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.     

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.     

The case for using exemplars to develop academic self-efficacy

Abstract

Academic self-efficacy is critical to academic success. Hence those working in higher education need to make deliberate and substantial attempts to foster academic competence, confidence, persistence and resilience in the students they teach, given they are essential components of academic self-efficacy. Addressing an identified gap in the exemplars literature, this article pays particular attention to how exemplars can be used in an embedded and sustained manner with the intent of fostering and supporting these components. Taking into account the three dimensions of self-efficacy – strength, magnitude and generality – and the various sources of information students draw upon to make judgements about their capabilities, four inter-dependent and inter-related practices and associated experiences are identified. We argue that collectively these practices and experiences can accentuate the positive effects and ameliorate the potential negative effects of exemplar use on student academic self-efficacy.     

Using wikis to promote quality learning in teacher training

This paper discusses writing as a social practice and speculates on how wikis might be used to promote higher quality academic writing and support collaborative learning. This study of undergraduate teacher trainees’ online learning activities focuses on how shared spaces – wikis – might be used to communicate ideas and generate course‐specific content. The study also explored how students, through such activities, were able to improve their academic writing skills and engage more critically in learning. Data captured from student discussion boards and a post‐module email questionnaire (n = 35) were used to map student perceptions of the usefulness of wikis in support of their academic studies. The data indicate that most students raised their skill level in writing directly to the publicly viewable wiki space, in sharp contrast to the more informal content they posted on the discussion boards. The scope of collaborative writing was limited due to students’ reluctance to edit each others’ work, but students appreciated the shared environment as a means of discussing their work and the content of the course. Students reported that their academic writing skills had improved through their formal participation in the wiki.     

The analytical lens: developing undergraduate students’ critical dispositions in undergraduate EAP writing courses

ABSTRACT

This paper comprises findings from three parallel case studies within the broad framework of English for Academic Purposes (EAP). These provide results from classroom-based action research conducted over two years working with Semantics, Specialisation and axiological cosmologies from Legitimation Code Theory (LCT). Each author shares how one or both of these LCT dimensions have guided their practice in the teaching of English for academic writing and specifically, the development of their students’ critical dispositions by teaching them how to apply lenses to analyse texts so that they may make informed judgements. Data from classroom interventions and student writing are provided. It is hoped that this paper elicits further discussion in the growing field of applying LCT and may draw attention to the role of the EAP teacher as expert in linguistics and the need to focus more on knowledge in EAP writing courses.     

The longitudinal effects of teacher judgement and different teacher treatment on students’ academic outcomes

The self-fulfilling prophecy model of Brophy and Good was applied to the area of teacher judgement in order to disclose the processes of how teacher judgement of student achievement influences students’ future academic outcomes. It was assumed that achievement and achievement motivation might be affected through the mediating processes of student-perceived positive and negative teacher treatment, which represents students’ perceptions of teachers’ actions towards them. A sample of 294 Chinese fifth-grade students and their eleven English language teachers were tracked over one school year. Structural equation modelling showed that after controlling for prior achievement and achievement motivation, teacher judgement was directly related to students’ future achievement, expectancy for success and level of aspiration. These relations were partially mediated by perceived negative teacher treatment. Teacher judgement was related to students’ academic self-concept and pride in English learning, and fully mediated by both perceived positive and negative teacher treatment. The study supported the model of Brophy and Good and identified the specific processes of how teacher judgements can become self-fulfilled. Positive and negative teacher treatment had different mediating effects. Compared with positive teacher treatment, perceived negative treatment was related to student academic outcomes more extensively.     

‘That teacher really likes me’ - Student-teacher interactions that initiate teacher expectation effects by developing caring relationships

Teacher expectations are associated with student academic achievement, but no research has generated new theory that explains how teacher expectation effects occur from students' perspectives. A substantive theory explaining the process through which students reconcile with their teachers' expectations is presented in this paper, emphasising the role of caring student-teacher relationships in teacher expectation effects on academic achievement. The theory was constructed with 25 grade 10 participants across three Western Australian secondary schools, with data including 100 interviews and 175 classroom observations. The analysis and synthesis of the data confirmed that the students acted in ways that they reflected improved their academic attainment when their teachers communicated high expectations of them. Noddings' enduring philosophy of the ‘ethic of care’ is used as a discussion framework, emphasising implications for how teachers practise and learn to interact with their students so that they can initiate positive teacher expectation effects on student learning.     

