The error of an editor, dedicated to book production, has, in any of its levels (scholar, varied or university teaching), concrete repercussions: it affects the others’ learning, their academic performance, their grades, their dreams. The editor is risking the various efforts that the person does  for his studies, and that a State, viewing public spending in education as the best investment for the future of the country, supports.

Therefore, those working in the edition of academic works have at the same time a great opportunity and a great responsibility: the responsibility of doing everything to create the best possible work for their students; the opportunity of contributing the germ in the formation of the future generation of citizens and leaders of the country.

Students should self-assess their work

Aside from the professor’s assessment, students will be able to self-assess their work and contributions to the rest of the team.

 

For example, after performing a project activity, students are asked to write a list of three things that have been useful to them and one they would like to improve. Students are then encourage to analyze the results of their peers, and not just their personalities, making this a clear effort to identifying the behaviors that may help improve teamwork and what might be weakening the team. This information may be shared among small groups or with the whole class.

 

Students are encouraged to be constructive and communicative, as opposed to judging the behavior of others. The most common responses are:

-“ I think it is useful that Marta is bringing several articles because this helps the flow of the discussion and allows us to have a variety of resources to work with”.

-“I like how Joel writes down all of our comments. They say exactly what I want to say, but in a better way than I say them”.

-“I feel encouraged by the way we talk about certain topics. It makes me feel engaged”.

-I feel frustrated whenever someone comes unprepared” (Enerson, 1997).

 

Students can also submit their lists to the professor, who will analyze this information and share with the rest of the class. The professor may group suggestions for improvement into two categories:

1. Behaviors for which the professor is responsible
2. Behaviors for which the students are responsible.

 

You may ask students to fill out self-assessment forms and also assess their peers, thus, distributing points among the team members and writing confidential comments regarding each member’s contribution to the team. The student must self-assess him or herself. A type for evaluation may include items such as leadership, collaboration, communication, work ethic and work quality.

Dr. Robin Eanes for the University of St. Edwards in Austin, Texas, used a type of peer evaluation during the completion of an activity during a class called “Educational Reform in the United States”. This type of evaluation asked students to evaluate aspects of each of the team members, their skills within the group and knowledge of the content in a scale from 0 to 3: unfit, acceptable, good and excellent. Students were assessing themselves following these criteria:

-The ability to express personal opinions and points of view

-The ability to defend your point of view

-The ability not to control a discussion

-The amount of help provided to all the members of your team

-The ability to teach course material to the rest of the team.