brief case study for Learning & Teaching forum 2015

1. Learning, Teaching & Curriculum FORUM 2015
PEER POWER
Chris Hyland & Emily Purser
SMAH/Chemistry & Learning Development
chyland@uow.edu.au / epurser@uow.edu.au
Sharing Good Practice: Engaged Feedback

2. Learning, Teaching & Curriculum FORUM 2015
THE CHALLENGE – ADVANCING ACADEMIC LITERACY
• Reading: 3rd year students, preparing for higher
level study need to broaden and deepen their
independent search for specialist information.
They need to appraise extensive current
literature on highly specialised topics.
• Writing also needs to become more
sophisticated in its reference to published
literature, demonstration of subject
comprehension and coherent argumentation…
they need to master the writing of a critical
review of academic literature.
Learning to critically review chemical literature

3. Learning, Teaching & Curriculum FORUM 2015
THE SOLUTION – OPEN & SHARE THE WRITING PROCESS
Students exchange their draft writing
• A draft version of the literature review is submitted two
weeks before deadline for final version.
• Along with the draft, students complete part A of peer-
review sheet, indicating what kind of feedback they want
and what part of the review was most exciting for them.
• Students are paired up prior to the peer-review session and
exchange papers to read critically in relation to criteria.
… and comment on a peer’s work
• Sitting next to their partner in a computer lab, students
clarify minor queries and give immediate feedback.
• Using Word’s ‘track changes’ or Turnitin’s ‘Peermark’,
they then leave carefully considered comments about
various aspects of their partner’s writing.
• They then complete part B of peer-review sheet,
identifying values in the paper and areas for
improvement.

4. Learning, Teaching & Curriculum FORUM 2015
THE RATIONALE – ONE STONE, MANY BIRDS
Peer learning
"At a time when university resources are stretched and demands upon staff are increasing, peer learning
offers students the opportunity to learn from each other.” David Boud et al 2002
“Peer reviewing and learning works, because it is scalable, especially when good web-based tools are
used”. Donald Clark 2011
Peeragogy
““Peer learning and peer production are as old as humanity itself, but they take on new importance in the di
gital age”… “As pedagogy theoretically articulates the transmission of knowledge from teachers to students,
peeragogy describes the way peers produce and utilize knowledge together” Harold Reingold et al 2015
Peer review at the draft stage enables students to:
• improve their writing before final submission date
• get more feedback than one teacher alone can manage quickly
• understand the evaluation criteria more deeply by applying them
• share more information on various specialist topics than they would otherwise have
time to read and digest
• experience one of the most important aspects of professional work in Science

5. Learning, Teaching & Curriculum FORUM 2015
THE IMPACT – DEEP ENGAGEMENT, DEEP LEARNING
Students report that peer review…Student survey
Did the peer review session help you….
• get your literature review ready more
rapidly?
• think about how to improve your own
work?
• learn about another topic in
pharmacology?
• is enjoyable
• builds trust and responsibility
• saves time in the writing process
• leads to greatly improved final papers
• deepens understanding of assessment criteria
• prepares them for professional collaboration activity
• provides a more rewarding learning experience than writing alone
79
80.5
82
83.5
85
Averagemark
Pre-peer-review 2011-2012 Post-peer-review 2013-2014

6. Learning, Teaching & Curriculum FORUM 2015
Student comments