Why do it?

My Year Eight History class has a tendency towards being verbal and enjoys activities that provide opportunities to work in groups, or discuss ideas as a whole class. They are never short of ideas and opinions and like to bounce their thoughts off each other. While this can be a source of frustration at times, it also provides lots of interesting opportunities to try different ideas that use these skills.

I find myself looking for ways to provide higher quality, usable feedback to enable me to identify what my students do and do not understand, and that my students will find useable and relevant to their learning.

Peer feedback is a useful way for the students to evaluate each other’s written work and improve their understanding of the task. It is my intention that this feedback will provide real opportunities for the boys to fine tune their work, leading up to a final assessment at the end of the term.

“What we’ve discovered is that formative peer assessment, where students are helping each other improve their work, has benefits for the person that receives feedback but also has benefits for the person who gives the feedback. Because in thinking through what it is that this piece of work represents and what needs to happen to improve it, the students are forces to internalise a success criteria and they're able to do it in the context of someone else’s work, which is less emotionally charged than your own. So what we routinely see… we see very, very commonly is when students have given feedback to others about a piece of work, their own subsequent attempts at that same work are much improved because they're now much clearer about what good work in that task looks like.” (D. Wiliam)

I have used peer feedback in an ad hoc manner in the past on a variety of assignments, particularly oral presentations. Whilst it has provided some benefit to students, it has always been somewhat vague and not clearly designed to improve understanding. I hope to be able to use peer feedback effectively in helping students to improve their understanding of the complex ideas that we are working on this term. This should prove beneficial not only helping to improve each other’s work, but also in providing impetus to improve their own understanding.

“Peer assessment is uniquely valuable because students may accept criticisms of their work from one another that they would not take seriously if the remarks were offered by a teacher. Peer work is also valuable because the interchange will be in language that students themselves naturally use and because students learn by taking the roles of teachers and examiners of others.” (Black et al, 2004)

The Task

In Year Eight History the class complete a term long unit looking at whether the island of Santorini might be the site of the mythical city of Atlantis. The unit is a multi-disciplinary study with Science and Geography. The focus for History is to carefully analyse Plato’s dialogues, looking for evidence to support the assertions made in the documents. A final, overarching, Performance of Understanding (POU), incorporating knowledge gained in History, Science and Geography, addresses the multi-disciplinary focus question ‘Do you believe Plato when he said Atlantis existed and was later destroyed?’

The task specific to my research into peer feedback is a preliminary attempt to address this  question. The class was given a limited time (approximately thirty minutes) to bring together their ideas and address the topic. They were also given a ‘Two Stars and a Wish’ feedback sheet (see Appendix one) which we also discussed as a class. The ‘Two Stars and a Wish’ feedback sheet asks students to identify two aspects of their peer’s work that they thought were successful (Two Stars) and one aspect they could work on improving (Wish). Unsurprisingly, some students completed the task with ease, and others struggled to write more than a few sentences in the time available. But that did not matter. The process of providing valuable peer feedback on their current understandings was what I was hoping to achieve.  As mentioned earlier, I was hopeful to make the feedback as useful as possible, so I stressed the importance of the feedback being impersonal and relating specifically to what their peer has written. Hattie’s book Visible Learning provided some guiding principles of which I was mindful when developing the feedback sheet and explaining how to use it.

“Teachers must be able to openly discuss the three key feedback questions: ‘Where are they going?’ ‘How are they going?’ and ‘Where to next?’ (The ‘they’ refers to both the teacher and to the student.)

It is also what learners do that matters. So often learners become passive recipients of teachers’ lessons, but…  the aim is to make students active in the learning process - through actions by teachers and others - until the students reach the stage where they become their own teachers." (Hattie, 2009)

The feedback

After completing their writing, students swapped their work with a partner. Before completing the ‘Two Stars and a Wish’ sheet, we revised how to most productively use the peer feedback sheet. It was pleasing to see the boys busily noting down their feedback and discussing it with their partner.

Here is a sample of the positive feedback provided in the ‘stars’ section:

“I liked how he based his reasoning on arguments and knew what he is talking about.”

“He explained Plato’s theories and what seemed true about them.”

“He thought laterally about it.”

“I also like the fact that even though he gave lots of great evidence he reminded everyone that it happened a long time ago and that the info could have been changed or wrong.”

