The learning benefits of peer assessment and providing peer feedback have been widely reported. However, it is still not understood which learning activities most facilitate the acquisition of... Show moreThe learning benefits of peer assessment and providing peer feedback have been widely reported. However, it is still not understood which learning activities most facilitate the acquisition of feedback skills. This study aimed to compare the effect of a modeling example, i.e., a model that demonstrated how to give feedback, on the acquisition of feedback skills. The participants were second-year bachelor students in pedagogical sciences (N = 111). They were assigned randomly to a practice condition, in which they practiced giving feedback on oral presentations, or a modeling example condition, in which a teacher demonstrated how to give feedback on a good and a bad presentation. Students then gave feedback to a presenter in a video (direct feedback measure). One week later, they gave each other peer feedback on oral presentations (delayed feedback measure). On the direct feedback measure, students in the modeling example condition used assessment criteria more often in their feedback, and produced significantly more overall feedback, and significantly more positive and negative judgments than students in the practice condition. There was no significant difference in the amount of elaboration and feed-forward between the two conditions. On the delayed feedback measure, there were no significant differences between the two experimental conditions. The results suggest that, at least in the short term, a modeling example can stimulate the use of assessment criteria and judgments in feedback. The results and implications for future research and practice are discussed. Show less
This thesis investigates the relation between peer feedback and higher education students’ writing performance through a quantitative lens. In doing so, it aims to advance our knowledge on the... Show moreThis thesis investigates the relation between peer feedback and higher education students’ writing performance through a quantitative lens. In doing so, it aims to advance our knowledge on the extent to which peer feedback impacts students’ academic writing, and on how specific aspects of task design relate to student performance. First, a meta-analysis was conducted to synthesize the available evidence regarding the impact of formative peer feedback on higher education students’ writing performance. To date, the number of well-controlled, quantitative studies still appears scarce. Further, peer feedback appeared to be more effective than self-assessment and comparable with teacher feedback. Second, three empirical studies were conducted to investigate the impact of specific elements of peer feedback task-design. In an on-campus course, same-ability matching and different-ability matching yielded similar results. Online (in a MOOC), peer reviewers’ ability related positively to participants’ writing performance. The third empirical study showed that providing peer feedback can be as beneficial to students’ writing performance as receiving peer feedback. The final chapter describes a questionnaire to assess students’ peer feedback beliefs, which can support teaching staff and researchers in monitoring the acceptance of and – hence – the potential effectiveness of peer feedback as an instructional method. Show less
Open online distance learning in higher education has quickly gained popularity, expanded, and evolved, with Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) as the most recent development. New web technologies... Show moreOpen online distance learning in higher education has quickly gained popularity, expanded, and evolved, with Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) as the most recent development. New web technologies allow for scalable ways to deliver video lecture content, implement social forums and track student progress in MOOCs. However, we remain limited in our ability to assess complex and open-ended student assignments. In this paper, we present a study on various forms of assessment and their relationship with the final exam score. In general, the reliability of both the self-assessments and the peer assessments was high. Based on low correlations with final exam grades as well as with other assessment forms, we conclude that self-assessments might not be a valid way to assess students’ performance in MOOCs. Yet the weekly quizzes and peer assessment significantly explained differences in students’ final exam scores, with one of the weekly quizzes as the strongest explanatory variable. We suggest that both self-assessment and peer assessment would better be used as assessment for learning instead of assessment of learning. Future research on MOOCs implies a reconceptualization of education variables, including the role of assessment of students’ achievements. Show less
This dissertation focused on how the social context in which peer assessment takes place is related to the learning effects of peer assessment. We wanted to identify interpersonal beliefs in peer... Show moreThis dissertation focused on how the social context in which peer assessment takes place is related to the learning effects of peer assessment. We wanted to identify interpersonal beliefs in peer assessment settings that influence the peer assessment process on the one hand, but could also been seen as predictors of the effect of peer assessment interventions. Four studies are presented that question parts of the interpersonal context of peer assessment: one systematic literature study and three empirical studies. In the literature study, a structural model of analysis was presented indicating different interpersonal beliefs, as well as structural features of peer assessment. The results of the empirical studies deliver content for the empirical discussion of peer assessment: peer assessment as such seems to stimulate the beliefs in certain interpersonal variables. Show less