From copying to learning: using exemplars to engage students with assessment criteria and feedback

Feedback is central to pedagogic theory, and if feedback is to be effective, students need to engage with it and apply it at some point in the future. However, student dissatisfaction with feedback – as evidenced in the National Student Survey – suggests that there are problems which limit student engagement with feedback, such as their perception that much of their feedback is irrelevant to future assignments. This article reports on a study which sought to enhance engagement by giving students exemplar assignments annotated with feedback before submission of their final assignments. This was done by providing an online facility where students could view exemplars and post comments or questions to tutors and peers on a discussion board. The exemplar facility was highly valued by students, although there were no quantitative effects such as an increase in students’ assignment marks when compared with the previous cohort. The article reflects on possible reasons for this result and discusses ways to improve the exemplar facility, for example by facilitating dialogue between tutors and students. The article concludes with lessons learned about how to construct exemplars, and considers how exemplars might also be used within marking teams to improve consistency of marking.     

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.     

First-year students working with exemplars: promoting self-efficacy,self-monitoring and self-regulation

In this paper, we explore first-year undergraduate students’ experiences and perceptions regarding the use of exemplars, with reference to the development of student self-regulation. The study was carried out at a tertiary education institution in New Zealand where the second author was a lecturer. This author used exemplars with two classes of first-year students enrolled in a core introductory paper taught as part of the students' undergraduate business studies degree. Data were gathered through three complementary approaches: students’ responses to a short anonymous survey at the end of each of the four sessions where exemplars were used, written notes in the teacher’s Teaching journal and semi-structured interviews with student volunteers. When strategically employed as part of the teaching design, it was found that exemplars have the capacity to motivate, enhance students’ self-efficacy, promote understanding of task requirements, expand knowledge, understanding and skills in relation to the structure of academic tasks, support and advance subject knowledge, and develop evaluative and productive knowledge and expertise. We concluded the use of exemplars with these students demonstrated their potential as tools for the promotion of student self-efficacy, self-monitoring and to a lesser extent, self-regulation.     

Engaging student teachers in meaningful reflective practice

This paper examines the use of peer-videoing in the classroom as a tool to promote reflective practice among student teachers. Twenty pre-service teachers from a variety of subject disciplines participating in a Post-Graduate Diploma in Education programme in an Irish university participated in the study. The practice of encouraging student teachers working in the same school to participate in structured video analysis avoids the impact of external observers whose role is largely evaluative and endorses a collaborative model that promotes dialogue and shared learning. This practice promotes a culture of observation and critical dialogue in a profession which has traditionally been characterised by isolation, while at the same time fostering and validating the voice and experience of the student teacher. Locating the discussion within the framework of the theoretical literature on reflective practice, the purpose of this paper is to contribute to the international debate over best practice in supporting, encouraging and scaffolding reflective practice. It comments on the implications of reflective dialogue for the modernisation of teacher education and offers guidelines on how best to scaffold and promote reflectivity.     

Using a meta-analysis activity to make critical reflection explicit in teacher education

This paper describes how the development of critical reflection in student teachers has been made an explicit part of a teacher education programme. Using a rubric presented by Ward and McCotter, (2004) and supported by an online discussion forum, the rubric was used in a meta-analysis activity where students identified the quality of critical reflection in their lesson evaluations. The evidence suggests that the activity can result in a qualitative improvement in the nature of critical reflection. The intervention also appeared to generate a growing acknowledgement by students that writing lesson evaluations, is a valuable process which can enhance their practice.     

Eliciting and developing student's schema of classroom practices using a video-disc system

In this paper we explore the potential of videodisc technology to develop student teachers'capacity to examine their judgements and reasoning critically about typical classroom events. We describe how the type of setting for such activities is committed to and successful at provoking quality collaborative learning. The videodisc system offers a range of exemplars of teaching which are carefully managed to challenge and extend students'existing ideas. We have adapted the key learning constructs of scaffolding and modelling of various strategies so that the intellectual processes of analysis and reconstruction are persistently attended to. In this way, we are designing a more powerful learning environment to support students in acquiring professionally relevant knowledge.     