“I think that (name) shows a really good understanding of his work. He uses all three subjects (History, Geography and Science) as evidence to state his opinion on the question.”

“Directly related all classwork to Atlantis.”

The majority of the positive feedback was reassuring. It is clear that most boys had a clear grasp of what was required of them and were able to articulate what they were observing in a clear and impersonal manner. However, there were some who missed the mark. They provided superficial feedback that did not relate to their partner’s understanding of the task. This was still valuable, as it showed me which boys did not completely comprehend what the task asked them to do, or what they were being assessed on. This gave me a focus for future lessons.

Here is a selection of the less useful responses:

“Your opening bit was good.”

“The amount of words was good.”

“It was very neat, the punctuation was good. It was also pretty clear.”

Whilst this feedback might not be particularly useful, it serves as a reminder of the need for clearer instruction prior to completing the feedback.

Here are several examples of feedback that directly related to the assessment criteria in the rubric:

“Could have made it clearer which subjects you were using.”

“That he could have been more critical.”

“I wish that you would provide more connections between the disciplines.”

“More emphasis on Plato and the dialogues.”

“He could have talked about all the topics: Geography, History and Science.”

“They need to have more information and have more info relating to all three subjects but also shows what they know and what they truly believe about Altantis.”

The above feedback relates directly to the question and rubric, suggesting a good understanding of the purpose of the feedback and providing the student with feedback they can use to improve their work. As is to be expected, there was also a collection of feedback that did not provide specific improvement strategies. While the feedback was not ‘bad,’ it did not provide clear strategies to improve. This suggests that I needed to be clearer in my explanation to make sure everyone in the class was able to provide usable feedback to their peer. I am confident that this will improve with practice.

Here are some examples:

“I think he needs to put in more detail in his answers.”

“He could have written more.”

“Nothing to improve.”

“If it was a bit longer, it would have been perfect.”

“Spell ‘write’ properly as well as ‘surely.’”

Evaluation

The next lesson involved students discussing the feedback they had received and then using that to either improve their piece of writing or complete further research in the areas that were identified as needing improvement. I also asked them to complete a survey (see Appendix Two) evaluating the feedback they received in the ‘Two Stars and a Wish’ sheet. These provided interesting information when combined with the students’ comments discussing the three types of peer feedback they received.

A clear majority found the positive feedback (‘Two Stars’) ‘quite useful’ or ‘extremely useful’, indicating that it is important to receive recognition for the areas in which you are successful.

A significant proportion of the class also found the improvement strategies (‘One Wish’) ‘quite useful’ or ‘extremely useful.’ However, a much larger proportion (31%) found it ‘not useful.’ A possible explanation for this could be the number of boys who did not receive constructive feedback. This suggests that there is still a need to provide the boys with more examples of feedback and to regularly practise giving feedback to their peers.

I asked the boys to comment on the feedback they received. The majority had positive ideas of how they could use the feedback. The negative comments were generally from boys who did not get feedback that provided them with strategies to improve their work.

Here is a sample of the responses discussing how they could use the positive feedback:

“I will use it by reading it first and then understanding what I did right in the assessor’s opinion. This then gives me an understanding of what I have done right and what I should keep in the written work.”

“I will use it to know what I am good at and work on other things.”

“It won’t because he said that there was nothing to improve on.”

“It shows me what I did well and what I should keep doing.”

“I’ll read over mine and see if I agree with what he has wrote or not and then use it to improve my work.”

“I will try [to] write the same introduction (the feedback was “your opening bit was good”).”

It was pleasing to read that the boys were able to see how to turn the positives into useful strategies to improve their work in the future. Even when the feedback didn’t necessarily provide many ideas to improve, they were still able to find something they might be able to use. It was also pleasing to see that the boys were able to see the connection between the piece of work and the final POU that they would soon be completing.

I also asked the boys to provide comments on how they could use the improvement strategies. Some of their comments are included below:

“I will research what I need to improve so that when we do the real POU I will know how to talk about what I didn’t put in last time.”

“The improvement strategies reveal what I have missed out or what I didn’t do enough of.”

“It shows us which topics we need to look at most.”

“I will use the suggestions under the wish section and add them into my response to the topic”

“I can’t because I don’t have any improvement strategies.”

