The development of student feedback literacy: the influences of teacher feedback on peer feedback

Abstract

Although the concept of student feedback literacy has drawn increasing attention in higher education, empirical research on this matter is still in its infancy. In the area of peer feedback, little research has investigated the role of teacher follow-up feedback on peer feedback in the development of student feedback literacy. To address the research gap, a multiple-case study of three Chinese master’s students enrolled in an academic writing course was conducted, drawing on the students’ drafts with peer feedback, teacher written feedback on that peer feedback, semi-structured interviews, retrospective verbal reports, observation field notes and class documents. Three students’ epistemological and practical knowledge about, attitudes towards, and self-efficacy beliefs in peer feedback were found to improve at different paces and to different degrees. However, considerable individual variations were observed with two high-achieving, highly motivated participants becoming more feedback-literate than their under-achieving, minimally motivated peer. Teacher feedback on peer feedback was found to have distinct impacts on individual students, depending on learner factors including language ability, beliefs and motivation. These findings suggest that teacher feedback on peer feedback, if consistently provided and compatible with learner factors, can scaffold both cognitive and social-affective aspects of student feedback literacy.     

Connecting feedback to self-efficacy: Receiving and providing peer feedback in teacher education

Feedback can play a vital role in fostering teacher self-efficacy. Social comparisons and feedback valence (positive vs. negative feedback) are assumed to have a large impact on self-efficacy. Therefore, how pre-service teachers perceive social comparisons and feedback valence in peer feedback and the extent to which pre-service teachers (bachelor/master students) and teacher trainers incorporate comments that can have an impact on self-efficacy into their peer feedback merit investigation. Two studies were conducted. The first showed that peer feedback consisting of a social comparison and with positive feedback valence resulted in greater willingness to improve and positive affect. The second study revealed that teacher trainers’ feedback was more specific, whereas bachelor students’ feedback contained more social comparisons than did master students’ and teacher trainers’. Future research and practical implications are discussed.     

国外同伴互助学习的研究进展与前瞻

颇具中国传统文化特色的同伴互助学习,作为一种新型教学理念在国外发展十分迅速,目前已呈现出三种主要样态:教学组织形式、课程以及思维训练工具。未来的同伴互助学习除沿着学习领域、培训领域、院校合作方式三条道路推进外,其自身形式的拓展以及与信息技术的结合也将展现出无限的生命力。与此同时,对同伴互助学习所展开的元研究则可望发展为以整体主义方法论为指导,以开放式的系统思维为特征的整体化趋势研究。     

Constructivism as a framework for literacy teacher education courses: the cases of six literacy teacher educators

This paper presents findings from the large-scale study Literacy Teacher Educators: Their Backgrounds, Visions, and Practices that includes 28 literacy/English teacher educators (LTEs) from four countries. The participants were interviewed three times and shared their course outlines. Six pre-service LTEs who use a constructivist approach are presented. The six LTEs speak English as their mother tongue. Three aspects of constructivism are discussed: knowledge is constructed by learners; knowledge is experience based; and a strong class community is essential. They have adopted a constructivist approach because they conceptualised the teaching/learning process as a partnership. Constructivism is a flexible and fluid framework so individual LTEs can shape their work for their context and draw on their strengths; however, it is demanding because courses have to be somewhat organic in order to create space for discussion of issues as they arise.     

In the eye of the beholder: The relationship between perceived peer language skills,provided peer feedback and peer grading in secondary education

Students involved in peer assessment have interpersonal relationships, partly consisting of reciprocal perceptions. In the domain of argumentative writing, little is known about the way peer assessment is affected by the assessor’s perception of the assessee’s language skills. Dutch 10th grade students (N = 176, age = 15–16) provided feedback and grades on two texts, being under the illusion that the texts had been written by two classmates whom the assessors perceived as a peer with either stronger or weaker language skills than their own (within-subjects design). In reality, students assessed similar texts, created by the researchers. Assessors did not provide different feedback to the two types of assessees. Simultaneously, they provided higher grades to peers perceived to have stronger language skills than their own than to peers perceived to have weaker language skills than their own. Future research should capture assessors’ rationale behind the composition of feedback and grades.     

