supervisor: reza farrokhnia
Topic
The increasing complexity of university tasks, such as essay writing, proposal development, and project presentations, demands comprehensive feedback approaches. Yet, providing detailed feedback in these contexts is challenging due to the time constraints faced by teachers, making it difficult for them to offer individualized, constructive feedback (van der Pol et al., 2008). In response, peer feedback has been introduced, offering varied perspectives and richer insights on these complex tasks in a relatively short amount of time (Simonsmeier et al., 2020). However, the effectiveness of peer feedback is not without its challenges. A key challenge is students' limited understanding of the nuanced and often complex evaluation criteria required for effective evaluation. These criteria typically involve tacit knowledge, which students may struggle to comprehend and apply accurately (Hawe et al., 2021), consequently may impact the quality of the feedback they provide.
Addressing this challenge, Sadler (1989) proposed two key practices for improving evaluative decision-making: (1) describing evaluation criteria clearly, and (2) presenting exemplars. Describing criteria is a common practice in education, where teachers provide students with criteria-based rubrics (Camarata & Slieman. 2020). Yet, these rubrics, despite their descriptive statements aiming to clarify evaluation criteria, can still be abstract and hard for students to fully comprehend (Brookhart, 2018). To overcome this challenge, the use of exemplars has been suggested by scholars across various fields (Carless et al., 2018; Hendry & Anderson, 2013). Exemplars are “key examples chosen so as to be typical of designated levels of quality or competence” (Sadler, 2005, p.192). For instance, they could be a sample piece of student/expert work that demonstrates a high level of performance or quality.
Thus far, studies have shown that presenting exemplars alongside rubrics positively impacts students' ability to judge the quality of a scientific report (Yucel et al., 2014), understand task requirements (Hawe et al., 2017), and enhance evaluative knowledge and skills (Hawe et al., 2021). However, there has been a lack of research on the use of exemplars in improving feedback practices. Only few studies have explored this area, with one notable study by Latifi et al. (2023) finding no significant enhancement in feedback efficacy through the use of exemplars. This highlights a critical need for more in-depth exploration to find effective ways of utilizing exemplars, especially in the context of peer feedback. To address this, To et al. (2022) conducted a systematic review that advocates for more interactive and participatory methods. Specifically, they suggest two strategies: (1) the deconstruction of criteria before analyzing an exemplar, and (2) encouraging students to co-construct criteria with peers/teachers after exemplar analysis, drawing inspiration from social constructivist models of assessment.
The current project aims to explore the effectiveness of using the approaches suggested by To et al. (2022) in improving higher education students’ peer feedback practices. The focus here could be on the effect of these approaches on various essential individual factors, such as students’ feedback tolerance (Aben et al., 2022), feedback literacy (Nieminen, & Carless, 2023), self-efficacy (Bürgermeister et al., 2021), and/or attitude towards peer feedback (Kerman et al., 2023) or on outcomes such as feedback quality (Valero Haro et al., 2023), feedback uptake (Carless & Boud, 2018), feedback acceptance (Quintelier et al., 2020), and/or the level of improvement in the quality of the assignment.
Method
This study has an experimental nature, through which you will explore the effects of various approaches on improving students’ peer feedback practices.
Suggested Design
Higher education students will be randomly assigned to four distinct groups for the experiment:
- Control Group
Students in this group will use rubrics provided by teachers, reflecting the conventional approach to feedback. - Experimental Group 1
This group will use teacher-provided rubrics along with examples of high-quality assignments that correlate with the given rubrics. - Experimental Group 2
Students in this group will engage in deconstructing criteria before analyzing an exemplar. This practice will take place prior to the students giving peer feedback. - Experimental Group 3
This group will co-construct criteria with peers and teachers after exemplar analysis. This collaborative practice will also be implemented before the peer feedback process.
Example Research Questions
- What is the comparative effectiveness of teacher-provided rubrics versus exemplar-based learning approaches in enhancing students' understanding and application of feedback rubrics?
- Which approach – using exemplars with teacher-provided rubrics, deconstructing criteria before analyzing exemplars, or co-constructing criteria post exemplar analysis – is most effective in improving peer feedback quality?
- What impact do these approaches have on individual factors such as feedback literacy, tolerance, self- efficacy, and attitudes towards peer feedback?
