University of Cumbria Open Access Journals
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How does feedback formulation affect students’ perceptions of peer feedback in higher education?
Full text linkPeer feedback in higher education has been studied extensively. This paper studies a one-semester Bachelor course on educational assessment, with 64 students enrolled. It presents a Continuous Assessment for Learning design articulating diverse assignments, which included an original production, peer feedback on this production, promotion of student reflection with a feedback perception questionnaire, and revision of the original production. The research investigates the effect of feedback formulation (in terms of positive comments, negative comments, and suggestions) on student feedback perceptions (in terms of fairness, usefulness, acceptance, willingness to improve, and affects) and analyses if this effect differed whether students were the direct receivers of feedback or not. Results highlight the importance of providing positive comments and suggestions when writing peer feedback and suggests that emotions are important to address when conducting peer feedback processes in higher education
Cultivating teacher agency in professional learning and development: a case study of an individual from an enquiry-based learning programme
Full text linkTeacher agency is increasingly recognised as essential for professional learning, school improvement, and sustainable educational change. However, neoliberal economic policies and heightened accountability measures may constrain opportunities for teachers to exercise agency, highlighting the need for further research. While teacher education has the capacity to enhance teacher agency, there is limited research examining how teacher agency is enacted within structured teacher education settings and which practices effectively support its development.
This paper addresses this gap by presenting a case study of an individual teacher drawn from an 18-month research project on teacher agency development involving nine Korean primary school teachers in Seoul, South Korea (Lee, 2024). It examines how an enquiry-based learning programme fostered the agency of one participant through their engagement in an action research project within their school. The findings raise questions about the need for a multidisciplinary approach to professional learning and development that promotes self-regulated learning, critical reflection, and collaboration. Additionally, the study advocates for expanding teacher agency beyond individual learning to encompass a broader societal role
Investigating the impact of Collaborative Annotation on Student Quality of Learning in Higher Education
Full text linkCollaborative Annotation is ‘a literacy strategy that engages students in critical reading, critical thinking, writing and collaboration all in one activity’ (Schwane, 2015). This study reports on the effect and role that a Collaborative Annotation tool we developed plays in the assessment of students’ understanding of their course material and recommends the best pedagogical approaches and research possibilities that can further improve its impact on traditional learning contexts in the future. Our preliminary investigations suggest that there is a positive correlation of Collaborative Annotation using our tool with student quality of learning. This is promising as it is broadly in line with published research and indicates that our research merits further investigation on extending our pipelines to incorporate AI peers and assess how they impact students’ learning
Feedback Interchange in Small-Group Discussion: An Interpretive Review of the Literature
Full text linkThe concern of this paper is with small-group discussion in university teaching as a site where feedback is typically generated and communicated to humanities and social sciences students on their everyday learning. The theme is explored by means of a wide-ranging review of the salient literature, considered afresh through the lens of feedback, and against the backcloth of an ongoing transformation in how feedback in higher education is understood, investigated and practised. It concludes that, in contrast to feedback on graded students\u27 assessments, feedback in small-group discussion is characteristically embedded in real-time teaching-learning interchanges, verbally expressed, generated by student peers as well as by the tutor and, since it is on open display, offers opportunities for vicarious learning. It is also a crucial milieu in which students can practise and be guided towards discursive verbal fluency in discipline-specific meaning-making. Nonetheless, the feedback potential of learning through discussion is often unrealised, and robust evidence is lacking of its impact on the quality of learning over time
Breaking the Drama Deficit Cycle: Improving Student Teacher Confidence to Teach Primary Drama Through In-placement Scaffolding
Full text linkResearch shows that drama is often a marginalised subject in primary education, with many in-service and student teachers lacking confidence to teach drama effectively.
This mixed-methods constructivist study investigated the impact of in-placement scaffolding, through the provision of support materials during school practicum, on student teacher confidence to teach primary drama.
The 2020-21 intake of 191 pre-service primary teachers in a Scottish university were invited to participate. The study administered questionnaires at three stages and a total of 165 questionnaires were analysed. From the outset of their studies to just after their first teaching placement (mid-August to early December), three questionnaires gathered data on drama experience, confidence, curriculum knowledge and how respondents valued drama. Respondents were asked what they thought would support them in teaching drama and rated a range of scaffolding resources in order of perceived usefulness.
