University / Using Peer Review to develop Assessment Literacy
Dr Andrew Smith
Faculty of Science and Technology
The aim / Benefits
The tutor wanted to help students to understand what makes a good, or not so good, piece of course work with a view to them being able to critically review their own work.
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- Students developed the ability to identify what makes a good piece of work
- Students were more engaged in feedback
- Students developed skills of critical evaluation and synthesis
- Students’ confidence was increased
- Students developed the ability to – self-feedback – which they can use in other modules
The approach
The tutor asks students to bring in short pieces of work for review by their peers. The sessions were structured, with the tutor emphasising that the main benefit to the students was not the assessment and feedback from their peers, but the experience of assessing a piece of work. The tutor prepares a series of slides explaining the process for the students, and how it is going to benefit them, namely that it provides the best experience of what’s good, what could be improved, and that it builds their understanding of what’s required, increases their understanding of assessment criteria, and also provides feedback on their work before submission. The tutor emphasises that the process is designed to help students build their confidence, and that the key learning aspect of the session occurs in the experience they get when reviewing and discussing rather than in the feedback that they receive on their work. This is reinforced through statements on slides and written on the VLE.
The tutor starts the process by asking the students what they think the assessors will be looking for and they usually identify appropriate assessment criteria which is the start of the learning process.
Students are randomly put into small groups of 3 – 5. The tutor prefers to break up friendship groups since they find that students are more likely to concentrate on the task and not be distracted by personal conversations.
Students have a detailed sheet to complete when they are peer reviewing so they are clear about what they are looking for. They begin by reviewing the work on their own, and bring their own thoughts to a discussion within their group where they agree the feedback and complete a single group feedback sheet for the work they’ve reviewed. Students are reminded to phrase feedback positively, and to provide as much detail in their comments as possible for the aspects requiring improvement on the feedback sheet: they cannot just write ‘very good’!
Some students are concerned that in sharing their work their ideas may be been adopted by others. However the drafts are only shared in the class – not taken away – and the tutor has not seen any cases of plagiarism arising from this process.
The tutor also uses peer review in the classroom as a tool to increase engagement with general weekly learning tasks. Often this is based around students working in small groups making designs, plans, answers or statements on a large piece of flipchart paper with a marker penThe oversize paper and marker pen works to stimulate discussion and thought before answers committed to paper. The tutor then asks the groups to circulate and to comment and make suggestions on each group’s work. This has often replaced verbal peer feedback or whole-class discussion,and has proved popular with students. The simple trick of using oversize paper and a marker pen with small groups has been shown to significantly improve engagement with the task, including feedback, andhas led to an increase in marks.
The outcome
Students are visibly more engaged, quickly become quite adept at identifying good, and not so good, pieces of work, and feel confident in revising their own work accordingly.
Students’ marks have improved, as has the quality of their work.
Profile / Future Development
Tutor name:
Dr Andrew Smith
Faculty:
FST
Size of cohort:
Large (70-150 students)
Technologies used:
VLE
PowerPoint
If you would like to know more please contact Andrew Smith in FST / The tutor plans to:
- Continue to use the process with other cohorts of students.
- Develop the process as a procedure to be used in a ‘flipped classroom’.
Recommendations
The tutor advises anyone interested in this approach to:
- Emphasis the benefits for students in undertaking this process
- Reassure students that the main benefit is in them peer reviewing, rather than gaining feedback from their peers
- Design a detailed feedback sheet for use by the students, and be prepared to update it in light of experience
- Ensure that students write down the feedback they have given, so they can take it away and revise their own work as necessary.
- Try using flipchart paper & marker pens to stimulate thought and discussion