The Use of Exemplars and Formative Feedback when Using Student Derived Marking Criteria in Peer and Self-assessment

This paper reports a study which implemented a method of student self and peer assessment involving student constructed marking criteria in the presence of exemplars. Pairs of first-year undergraduate biology students were asked to complete a poster assignment. The study was designed to allow the evaluation of (1) student self and peer marking and tutor marking for individual marking criteria following the use of exemplars; (2) the role of exemplars in providing a focus for formative feedback about subject standards. The present study shows that: (a) the use of exemplars can help students demonstrate greater understanding of both marking criteria and subject standards; (b) the use of exemplars can help students learning so that higher quality outcomes are produced; (c) the use of exemplars forms a focus for meaningful formative feedback; (d) students may make more objective judgements as a result of peer assessment compared to self-assessment.     

Assessment for learning: a catalyst for student self-regulation

The development of students as lifelong, self-regulating learners is a valued outcome of higher education. To this end, the current project investigated how students in an undergraduate course experienced and responded to a teaching–learning environment where they were expected to take responsibility for their learning. The pedagogic environment of this course was grounded in strategies and activities associated with assessment for learning (AfL). As such, students were expected to participate in activities that provided them with opportunities to exercise control over their learning. Data gathering comprised individual semi-structured interviews and the collection of artefacts. Findings indicated goals helped students know where they were going; exemplars provided insights into what was expected and what constituted quality work; course activities elicited evidence of learning; dialogic interactions around these generated feedback about understandings and progress; the evaluation of exemplars developed evaluative knowledge, skill and expertise; peer review and feedback provided an authentic context for evaluation and monitoring of works-in-progress. It was concluded that, while each of the AfL strategies contributed to student self-regulation, the full impact of AfL as a catalyst for self-regulated learning was realised in the cumulative and recursive effect these strategies had on students’ thinking, actions and feelings.     

More student trust,more self-regulation strategy? Exploring the effects of self-regulatory climate on self-regulated learning

Self-regulated learning has been one of the important areas in educational research. The authors adopted structural equation modeling to explore and compare the impacts of three aspects of self-regulatory climate (i.e., academic emphasis, teacher trust, and student trust) on three features of self-regulated learning (i.e., self-efficacy, intrinsic motive, and self-regulation strategy). The results revealed both direct effects of academic emphasis on students’ use of self-regulation strategy, and indirect effects mediated by self-efficacy and intrinsic motive. Teacher trust has a positive impact on self-efficacy. While student trust has a positive impact on intrinsic motive, its relationship with self-regulation strategy is negative. Significant differences in school levels and gender were identified. The findings indicate that students in different cultures may have different expectations for teachers’ support in learning, which in turn influence the relationship between student trust in teachers and the use of self-regulation strategy. Implications for cultivating self-regulated learners are discussed in the article.     

Self-regulation of assessment beliefs and attitudes: a review of the Students’ Conceptions of Assessment inventory

How students understand, feel about and respond to assessment might contribute significantly to learning behaviour and academic achievement. This paper reviews studies that have used a relatively new self-reported survey questionnaire (Students’ Conceptions of Assessment – SCoA) about student perceptions and understandings of assessment. Confirmatory factor analyses and structural equation modelling results have shown, consistent with self-regulation theory, that the SCoA inventory has meaningful relations with academic performance among New Zealand high school students. Further, German, Hong Kong, American, and New Zealand studies have shown that the SCoA has relations to motivational constructs (e.g. effort, learning strategies, interest, self-efficacy and anxiety) that are also consistent with self-regulation. The SCoA inventory extends our understanding of how student conceptions of assessment are an integral part of self-regulation and provide a warrant for use in research studies investigating test-taker responses to assessment practices and innovations at both university and high school levels.     

Using peer and teacher-student exemplar dialogues to unpack assessment standards: challenges and possibilities

Dialogic use of exemplars is effective in developing student understanding of assessment standards. However, limited studies have investigated how exemplar dialogues are conducted in the post-secondary context. To fill the gap, this teacher-research explores the characteristics of peer and teacher–student exemplar talk in three post-secondary classrooms and the challenges in the dialogic process. The participants involved 69 first-year post-secondary students, a critical friend and a teacher-researcher. Data analysis on selected dialogue excerpts, an open-ended survey, focus group interviews with the students, critical friend’s commentary and a teacher-researcher reflective journal indicated two major issues: (i) students’ lack of capacities to resolve socio-cognitive conflict in the peer dialogue; (ii) the dilemma of addressing students’ immediate assessment needs and developing their long-term evaluative judgements in the teacher–student dialogue. Recommendations are made to tackle the challenges and to orchestrate productive exemplar dialogues.     