Findings were consistent with previous research into the factors that impact student teacher confidence to teach drama, such as subject knowledge and personal experience. An unexpected finding was that, while it was concluded that the scaffolding resources positively impacted student confidence, it was knowing the scaffold was there if required, rather than the application of the resources in practice, that appeared to improve confidence. Findings from this study may help inform how teacher education providers support student teachers with primary drama education
Analysis of sources of anxiety among Swiss university students experiencing Continuous Assessment for Learning and their implications for designing assessment in higher education
Full text linkStudent anxiety in high-stakes assessment environments is a well-documented concern, yet limited attention has been given to how assessment design can inherently alleviate this anxiety without specific interventions. This study addresses this gap by examining how Continuous Assessment for Learning impacts anxiety perceptions among Swiss university students in a first-year Education Sciences course. Continuous Assessment for Learning is designed to integrate diverse interrelated tasks that serve both formative and summative assessment purposes, and aims to foster the development of academic and cross-curricular skills through a variety of assessment practices involving students, such as self-assessment and peer feedback. After completing each of eight assignments, students were asked to rate their anxiety levels and identify anxiety sources through a questionnaire. Categorical content analysis revealed the multifaceted and complex nature of students anxiety sources, some of which can be strategically addressed by educators. The findings offer actionable insights for designing assessment, with sources of anxiety to avoid while retaining those that support students\u27 self-regulation of learning in higher education
Analysis of eportfolio data to inform curriculum review and redesign
Full text linkThe ePortfolio provides an opportunity for faculty within academic programs to use a tool that was traditionally used to show evidence of student learning, to also inform curriculum review and redesign. A descriptive concurrent mixed methods design was utilized to analyze ePortfolios from three cohorts of graduate students (N = 39). Quantitative data, qualitative data, and analysis of assignment descriptions in alignment with Bloom’s Taxonomy of Cognitive Domains was completed and provided evidence of perceived alignment and misalignment with program goals. Data was used not only to inform meaningful changes within the ePortfolio process but also to improve program curriculum without the need for additional measures. Analysis of ePortfolio data, data that is readily available to program faculty, facilitates responsiveness to student, program, university, and accreditation requirements in a systematized and streamlined process
A creative perspective on academic writing pedagogy in Higher Education: Using the DREAM model to develop creative and critical thinking in student academic writing
Full text linkWriting is a brain process. Literature in the research fields of creativity, critical thinking in relation to argumentation, as well as academic literacy pedagogy, has in the past 30 years, indicated that creative thinking and critical thinking are essential cognitive skills that are inseparably associated in academic writing. However, academic support is insufficient to help students, especially international English as an Additional, (EAL) students, in academic writing. Students struggle to voice their understanding and construct argument in their disciplines at the levels necessary within subject-specific disciplines. This paper introduces the DREAM (Discovering, Refreshing, Engendering, Adapting, Measuring) model, designed to develop student writers’ creative and critical thinking in academic writing pedagogy in higher education. The DREAM model and its general design for pedagogical implementation are introduced through a critical lens to review theoretical analysis, as well as empirical studies of questionnaires, interviews, observations, and diary notes. It analogises the stages of the DREAM model to those of the Creative Problem Solving (CPS). It also explicates specific cognitions for tasks at each stage of the DREAM model with theoretical analysis of creative thinking and critical thinking for knowledge transformation and argumentation. Finally, with literature analysis about the gap between the expectation of disciplinary lecturers on student writers’ writing tasks and the current academic writing pedagogical approaches, the article suggests a wide use of a DREAM model pedagogical framework across disciplines to support student writers to achieve in academic writing
Exploring Practical Strategies for Building Resilience in Pre-Service Teachers
Full text linkThis paper examines the critical role of resilience for pre-service teachers by exploring effective strategies for its development. It contributes to understanding the importance of resilience for new teachers to overcome daily challenges and navigate the ever-evolving demands of the teaching profession. Teacher resilience is the outcome of interactions between challenges and protective resources in a process involving teachers employing practical strategies to develop motivational, professional, emotional, social, and physical resilience. In this paper, we focus specifically on the development of social resilience. Our findings from interviews with 25 pre-service mathematics teachers participating in this research reveal that, despite the existence of some anti-resilient thinking, most participants attributed their experience of resilience to support from the context and the community surrounding them