“I won’t because it is very vague and not very useful because I am not planning to use anything from that essay or use that format”

“I would’ve liked it if my partner named something more important than proof reading, because it doesn’t help me in any way in writing my understanding of Atlantis and Plato.”

These comments are a good indication of the mixed views the boys had regarding strategies to improve their understanding. Whilst it is obvious that feedback providing specific strategies on what is missing or needs improving gives the students a specific target, many boys also commented on the lack of feedback. The final three comments clearly show the need for and value of strategies to improve.

Lastly, I asked the boys to provide suggestions of other types of feedback they would find useful. Here are a few examples that show common trends:

“Maybe a bit for where the teacher can comment as well.”

“If we were to have feedback from over 2 people, it would make the essay a lot easier to correct and any mistakes that had slipped through the first person’s search would have been spotted by the other person.”

“Maybe some examples of already done responses or some grammar and punctuation.”

“I would have liked if he was more specific, instead of just saying punctuation was a bit sketchy it would have better if he said, remember full stops and commas. It would have been even better if he highlighted parts.”

“Comparing work and asking the teacher to help.”

A week later, after completing another piece of writing on the same topic, I surveyed the class about their perceptions of getting feedback from their peers. There is obviously a strong theoretical support for peer feedback and I was curious if this was echoed by students. Most students could see the benefits.

“Peer feedback is beneficial because it tells you where you need to improve.”

“[Peer feedback gives] a different way of explaining what to do better.”

“It gives you a chance to get feedback from someone that thinks like us.”

While the boys saw the benefit of peer feedback, there were several comments relating to the quality of feedback from a peer compared to a teacher and trusting their peers to be honest.

“It is interesting, but it all depends on trust.”

“Teachers give better feedback.”

“With a mature attitude, it can really help people.”

It was interesting to note that several boys still wanted teacher input, suggesting that they don’t value their peer’s feedback as highly, which seems to disagree with the findings of Black et al referenced above.

Where to from here?

This is only a very brief look at the use of peer feedback in a history classroom. Looking back on the structures I used to elicit student feedback, there were a number of areas that could be improved -the most obvious being to ensure that all feedback is useable.

While anything that involves human input obviously has room for mistakes, it is apparent that this is an area worth pursuing. In the future, I will aim to better prepare the boys for the type of feedback that they could give, through more explicit teaching of the purpose of the feedback and giving specific examples of the types of feedback that would help to improve understanding. Several weeks later in the study of Atlantis, the boys used the same method of feedback and were much more confident in providing useful information.

My thoughts on peer feedback have certainly changed. As with any aspect of teaching, the key is to have a clear purpose and to make it explicit to our students. By providing more formal structures for my students to evaluate their peers’ work, the boys were able to provide quick and worthwhile feedback to help increase their understanding of a difficult question. As always, there is room for improvement, but this approach to peer feedback has given me a much clearer picture of its potential in enhancing learning in the classroom.

References

Black, P., Harrison, C, Lee, C, Marshall, B and Wiliam D (2004). ‘Working Inside the Black Box: Assessment for Learning in the Classroom’. Phi Delta Kappan, Sept 2004 v86 i1 p8

Hattie, J (2009). ‘Visible Learning – A Synthesis of Over 800 Meta-Analyses Relating To Achievement’. (p.37) Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.

Wiliam, D, ‘Self and Peer Assessment’. (http://www.journeytoexcellence.org.uk/videos/expertspeakers/selfandpeerassessmentdylanwiliamtrans.asp) accessed 15/9/2011

Appendix 1

Two Stars and a Wish

Name ___________________________  Assessor ____________________________________

When filling this sheet in, you need to give specific feedback relating to the question. Do not make any personal comments about the person you are assessing. You are assessing their work.

Two stars – Identify two aspects of their work that you found was done well.(Give details)

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

One wish – What is one aspect they work on to improve their work? (Be specific and remember the question.)

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Appendix 2

Feedback Survey

Rank the following on a scale of 1-4. 1 = Not useful 2= Somewhat useful 3= Quite useful 4 = Extremely useful

Positive feedback (Two stars) 1234

Improvement strategies (Wish) 1234

How will you use the rubric to improve your understanding of the task?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

How will you use the positive feedback to improve your understanding of the task?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

How will you use the improvement strategies to improve your understanding of the task?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What other feedback would be useful to improve your understanding of the task?

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