Application of peer review in a university course: are students good reviewers? (original) (raw)
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Student peer review in the classroom: a teaching and grading tool
It is helpful for instructors to provide students with critique, not only upon completion of a writing assignment but also during the writing process. However, due to time constraints, instructors may not be able to read writing assignments more than once during a particular course, especially in large classes. Students may gain only limited feedback from a single source (the instructor). This paper discusses the use of student peer review to provide students with feedback early in the process of writing a term paper, and to give students experience in reviewing scientific material. Students were assigned a term paper that was then reviewed by classmates. The term paper consisted of the student's laboratory report summarizing the experiments performed during the course, and integrating both lecture and laboratory materials. The review process was double-blind to provide anonymity for both authors and reviewers, but was otherwise handled in a fashion similar to that used by scientific journals. Students were accountable for the quality of their reviews as well as their term papers. Peer review provided students with feedback early in the writing process, and required little additional time investment by the instructor. It also gave students important experience in critical thinking. The qualit)' of the final product (the finished term paper) was improved a result of the experiences of reviewing classmates' work, and receiving and implementing comments from peers. Peer review may be a valuable teaching and grading tool for the instructor who wishes to focus course activities on writing, but has limited resources or time for reviewing writing assignments.
Education Sciences , 2021
Nowadays one of the main focuses of the Spanish University system is achieving the active learning paradigm in the context of its integration into the European Higher Education Area. This goal is being addressed by means of the application of novel teaching mechanisms. Among a wide variety of learning approaches, the present work focuses on peer review, understood as a collaborative learning technique where students assess other student's work and provide their own feedback. In this way, peer review has the overarching goal of improving the student learning during this process. Peer review has been successfully applied and analyzed in the literature. Indeed, many authors also recommend improving the design and implementation of self and peer review, which has been our main goal. This paper presents an empirical study based on the application of peer review assessment in different higher education BSc and MSc courses. In this way, six courses from different studies at the University of Malaga in Spain are subject to the application of peer review strategies to promote student learning and develop crosswise skills such as critical thinking, autonomy and responsibility. Based on these experiences, a deep analysis of the results is performed, showing that a proper application of the peer review methodology provides reliable reviews (with close scores to the ones from the teacher) as well as an improvement in the students' performance.
Education and Information Technologies, 2003
This article discusses the application of the peer review process as a pedagogical instrument for the promotion of written expression, collaborative work, critical thinking, and professional responsibility among Informatics and Engineering majors. The approach is introduced with a motivation, followed by a discussion about common principles of current learning paradigms and the peer review process. This work is being conducted in Brazil, where we intend to promote a learning paradigm shift through the application of peer review in education. A framework for this application is outlined, together with an account of results from experiences and a discussion about the skills that this approach exercises, especially with regard to widely accepted curricula and codes of ethics and professional conduct. Further research and development efforts are conjectured.
Peer Review of Teaching: Effective Practice
Journal of Clinical and Medical Research, 2019
Peer review is the process of evaluating the work or activity of a person with competence in the field which is categorized by type of activity and by occupation or theme. In medical education filed, it helps educators in critically reflecting on their teaching to further develop it and improve the experience of the learner as well as one’s own professional development. A review of the literature demonstrates that there are three basic models of peer review of teaching usually conducted within higher education institutions.
BioScience, 2002
P eer review or peer assessment is a process of evaluating work performance and products by peers. It is a vital part of professional life. For example, peer review is routinely used in two important phases of a research project: proposal evaluation and product assessment. Grant proposals are peer reviewed to ensure the quality, originality, and feasibility of the proposed work (Cole et al. 1982, Gaugler and Freckman 1990, Swift 1998). Research products such as papers for scientific journals are usually peer reviewed as well to enhance the quality of the journals, to maintain the integrity of the authors' work, and to provide accurate information for the scientific community (Waser et al. 1992, Bloom 1999). Despite the importance of peer review in scientific research (Cole et al. 1977, Kostoff 1997), few students receive formal training in reviewing proposals or manuscripts. Although some graduate students are exposed to the peer review process informally through their major professors, many graduate students and the vast majority of undergraduate students never have such experiences. Yet the value of peer review in the classroom has been recognized for many years (Gaillet 1992). Researchers have found that effective peer review in the classroom stimulates learning and critical thinking (
Learning to assess students using peer review
Studies in Educational Evaluation, 1997
and Rehan ul-Haq Word Count: 3,333 (text only) 5,581 (with tables) Loughborough University, England Pond, ul-Haq, 1996 Abstract 1 Our three-year research study of Peer Review by business students, at Loughborough University has differentiated this concept from full Peer Assessment.
Exploring the use of peer review in large university courses
IxD&A, 2015
Double blind peer review is a standard practice in the scientific community. It acts as a means of validating work as well as of getting feedback to improve it. As such, it seems prudent to also use it as a learning tool in large lectures to provide students with personalized feedback on their work. The general process can be directly adopted for the lecture context, but details need to be modified and adapted to create a better learning experience. The structure of a large lecture has been adjusted to provide the context for a double blind peer review process. Not only has the evaluation of activities during the semester changed to fit in with the double blind peer review, but also the organization of said activities was adapted to accompany the evaluation change. The first semester yielded promising results, but also pointed towards some issues with the current state of the system. We devised a list of design implications for future revisions of the double blind peer review system...
A protocol for the peer review of teaching
Proceedings of the 2004 American Society for …, 2004
A peer review protocol that serves both formative and summative functions has been implemented at North Carolina State University. For summative evaluation, two or more reviewers use standardized checklists to independently rate instructional materials (syllabus, learning objectives, assignments, tests, and other items) and at least two class observations, and then reconcile their ratings. For formative evaluation, only one rater completes the forms and the results are shared only with the faculty member being rated rather than being used as part of his/her overall teaching performance evaluation. Pilot test results of the summative protocol show a high level of inter-rater reliability. This paper presents a brief overview of the reasons for including peer review in teaching performance evaluation and the problems with the way it has traditionally been done, describes and discusses the protocol, summarizes the pilot test results, and demonstrates how the use of the protocol can minimize or eliminate many common concerns about peer review of teaching. related to course materials , the two raters agreed 23 times and differed by only one unit 7 times. No item ratings differed by more than one unit.
Development of Student Writing in Biochemistry Using Calibrated Peer Review
2008
This study investigating the effectiveness of Calibrated Peer Review (CPR ) ™ in a senior-level biochemistry class had three purposes: to (a) compare the CPR process for feedback with TA-generated feedback in improving students’ ability to write scientific abstracts; (b) compare CPR results for males and females; and (c) observe whether CPR improved the quality of student writing. Statistical analyses of three assignments by 50 students indicated significant differences between CPR and TA feedback on student writing quality. In addition, while scores of students who received TA feedback decreased, scores of students who had CPR improved. Students also progressed in CPR-generated measures of their writing and reviewing abilities. A separate analysis including 256 students found no significant differences between males and females. In addition, students’ writing showed statistically significant improvement in CPR-generated scores.