Waiting for Gabriel: Philosophical literacy and teacher education

Abstract

The author presents a case for expanding the philosophical literacy of preservice teachers. It is argued here that increasing the philosophical literacy in teacher education programs will enable teachers to think deliberatively and, consequently, reflectively on the exigencies of their practice. For example, through guided experience with philosophy of education, preservice teachers can gain familiarity with the hermeneutics of inter‐subjectivity, thus making them better able to communicate and understand their own students and their families. The author uses John Dewey's pragmatic ideas about reflection, hermeneutics, and equity as examples of how philosophical literacy can guide preservice teachers’ professional contemplation.     

Passive,active, and constructive engagement with peer feedback: A revised model of learning from peer feedback

To deepen understanding of learning through peer feedback, the current study investigated the relationships between different peer feedback activities (organized into constructive vs active activities) and learning (i.e., transfer to new tasks), examining the nature of activities within provided feedback, received feedback, and revisions in response to feedback. Across five US high schools, 367 students in Advanced Placement classes participated, implementing common assignments and peer assessment rubrics. Provided/received comments and revisions in one assignment, and writing improvements observed in a second assignment were exhaustively coded and subjected to hierarchical model regression analyses. Results showed that constructive activities (providing explanations and making revisions after receiving explanations or providing suggestions) were consistently associated with learning, whereas passive (e.g., receiving feedback without making revisions) or active activities (e.g., implementing specific suggestions) were not. Further, the effects of received feedback on learning were mediated by the number of revisions. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.     

智能教学系统中支持协作学习的群体感知模型

自主学习和协作学习是相互促进、相互依赖的网络学习方式。然而,目前典型的网络学习系统(智能教学系统和计算机支持的协作学习系统)大多将自主学习和协作学习强制分离,忽视了自主学习过程中协作交流的激励作用以及协作学习过程中学习者的自主学习需求。因此,扩展现有的智能教学系统,构建一个自主学习和协作学习有机融合的数字化学习环境,有助于更好地满足网络环境下师生的学习需求。支持协作学习的群体感知模型由群体感知信息、群体感知本体和群体感知规则三部分组成,采用本体技术建模协作感知信息,运用语义Web规则语言刻画协作感知机制,为实现协作学习的信息交互提供通用模型。基于该模型构建的智能教学系统,在原有ITS自主学习环境的基础上,扩展了参与者可以相互感知、相互交流的协作学习模块,实现与现有智能教学系统的无缝整合,为开发具有协作学习功能的智能教学系统提供了技术参考。     

Facilitating social learning in teacher education: a case study

It is increasingly recognised that social learning by teachers can stimulate professional development. In this study, we search for the social behaviour patterns which can act as a catalyst for professional development, with an explicit focus on student teachers’ learning. Based on the ‘Dimensions of Social Learning (DSL) Framework’, including 4 dimensions and 11 indicators of social learning, the present study explores the social configuration of one network of primary teachers (n?=?12), student teachers (n?=?12) and teacher educators (n?=?2). Two research questions guide this exploration: (1) What patterns of social behaviour in teacher networks are likely to lead to professional learning? (2) What network facilitation guidelines can be discerned to assist teachers and teacher educators wishing to optimise student teachers’ professional development? Data collection consisted of video recordings, reflective notes and semi-structured interviews with network members. The findings paint a picture of how social learning in teacher networks is related to the group’s social configuration. Observation criteria and student facilitation guidelines are suggested to support professional development within teacher networks. For each dimension in the DSL Framework, one point of attention is discerned to optimise students’ learning in teacher networks.     