Talking about history: discussions in a middle school inclusive classroom

In this study, we examined the nature of whole-class discussion and teachers' instruction during discussion about historical topics in one inclusive, middle-grade classroom. We videotaped and analyzed 4 lessons to determine the nature of discussion sequences, rates of participation, and instructional challenges encountered by the teacher and students. We triangulated our analysis of observational data with teacher interviews. The results showed high rates of student participation, with no differences between students with and without disabilities. The teacher initiated and controlled the discussion, and nearly all student responses were from teacher to student rather than from student to student. The teacher encountered three challenges in developing students' understanding, and we identify specific practices she used to address these challenges. Based on students' response to measures administered by project staff and on their scores on statewide tests, this teacher's practices seemed to be highly effective.     

The role of interactive dialogue in students’ learning of mathematical reasoning: A quantitative multi-method analysis of feedback episodes

Interactive dialogue within feedback episodes is essential for developing primary school students' mathematical reasoning competence. Our goal was to better understand the nature of the associations between observed dialogue, teachers' formative feedback, and students' mathematical reasoning. We applied a two-step approach, first constructing a video-analysis instrument for assessing the quality of interactive dialogues and then combining the interaction data with student and teacher questionnaire data from 804 students in 44 fifth and sixth grade primary school classes. The quality of the observed dialogues predicted class differences in students’ self-efficacy for explaining but not in their reasoning competence, which was predicted by perceived formative feedback.     

When does an opportunity become an opportunity? Unpacking classroom practice through the lens of ecological psychology

Drawing on ecological psychology, this paper considers how student engagement is an accomplishment of the classroom system. Specifically, this paper presents an analysis of two teachers and their students who were using a project-based unit in their mathematics classes. The two teachers used identical curricular materials, but had dramatically different personal histories of teaching and different instructional practices. Our goal is to investigate the role of the teacher in supporting student engagement by considering the kinds of opportunities to learn that were presented by the teacher, and the relationship between those opportunities to learn and the ways their students engaged. Pragmatically, this paper contributes to our understanding of how teachers’ framing of activity significantly impacts the ways that students are likely to engage tasks. Theoretically, this paper highlights the interactional nature of learning, with the goal of clarifying why learning is not simply an individual accomplishment.     

The road to self-assessment: exemplar marking before peer review develops first-year students’ capacity to judge the quality of a scientific report

Lack of clarity about assessment criteria and standards is a source of anxiety for many first-year university students. The Developing Understanding of Assessment for Learning (DUAL) programme was designed as a staged approach to gradually familiarise students with expectations, and to provide opportunities for the development of the skills required to successfully complete assessment tasks. This paper investigated the students’ perceptions of the first two components of the DUAL programme, which assist first-year biology students to engage with stated assessment criteria and standards in order to develop their capacity to make judgements about scientific report exemplars, their peers’ scientific reports and ultimately their own. The study found strong evidence (96% of responses) that the marking and discussion of exemplar reports with peers and demonstrators clarified expectations of scientific report writing. A key feature of this element of DUAL was the opportunity for structured discussion about assessment criteria and standards between peers and markers (demonstrators). During these discussions, students can clarify explicit statements and develop a tacit knowledge base to enhance their ability to judge the quality of others’ work and their own. The peer review exercise (the second element of DUAL) was not rated as highly, with 65% of students finding the process helpful for improving their report. The negative reactions by a sizeable minority of students highlight the need to clearly communicate the expectations and benefits of peer review, with a focus on how the process of giving feedback to peers might benefit a student as much as receiving feedback on their own report.     

Will Special-Contracted Teachers Promote the Development of Rural Students? From the Perspective of the New Human Capital Theory

The Special-Contracted Teacher Scheme, a supplement to the traditional mode of teacher supply, has been implemented for 17 years and the teaching quality of those teachers has gained a lot of attention. Using data of teachers and students from the sample counties in four central and western provincial-level administrative units, this paper studies how special-contracted teachers have affected students’ academic performance and non-cognitive ability according to the student development framework of the new human capital theory, and how those effects vary among different teacher groups. Results show that while special-contracted teachers have helped improve the academic performance of rural students, their role is limited in improving students’ non-cognitive ability. At the same time, female special-contracted teachers and those without a normal major play an obviously bigger role in raising students’ academic performance. The conclusion is that special-contracted teachers can to some extent help narrow the urban-rural gap in academic performance, but more research needs to be done to better understand their effects on students’ non-cognitive ability.