Written feedback provided by first-year engineering students,undergraduate teaching assistants,and educators on design project work

ABSTRACT

Feedback is an important part of design education. To better understand how feedback is provided to students on their engineering design work, we characterised and compared first-year engineering students’, undergraduate teaching assistants’, and educators’ written feedback on sample student design work. We created a coding scheme including two domains: Substance and Focus of feedback. Educators made more and longer comments than undergraduate teaching assistants, and undergraduate teaching assistants made more and longer comments than first-year students. The first-year students focused on giving specific directions in their feedback while educators and undergraduate teaching assistants asked thought-provoking questions. Students tended to make more comments about the ways that their peers had communicated their design work while educators and undergraduate teaching assistants made more comments about the design ideas presented in the sample work. This study offers implications for practice for supporting educators, undergraduate teaching assistants, and first-year engineering students to be able to provide feedback on design work.     

Students' transition into higher education: The role of self-efficacy,regulation strategies,and academic achievements

Transition into higher education (HE) has received increased interest in recent years, since it represents a challenging period for students. The aim of this study was to further understand the associations between self-efficacy, academic achievements, and regulation in first-year university students during their transition into HE. The convenience sample consisted of 374 first-year university students (230 females, 61.5%), aged from 18 to 33 (M = 19.86, SD = 1.51) and recruited from an Italian university. Self-efficacy was assessed using the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire; regulation strategies were assessed with the Inventory of Learning Patterns of Students; and a self-reported grade point average was taken as an indicator of each student's academic performance. Result shows that students' self-efficacy was positively associated with self-regulation and negatively associated with a lack of regulation. Students with higher self-efficacy and self-regulation strategies had better academic performance. Female students performed better in academic activities and adopted more external regulation strategies. The findings represent an opportunity for university institutions to consider the interventions they provide to first-year students in order to facilitate the successful transition from secondary school; they also provide researchers with further knowledge about the effect of self-efficacy, and regulation strategies on students' adjustment to HE.     

Mind the gap! Students’ use of exemplars and detailed rubrics as formative assessment

The current study examined efficient modes for providing standardized feedback to improve performance on an assignment for a second year college class involving writing a brief research proposal. Two forms of standardized feedback (detailed rubric and proposal exemplars) were utilized is an experimental design with undergraduate students (N = 100) at three urban college campuses. Students completed a draft of a proposal as part of their course requirements and were then randomly assigned to receive a detailed rubric, proposal exemplars, or a rubric and proposal exemplars for use in revising their work. Analyses of students’ writing from first draft to second draft indicated that all three conditions led to improvements in writing that were significant and strong in terms of effect size, with the stand-alone detailed rubric leading to the greatest improvement. Follow-up focus groups with students indicated that a stand-alone rubric potentially engages greater mindfulness on the part of the student. Practical implications are discussed.     

Influence of Psychosocial Classroom Environment on Students’ Motivation and Self-Regulation in Science Learning: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach

The primary aim of this study was two-fold: 1) to identify salient psychosocial features of the classroom environment that influence students’ motivation and self-regulation in science learning; and 2) to examine the effect of the motivational constructs of learning goal orientation, science task value and self-efficacy in science learning on students’ self-regulation in science classrooms. Data collected from 1360 science students in grades 8, 9 and 10 in five public schools in Perth, Western Australia were utilized to validate the questionnaires and to investigate the hypothesized relationships. Structural Equation Modeling analysis suggested that student cohesiveness, investigation and task orientation were the most influential predictors of student motivation and self-regulation in science learning. In addition, learning goal orientation, task value and self-efficacy significantly influenced students’ self-regulation in science. The findings offer potential opportunities for educators to plan and implement effective pedagogical strategies aimed at increasing students’ motivation and self-regulation in science learning.     

Making productive use of exemplars: Peer discussion and teacher guidance for positive transfer of strategies

Discussion of exemplars of student work is a productive means of explaining tacit knowledge and guiding students into the requirements of academic writing. Through two cycles of action research in a post-secondary institution in Hong Kong, this study examines how exemplars can be used to enhance student understanding of quality and to promote positive transfer of strategies and skills from exemplars to assessment task. Interventions included peer discussion, teacher-led interaction and student mini-presentations in relation to exemplars. To gauge perceptions of these processes, we collected data via open-ended surveys and focus group interviews with students, commentaries from a critical friend and a teacher-researcher reflective journal. Findings suggest that peer discussion and teacher guidance play a complementary role in engineering a supportive learning environment for positive transfer of insights. Peer discussion is useful in allowing students to generate ideas and negotiate meanings. Teacher guidance serves to explicate the characteristics of good quality work and to increase students’ critical awareness of the differences between exemplars and their own writing. Teaching implications for dialogic use of exemplars are discussed, and some avenues for future exemplar-related research outlined.     