- How do these methods influence outcomes like feedback quality, uptake, acceptance, and the improvement in assignment quality?
Additional Flexibility
You are also very welcome to propose your own research questions and designs, such as experiments with fewer groups, or to concentrate on other relevant dependent variables.
Interested in studying alternative target groups, like high school students? You can conduct this research in various educational settings, subject to approval from your supervisors.
references
Aben, J. E., Timmermans, A. C., Dingyloudi, F., Lara, M. M., & Strijbos, J. W. (2022). What influences students' peer-feedback uptake? Relations between error tolerance, feedback tolerance, writing self-efficacy, perceived language skills and peer-feedback processing. Learning and Individual Differences, 97, 102175.
Brookhart, S. M. (2018). Appropriate Criteria: Key to Effective Rubrics. Frontiers in Education, 3.
Bürgermeister, A., Glogger-Frey, I., & Saalbach, H. (2021). Supporting peer feedback on learning strategies: Effects on self-efficacy and feedback quality. Psychology Learning & Teaching, 20(3), 383-404.
Camarata, T., & Slieman, T. A. (2020). Improving student feedback quality: A simple model using peer review and feedback rubrics. Journal of medical education and curricular development, 7, 2382120520936604.
Carless, D., & Boud, D. (2018). The development of student feedback literacy: enabling uptake of feedback. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 43(8), 1315-1325.
Carless, D., Chan, K. K. H., To, J., Lo, M. & Barrett, E. (2018). Developing students’ capacities for evaluative judgement through analysing exemplars. In Developing Evaluative Judgement in Higher Education (pp. 108–116). Routledge.
Hawe, E., Dixon, H., Murray, J. & Chandler, S. (2021). Using rubrics and exemplars to develop students’ evaluative and productive knowledge and skill. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 45(8), 1033–1047.
Hawe, E., Dixon, H., Murray, J. & Chandler, S. (2021). Using rubrics and exemplars to develop students’ evaluative and productive knowledge and skill. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 45(8), 1033–1047.
Hawe, E., Lightfoot, U. & Dixon, H. (2017). First-year students working with exemplars: promoting self-efficacy, self-monitoring and self-regulation. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 1–15.
Hendry, G. D. & Anderson, J. (2013). Helping students understand the standards of work expected in an essay: using exemplars in mathematics pre-service education classes. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 38(6), 754–768.
Kerman, N. T., Banihashem, S. K., & Noroozi, O. (2023). The Relationship Among Students’ Attitude Towards Peer Feedback, Peer Feedback Performance, and Uptake. In The Power of Peer Learning: Fostering Students’ Learning Processes and Outcomes (pp. 347-371). Cham: Springer International Publishing.
Latifi, S., Noroozi, O., & Talaee, E. (2023). Worked example or scripting? Fostering students’ online argumentative peer feedback, essay writing and learning. Interactive Learning Environments, 31(2), 655-669.
Quintelier, A., De Maeyer, S., & Vanhoof, J. (2020). The role of feedback acceptance and gaining awareness on teachers’ willingness to use inspection feedback. Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability, 32, 311-333.
Sadler, D. R. (1989). Formative assessment and the design of instructional systems. Instructional Science, 18(2), 119–144.
Simonsmeier, B. A., Peiffer, H., Flaig, M., & Schneider, M. (2020). Peer feedback improves students’ academic self-concept in higher education. Research in Higher Education, 61, 706-724.
To, J., Panadero, E. & Carless, D. (2022). A systematic review of the educational uses and effects of exemplars. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 47(8), 1167–1182.
Valero Haro, A., Noroozi, O., Biemans, H. J., Mulder, M., & Banihashem, S. K. (2023). How does the type of online peer feedback influence feedback quality, argumentative essay writing quality, and domain-specific learning?. Interactive Learning Environments, 1-20.
Van der Pol, J., Van den Berg, B. A. M., Admiraal, W. F., & Simons, P. R. J. (2008). The nature, reception, and use of online peer feedback in higher education. Computers & Education, 51(4), 1804-1817.
Yucel, R., Bird, F. L., Young, J. & Blanksby, T. (2014). The road to self-assessment: exemplar marking before peer review develops first-year students’ capacity to judge the quality of a scientific report. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 39(8), 971–986.