Tell me what you think, what you really, really think…: technology-supported peer feedback to develop students' understanding of quality work

If students are to learn to judge their performance against the standards for quality work, they must first understand the criteria being used to assess such work. Clarifying assessment criteria is an essential step in... [ view full abstract ]

If students are to learn to judge their performance against the standards for quality work, they must first understand the criteria being used to assess such work. Clarifying assessment criteria is an essential step in students identifying and then closing the gap between their own and the expected performance.  Research suggests that interventions designed to increase student understanding of assessment processes can significantly improve the quality of their work.  This may be particularly crucial in the case of international students, who often experience difficulties in understanding expectations in Western educational settings.

This paper reports on a study which sought to design an intervention aimed at improving the oral presentation skills of twelve Chinese students in an English language module on a Foundation programme in an Irish higher education institution.  Supported by the Socrative classroom response system, two peer feedback cycles were used with a view to increasing students’ understanding of quality, standards and assessment criteria for the oral presentations.

The findings reveal that the peer feedback process was positively experienced by both teacher and students and led to a clearer understanding of expectations around the assessment, in addition to enhanced outcomes. However, the improvement in the quality of the students’ work appeared to be mainly due to structured dialogic activities around exemplars and rubrics, rather than the generation and receiving of peer comments.  Students expressed scepticism of peer comments and were reluctant to criticise peers.

The research confirms the value in using the technology tool to facilitate the peer feedback process, but, most importantly, it indicates a need for greater assessment and feedback literacy for both students and teachers, and the embedding of on-going feedback practices throughout the curriculum, in order to create a richer and sustainable feedback climate. (289 words – excluding title)

Keywords: Peer feedback; Technology-supported feedback; International Students; Assessment literacy