Conceptualizing narrative authority: Implications for teacher education

In this paper I explore an alternative to the dominant authority of positivism in teacher education research and curricula through the conceptualization of narrative authority. Narrative authority is rooted in the personal practical knowledge of teacher education students, university teachers and classroom teachers as they interact within the contexts of teacher education. I begin by describing Dewey's conception of experience as individually continuous and socially interactive. I then discuss two ways in which knowledge is constructed from experience and describe how each Ivalues a different kind of authority. 1 then focus on the educative qualities of experience and show how narrative knowledge expressed through mundane and sacred stories can become taken-for-granted or be reconstructed through experience. Next, I describe how we can think of ourselves as authoring our lives through our narrative authority. I then consider the institutional narratives of teacher education in which sacred stories of apprenticeship, technical rationalism, and inquiry are embedded. I conclude by discussing some of the implications acknowledging narrative authority has for reshaping teacher education.     

Implications of research for mathematics teacher education

This paper reviews the research areas considered to be significant for mathematics teacher education. The research is reviewed in several sections: construing children's thinking, affective ideas, teaching methods, the mathematics classroom, and curriculum analyses. In the final section ways of using ideas from this research are discussed. The review seeks to reflect recent research developments and to indicate promising avenues for future study.     

The internship component of a teacher education program: Opportunities for learning

Abstract

Many preservice teacher education programs in recent years have increased the amount of time student teachers spend in field placements by adding an “internship “ component. An internship is typically longer than a practice teaching session and is designed as a bridge between being a student teacher and having full teaching responsibilities. This study explored the effect of an internship that had three key features: the interns were free to choose the nature of their field experience, no formal evaluation was involved, and the interns were attached to the school (or other institution) as a whole rather than a particular staff member. Under these conditions, the interns could (a) go more deeply into a specific teaching area; (b) gain greater knowledge of school culture; (c) become more familiar with school‐wide programs and activities; and (d) learn more about their distinctive interests and abilities as teachers.     

Collaborative teacher learning across foci of collaboration: Perceived activities and outcomes

This study compared teacher collaboration with differing foci, in terms of various learning activities and learning outcomes. A total of 411 teachers from 49 primary schools participated by completing a questionnaire. Foci of collaboration explained significant differences in the frequency with which teachers perceived learning activities and learning outcomes to occur in their collaboration with colleagues. Moreover, the focus of collaboration explained a considerable amount of between-schools differences in teachers' reported learning activities and learning outcomes. These results suggest that the school context and the focus of collaboration are related and that these both influence collaborative teacher learning.     

Evaluation of a model science teacher education program

This study assessed the effectiveness of one science teacher education program designed to be a model program. The study provided evidence that preservice science teacher education can have a very positive effect on the development of preservice science teachers into effective practicing teachers. Thirty program graduates completed a pilot version of the 1985 National Survey of Science and Mathematics Education providing information on course objectives, teaching strategies, equipment use, time allocation, and textbook use. The responses of program graduates were compared to the responses of a select national sample of teachers. All teachers in the comparison group were from programs in the Search for Excellence in Science Education, Presidential Award winners, recognized as outstanding state science teachers, employed as department chairs, or actively involved in the development of science curriculum. Analysis of the responses indicated that both program graduates and comparison group teachers had similar course objectives and teaching strategies, used materials and equipment a similar amount of time, and allocated class time in similar ways. In another component of the study, students of 37 program graduates completed a questionnaire that assessed their attitudes toward science teachers, science classes, and the study of science. Analysis of attitudinal data from their 2871 students indicated that students of program graduates generally had positive attitudes. For instance, 89% of the students perceived their science teacher as asking questions and 80% perceived their science teacher as letting them ask questions. In general, the data are in stark contrast to the images obtained from National Assessment efforts.     

Service learning and literacy tutoring: Academic impact on pre-service teachers

How does service learning impact content acquisition? Undergraduate pre-service teachers participating in a literacy tutoring service-learning experience are compared with pre-service teachers engaged in self-selected and independently directed tutoring sessions. The findings of this study support previous assertions that service-learning positively influences student academic achievement. The data gathered provide evidence that this positive influence is related to several design features. Specifically, the value placed on the service increased student motivation to learn course content. The frequency and variety of opportunities to reflect coupled with academic goals being embedded into the actual service experience strengthened connections between service and academic content.