An Exploratory Study of Minority Students’ Technology Usage and Perceptions of Technology: Nontraditional Adult Students in Technology-Based Environments

Abstract

The study examines nontraditional, African-American adult students’ use of technologies and their perceptions toward this in technology-based environments. Technology perceptions included computer self-efficacy, Internet self-efficacy, user attitude, and computer anxiety. The effects of student characteristics on these factors and the relationships between these factors were examined throughout this study. Participants included minority students who participated in face-to-face or online undergraduate courses offered in continuing education. A quantitative approach was undertaken to analyze the collected data. Results indicated that nontraditional minority students utilized basic software tools more frequently than the advanced ones, suggesting that many of them may lack the knowledge or skills for advanced technologies. Age, hours spent online, and previous online course experiences influenced students’ technology perceptions. Gender did not have an impact on technology perceptions. Internet self-efficacy was affected by most of the student characteristics variables. Computer self-efficacy was found to be a good predictor for both user attitude and computer anxiety. (Keywords: technology usage, technology perceptions, student characteristics, computer and Internet self-efficacy, minority students)     

A Multilevel Analysis of Students’ Science Achievements in Relation to their Self-Regulation,Epistemological Beliefs,Learning Environment Perceptions,and Teachers’ Personal Characteristics

This study adopted a cross-sectional and correlational research design in an attempt to add our understanding of student- and teacher-level factors that help explain variability in students’ science achievement to the existing literature. More specifically, the present article examined students’ science achievement in relation to their constructivist learning environment perceptions, epistemological beliefs, and self-regulation as well as their science teachers’ characteristics. Data were gathered from both 137 science teachers and their 3281 seventh grade students via administering self-report questionnaires. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) analysis was conducted to analyze the two-level data (student level and teacher level). Students’ learning environment perceptions, epistemological beliefs, achievement goals, and self-regulation constituted student-level data while teachers’ self-efficacy, achievement goals, and epistemological beliefs constituted teacher-level data. The findings indicated that students’ constructivist learning environment perceptions were significant predictors of their science achievement. Additionally, students with sophisticated epistemological beliefs appeared to be more successful in science. Also, performance avoidance goals were negatively related to science achievement. Among teacher-level variables, teachers’ self-efficacy and sophisticated epistemological beliefs were found to be positively linked to students’ science achievement.     

Student time choices and success

Internationally, first-year student experience surveys suggest that modern students are investing increasingly less time in their study at university, raising concerns about the impact this may have on their success. This paper describes a case study exploring student workload at a New Zealand university interested in understanding how student time allocation decisions are being made during actual weeks of study rather than hypothetical ‘typical’ weeks. The results show that the sampled students allocated time in line with university expectations. Time allocation on course work was significantly affected by assessment deadlines and by student achievement striving. Student grade point average was strongly correlated with time spent, and strongly influenced by students’ beliefs regarding their motivation and self-efficacy. Universities are encouraged to explore mechanisms that support students being better informed about the implications of their choices, actively influencing their sense of priorities and expectations regarding the effort needed to be successful in their studies.     

Developing pre-service teacher knowledge using online forums: supporting confident and competent teaching practices

ABSTRACT

This small study examines how one group (n = 59) of first-year undergraduate students developed their knowledge through co-construction using an online forum as a platform as part of a three-year Initial Teacher Training (ITT) programme. Professional dialogue at the online interface supported them to cope with the challenges they faced during teaching practice. The data showed that there were gains in student subject and pedagogical knowledge, observed to a greater extent among the peripheral learners. The data presented provide an alternative view from that published in the existing literature about the size and type of both peripheral and core online interactions that were useful in building the confidence and competence of students in the role of teachers in a primary classroom. Ultimately, the online knowledge exchange among peripheral participants provided agency in learning over actions and the ability to cope during teaching practice. This was corroborated by student self-assessment using post-online reflective brainstorms. Sixty-four per cent of the students concluded that they would use this new subject and pedagogical knowledge when in school as part of their teaching practice.     

