Peer Revision - Effect on the Reviewer

Philippakos and MacArthur (2016) studied how giving feedback (reviewing peers’ work) affects the quality of the reviewers’ own writing. The researchers focused on the effects of giving rather than receiving feedback. A thorough literature review supported the prediction that students who reviewed peer work would show increased skill revising their own work and produce higher quality future work, in comparison with peers who only received feedback or did not engage in any feedback strategies. (Philippakos & MacArthur, 2016)

The researchers were motivated to explore this topic because of the assumption that while professional authors spend extensive time revising their writing, elementary students spend little time or effort revision their work (beyond basic editing). The researchers hoped that this study would highlight one strategy to increase revision skills for 4th and 5th grade students. Study results revealed that the experience of evaluating peers’ work and explaining feedback to peers correlated with the peer reviewers writing higher quality essays even though they did not receive any feedback on their own writing. (Philippakos & MacArthur, 2016)

Philippakos and MacArthur (2016) highlighted the importance of direct instruction in evaluation criteria. Learning evaluation criteria has a positive effect on both the accuracy of self-assessment and overall performance on future work (Philippakos & MacArthur, 2016). This finding has direct implications for the use of self-assessment rubrics in my research this spring. Study participants will benefit from learning evaluation criteria through direct instruction of how mathematical skills are represented on the rubric. Participants will also benefit from learning self-evaluation skills by practicing how to self-score. In my study, I may want to consider how participants who are not working with a teacher during feedback could benefit benefit from peer feedback. If I incorporate this feedback component into my study, I will ensure that students are engaged in valuable peer review by giving specific directions how how students are expected to explain their feedback to their peers.

Reference

Philippakos, Z. A., & MacArthur, C. A. (2016). The Effects of Giving Feedback on the Persuasive Writing of Fourth- and Fifth-Grade Students.Reading Research Quarterly,51(4), 419-433. doi:10.1002/rrq.149

Feedback with Metacognitive Strategies

Sisquiarco, Rojas, and Abad (2018) found that feedback, which included recommendations for cognitive and metacognitive strategies, had a positive impact on the oral presentations and confidence of sixth grade students in Medellin, Colombia. Data analysis shows that the strategies-based feedback correlated with a significant increase in students’ abilities to both self-evaluate and self-monitor their performance. This analysis illustrates that strategies-based feedback helped students to identify the progress they made, and to notice effective strategies that they implemented to achieve this progress. By including both cognitive and metacognitive strategies as integral parts of the feedback, the researchers provided the sixth grade students with steps and actions they could follow as their worked toward their goals. (Sisquiarco, Rojas, & Abad, 2018)

This action based research shares several elements with my study plan for my action based research this winter. The researchers included two self-assessment rubrics as part of their methodology. The researchers also included an instrument (interview) to measure student’s perceptions of their progress with applying their strategies and improving their oral performance. My study will also include two self-assessment rubrics (addressing mathematical skills and students’ abilities to share and defend mathematical thinking) and two instruments (short response surveys) to measure individual student’s perceptions of their growth. (Sisquiarco, Rojas, & Abad, 2018)

I had not considered including strategies-based feedback in addition to the mathematics curriculum rubric until I reviewed this article. Two metacognitive strategies that I may want to borrow from this study are: “I can assess my strengths and weaknesses after …” [solving mathematical problems on a unit assessment] and “I can make a plan for …” [solving multi-step mathematical problems]. This additional piece of feedback and reflection may help students realize that two steps toward reaching their goals are developing their metacognitive skills by making a plan to solve challenging problems, and understanding how well they are able to self-evaluate. (Sisquiarco, Rojas, & Abad, 2018)

Reference

Sisquiarco, A., Rojas, S. S., & Abad, J. V. (2018). Influence of Strategies-Based Feedback in Students’ Oral Performance.HOW,25(1), 93-113. doi:10.19183/how.25.1.402

