3 Technique: peer review

Research (Hattie, 2012) shows that one of the best ways to improve student achievement is to provide good feedback about what they need to do to improve and the next steps in their learning. You do this by marking their work. However, by encouraging students to review each other’s work in pairs, they can get more feedback on their work and will be able to make more progress.

Pause for thought

  • When you mark students’ work, what sort of feedback do you usually give? What do you do if the student has made a mistake? Do you correct wrong answers? Do you give students time to read your feedback?
  • Imagine that you had submitted an assignment. What sort of feedback would you like to receive?

Ideally, feedback should provide encouragement by indicating what has been done well, but also help to understand how to improve. Everyone likes to know what they have done well. It should also show them where they have gone wrong, indicate what they need to do to improve and include some questions to make them think. But not all of the feedback has to come from you. Students can learn a great deal by discussing their work with their peers: they learn evaluative skills as well as reinforce their knowledge of the science content.

It will take time for your students to learn how to evaluate other students’ work and give feedback, and they will need practice. You will also need to establish some simple rules. For example, that when commenting on someone’s work, you always say two positive things for every negative comment. Negative comments can be presented in a positive way: ‘It would be even better if …’ is more friendly than ‘You should have …’.

In Case Study 3, Mrs Ranjam asks her students to mark some work. They all mark the same work so they can discuss the feedback.

Case Study 3: Peer assessment

Mrs Ranjam wanted to get her students involved in peer assessment, but she realised that they would need some practise.

I decided to give my Class X students some experience of marking work. We had just finished the chapter on chemical reactions, and I asked them to do the questions at the end of the chapter for homework. The next day, I got to school early and wrote the answers to some of the questions on the blackboard. But I made some deliberate mistakes. I said to my students, ‘Now work in pairs to mark my work.’ For each question I asked them to write down what was right, what was wrong and how it should be corrected. There was a great deal of lively discussion, especially when they found one of my mistakes.

While they were working, I walked round and listened to their discussions. I had to do quite a bit of prompting to make sure that they marked it thoroughly. Once they realised what I expected, they turned out to be strict markers!

When they had finished I asked students to write the correct answers on the blackboard and I asked them what feedback they would give about my answers. I asked them what I had done well, what I needed to improve and what mark they would have given my work. They particularly enjoyed doing this. At first some of them were reluctant to be critical, but Sushant said that I needed to try harder and set my work out more clearly, and they all laughed.

Then I gave them the chance to have another look at their own work. Some of them made quite a few corrections. This was fine, because the homework was not meant to be set as a test. I was happy that they had spotted some of their own mistakes, and I did not let them change anything unless they could explain why they wanted to change it.

Activity 3: Using peer assessment

Try this activity with a class when you next reach the end of a topic.

When you have finished a topic, set your students the homework task of devising ten revision questions (and, separately, the correct answers). Tell them to use the ‘What have your learnt?’ section at the end of the chapter to help them to pick out the important points.

The next day, ask them to work in pairs to complete each other’s questions. Give them ten minutes to mark each other’s work. For this sort of exercise, it is helpful for them to work with a friend – someone they like and trust.

Ask them to write down two things that their partner did well and one thing that they need to revise carefully.

Pause for thought

  • How did this exercise help your students to learn?
  • What did it tell you about their understanding of the topic?

It is helpful for students to know how their work will be judged. They are more likely to achieve highly if they know what is expected of them, and it will help them to take responsibility for their own learning.

2 Technique: solving problems

4 Summary