Teachers’ beliefs about feedback practice as related to student self-regulation,self-efficacy,and language skills in teaching English as a foreign language

This study examines lower-secondary teachers’ beliefs about feedback practice as related to beliefs about student self-regulation, self-efficacy, and language skills while teaching English as a foreign language. Data analysis of ten individual interviews was carried out using the constant comparative method. Most of the teachers connected own feedback practice to an awareness of assessment for learning through the teaching of language skills. However, a hidden accountability system seemed to overshadow the full potential of assessment for learning for the teachers with its emphasis on testing. Aspects of marking, student involvement, and dialogic feedback were considered challenging to the feedback practice of half of the teachers. The teachers were further divided as to the relevance of feedback for self-regulation and strategy training. Although most teachers discussed feedback as important for students’ self-efficacy, unrealistic expectations and marks were considered impediments to student learning. Implications for teaching and professional learning are discussed.     

Electronic Versus Print Textbooks: The Influence of Textbook Format on University Students’ Self-Regulated Learning Strategies,Motivation, and Text Anxiety

Because a majority of university students do not regularly read course textbooks, a study was conducted to determine if portable electronic textbooks (e-textbooks) would increase university student motivation to read by enhancing cognitive learning strategies and self-regulation of learning. The participants included 538 university students who self-chose to use either a print or e-textbook throughout the semester. The dependent variables self-efficacy, intrinsic value, cognitive strategies, self-regulation, and text anxiety were measured in each of two groups of participants using the Technology Confidences and Attitudes scale and the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ). The results of a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) analysis indicated that there was a significant difference in the students’ MSLQ scores based on their choice of textbook format. These results imply that students who use e-textbooks are more likely to use cognitive and self-regulation strategies than students who use traditional print textbooks in their courses.     

‘On the outside I’m smiling but inside I’m crying’: communication successes and challenges for undergraduate academic writing

Abstract

Student difficulties with the transition to writing in higher education are well documented whether from a ‘study skills’, an ‘academic socialisation’ or an ‘academic literacies’ perspective. In order to more closely examine the challenges faced by students from widening participation backgrounds and diverse routes into undergraduate study, this project focuses on first-year undergraduate experiences of developing academic literacies on an Education Studies programme at one university in England. It highlights the impact of different support and guidance within and beyond their degree programme where attempts to embed academic literacy development are part of subject modules. The paper reports the findings generated using a mixed methods interpretive approach. Questionnaires were collected at the beginning (n = 48) and end of the students’ first year (n = 44), and interviews and visual data collection methods (n =19) were used at the mid-point of the academic year. Key findings highlight students’ expectations of achievement on entry to university and the influence of the emotional journey of students as they begin to make progress as academic writers. Identifying, selecting and applying academic reading were an enduring concern whilst some students struggled with the digital literacy implicit in undergraduate work. Importantly, some strategies developed to support student transition to academic writing in higher education may have unintended consequences as they progress through the first year.     

Understanding the development of interest and self-efficacy in active-learning undergraduate physics courses

Modeling Instruction (MI), an active-learning introductory physics curriculum, has been shown to improve student academic success. Peer-to-peer interactions play a salient role in the MI classroom. Their impact on student interest and self-efficacy – preeminent constructs of various career theories – has not been thoroughly explored. Our examination of three undergraduate MI courses (N?=?221) revealed a decrease in students’ physics self-efficacy, physics interest, and general science interest. We found a positive link from physics interest to self-efficacy, and a negative relationship between science interest and self-efficacy. We tested structural equation models confirming that student interactions make positive contributions to self-efficacy. This study frames students’ classroom interactions within broader career theory frameworks and suggests nuanced considerations regarding interest and self-efficacy constructs in the context of undergraduate active-learning science courses.     

The influence of concept mapping on achievement,self-regulation,and self-efficacy in students of English as a second language

This study investigated the effectiveness of concept mapping used as a learning strategy with students in English as a Second Language classrooms. Seventy-nine ESL students participated in the study. Variables of interest were students’ achievement when learning from English-language text, students’ reported use of self-regulation strategies (self-monitoring and knowledge acquisition strategies), and students’ self-efficacy for learning from English-language text. A randomized pre-test–post-test control group design was employed. The findings showed a statistically significant interaction of time, method of instruction, and level of English proficiency for self-monitoring, self-efficacy, and achievement. For all four outcome variables, the concept mapping group showed significantly greater gains from pre-test to post-test than the individual study group. The findings have implications for both practice and research.