Explicit Instruction of Metacognitive Skills

In “The Boss of My Brain”, Wilson and Conyers (2014) explore how explicit instruction of metacognitive skills affects students’ ownership of their learning. The authors state that students with metacognitive strategies (students with the ability to monitor their own thinking and learning), ask several questions:

“What are my learning goals?
How am I going to learn this?
How will I double-check that I have it right?
How does this new content fit in with what I already know?
How well do I know this?
Can I apply this new knowledge or skill in other subject areas or situations?” (Wilson & Conyers, 2014)

These key questions help students as they learn new content or develop deeper understanding of any content.

Wilson and Conyers (2014) suggest that two reasons many schools do not teach metacognitive strategies is because the schools are focused on memorizing facts for multiple choice standardized tests, and because teachers feel like they don’t have any time to incorporate this instruction into an already full schedule. However, the authors predict that with the deeper levels of thinking required by the Common Core State Standards, researchers and educators may see an increase in metacognitive skill development throughout new curricula. The article provides suggestions for explicit instruction of metacognitive skills across age groups. For example, while primary school learners may benefit from a lesson where they “plan, do, and redo”, middle school learners may learn best from a lesson where they discover how to recognize and manage their stress. (Wilson & Conyers, 2014)

Metacognitive skill development is critical to the self-evaluation component of my research study. Wilson and Conyers (2014) suggest that lessons about the neuroplasticity of the brain and students’ abilities to change their brain as they learn new information and skills are key to metacognitive skill development. Students must believe that they can change their brain and adjust their thinking as they work to meet their goals (Wilson & Conyers, 2014). During my research study, I may want to incorporate lessons on neuroplasticity to help increase students motivation. I may also want to explicitly teach students in my study how self-evaluation and metacognitive skills can help them become innovators and better problem solvers, critical 21st century skills that will will be applicable to all future learning and careers.

Reference

Wilson, D., & Conyers, M. (2014, October). The boss of my brain.Educational Leadership,72(2). Retrieved November 6, 2018, from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/oct14/vol72/num02/%C2%A3The-Boss-of-My-Brain%C2%A3.aspx

Increasing Learning Through Self-Assessment

In “Putting Students in Charge of their Own Learning”, Zubrzycki (2015) reports on schools where self-assessment is part of students’ daily learning. The author defines self-assessment as a process in which students judge their progress towards a learning goal and identify their next steps towards the goal. Zubrzycki finds that students need to learn to ask three key questions: “Where am I going? Where am I now? And where to next?”. Zubrzycki argues that effective self-assessment includes several key components: teachers mush translate state standards into student friendly goal statements, students must receive explicit instruction on how to self-assess their work using a rubric or other assessment system, and self-assessment must be followed up with a chance for students to revise their work. Zubrycki implies that the accuracy of self-assessment may be less important than the process of reflection and revision for student learning. (Zubrycki, 2015)

This article directly relates to my research because the primary question I am asking is: How does self-reflection affect student engagement and motivation for future learning? This article supports the argument that self-reflection increases motivation for future learning. Zubrycki (2015) explains that self-assessment helps students take more ownership of their learning by understanding what goal they are working towards, what their current performance is, and what steps they need to take to achieve the goal. In this article, student learning goals are all based on state content standards versus being invented by the learners themselves. In my research, I will also be using grade level standards as learning goals. I wonder how goals created by students (as opposed to by teachers interpreting state content standards) may affect student motivation for future learning?

Key components from the article that I would like to incorporate in my study are ensuring that goal statements are student friendly, providing direct instruction on how to use scoring rubrics and how to completely answer the short response reflection activities, and providing students with an opportunity to revise their work or continue their learning directly after self-assessments.

Reference

Zubrycki, J. (2015, November 11). Putting students in charge of their own learning. Education Week, 35(12). Retrieved November 6, 2018, from https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2015/11/11/students-self-assess-their-way-to-learning.html