Active engagement with assessment and feedback can improve group-work outcomes and boost student confidence

This study involves evaluation of a novel iterative group-based learning task developed to enable students to actively engage with assessment and feedback in order to improve the quality of their written work. The students were all in the final semester of their final year of study and enrolled on e...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inHigher education pedagogies Vol. 2; no. 1; pp. 1 - 13
Main Author Scott, G. W.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Abingdon Routledge 01.01.2017
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects
Biology
Collaborative learning
College Science
Educational evaluation
Educational psychology
Feedback
Feedback (Response)
Foreign Countries
Group Activities
Group work
Learner Engagement
Peer Evaluation
peer-assessment
reflection
Regression (Statistics)
Science Instruction
Self Esteem
Self Evaluation (Individuals)
self-assessment
Statistical Analysis
Student Evaluation
Students
Undergraduate Students
United Kingdom
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Summary:This study involves evaluation of a novel iterative group-based learning task developed to enable students to actively engage with assessment and feedback in order to improve the quality of their written work. The students were all in the final semester of their final year of study and enrolled on either BSc Zoology or BSc Marine and Freshwater Biology at a mainstream UK university, but the findings of this research can be generalised to a wider student body. The main findings are that in a group work context, individual students can use provided assessment criteria to accurately assess the work produced by their group and that their ability to produce and recognise work of a higher quality improves as a result of a social dialogue around self/peer assessment and self/tutor generated feedback. The study also reveals that producing poorer work over-assess and those achieving the highest marks under-assess. Over-assessing students focus to a greater extent upon the superficial deficiencies in their work, whereas under assessing students are more likely to focus on more significant issues. High-achieving under-assessing students lack confidence in their own abilities, but believe feedback provides a confidence boost.
ISSN:2375-2696
2375-2696
DOI:10.1080/23752696.2017.1307692