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Chen, Wenli
The role of peer feedback on the quality of students’ computer-supported collaborative argumentation
2023, Chen, Wenli, Ng, Eng Eng, Li, Xinyi, Chai, Aileen Siew Cheng, Lyu, Qianru
The importance of peer feedback in collaborative argumentation has been well-established. However, little is known about the extent to which peer feedback is associated with the quality of collaborative argumentation. Particularly, there is limited evidence for how specific types of feedback is related to argumentation quality. This study investigated peer feedback against four dimensions of collaborative argumentation quality (clarity, multiple perspectives, selection of evidence, and elaboration and depth). Collaborative argumentation quality was also compared against peer feedback types (appropriateness, specificity, and elaboration). In this design-based research (DBR), a class of 40 secondary Grade Three students in Singapore participated in three cycles of argumentation and peer feedback activities using the AppleTree online learning environment, each cycle consisting of five collaborative learning phases scripted by the Spiral Model of Collaborative Knowledge Improvement (SMCKI): Individual ideation, group synergy, peer critique, group refinement, and individual achievement. Scaffolds of sentence openers and reflections were added in Cycles 2 and 3. Quantitative analyses comparisons of argumentation and per feedback quality across three cycles revealed that except for the multiple perspectives dimension of argumentation quality, students performed significantly better in forming their argumentations and giving peer feedback. Additionally, the quality of argumentation improved significantly over the three cycles when accounting for peer feedback types as correlates, and vice versa.
Steps to implementation: The role of peer feedback inner structure on feedback implementation
2023, Lyu, Qianru, Chen, Wenli, Su, Junzhu, Heng, John Gerard Kok Hui
Though implementing feedback provided by peers has been an essential step for learning efficiency in peer feedback activities, it remains challenging for students. This study aims to explore the inner structure patterns of students’ peer feedback and how they are related to feedback implementation. Sixty-nine engineering students from a Singapore university participated in the peer feedback activity. Content analysis was conducted to analyse the inner structure of feedback as well as the implementation status of each feedback. Sequential mining was applied to investigate the sequential patterns of the various feedback components. The results show a variation of inner structures in the implemented feedback and unimplemented feedback. The implemented feedback tended to be sequenced with an evaluation or a standpoint before seeking clarification or suggestions for improvement. It was also likely to contain continuous questions seeking clarifications. In comparison, the unimplemented feedback was likely to continuously indicate positive evaluations or agreements. By understanding the inner structure of peer feedback with different implementation statuses, researchers and educators can fine-tune design and instructions to support peer feedback practices.
Peer feedback to support collaborative knowledge improvement: What kind of feedback feed-forward?
2024, Tan, Jesmine Sio Hwee, Chen, Wenli
Online peer feedback plays a critical role in collaborative learning. This process improves learning and helps both giver and receiver develop and refine their metacognitive knowledge. A deeper examination of the feedback types, specificity, and affective nature is needed to understand its impact on collaborative knowledge improvement. A mixed-method study was conducted to examine how online peer feedback supported collaborative knowledge improvement in a computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environment. How the different types of formative peer feedback, the specificity and affective nature of the peer comments supported pre-service teachers' in improving their TEL design were examined. The results showed that the peer feedback supported pre-service teachers in improving the quality of TEL design measured by the TPACK framework. It was found that feedback that raised concerns about the work and suggestive feedback facilitated the further improvement of the work. Elaborated feedback rather than verification feedback with short responses also affected the responses to the feedback. The implications on how online peer feedback support collaborative knowledge improvement are discussed.
Preparing pre-service teachers for instructional innovation with ICT via co-design practice
2022, Chen, Wenli, Pi, Zhongling, Tan, Jesmine Sio Hwee, Lyu, Qianru
Information and communications technology (ICT) is rapidly changing how we teach and how we learn. ICT can not only act as a teaching and learning aid but also reshape the delivery of instruction and bring about changes in education. Research has largely examined the effects of teacher education programs on their knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs of technology integration and relatively little attention has been paid to their ability to use ICT to innovate instruction. This study examined how pre-teachers engaged in co-design via Google Slides, and how their behavioural characteristics influenced their improvement of instructional innovation with ICT of lesson design. The results of correlation and step regression analyses and lag sequential analysis showed that behaviours of engagement into individual ideation and within-group ideation in co-design activities positively related to the pre-service teachers’ innovations of lesson designs (i.e., usefulness and originality). The clarification type and positive affection type of peer feedback negatively related and predicted their innovations, and the worst-performed group tended to directly copy information from peer feedback. The implications of how pre-service teachers engaging in co-design activities affect their instructional innovations with ICT are discussed.
Supporting students’ uptake on peer feedback in collaborative argumentation: A design-based research
2024, Chen, Wenli, Li, Xinyi, Ng, Eng Eng, Su, Junzhu, Lyu, Qianru, Chai, Aileen Siew Cheng, Su, Guo
Students’ uptake of peer feedback is closely related to their learning improvement in peer feedback activity. However, the uptake of peer feedback remains challenging for students. To address this challenge, this study conducted design-based research to facilitate students’ peer feedback uptake practices. Three cycles of iterative designs were implemented to develop, implement, and evaluate a tool to scaffold the peer feedback uptake in classrooms. The findings indicate that the reflection tool effectively enhanced students’ uptake of peer feedback. The iterative design practice added value to the existing literature of peer feedback literacy and fine-tuned pedagogical scaffolds for peer feedback uptake.
The mechanism and effect of class wide peer feedback on conceptual knowledge improvement: Does different feedback type matter?
2024, Tan, Jesmine Sio Hwee, Chen, Wenli, Su, Junzhu, Su, Guo
Peer feedback is known to have positive effects on knowledge improvement in a collaborative learning environment. Attributed to technology affordances, class-wide peer feedback could be garnered at a wider range in the networked learning environment. However, more empirical studies are needed to explore further the effects of type and depth of feedback on knowledge improvement. In this mixed method research, 38 students underwent a computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) lesson in an authentic classroom environment. Both quantitative and qualitative analyses were conducted on the collected data. Pre- and post-test comparison results showed that students’ conceptual knowledge on adaptations improved significantly after the CSCL lesson. Qualitative analysis was conducted to examine how the knowledge improved before and after the peer feedback process. The results showed that the class-wide intergroup peer feedback supported learners, with improvement to the quality of their conceptual knowledge when cognitive capacity had reached its maximum at the group level. The peer comments that seek further clarity and suggestions prompted deeper conceptual understanding, leading to knowledge improvement. However, such types of feedback were cognitively more demanding to process. The implications of the effects of type of peer feedback on knowledge improvement and the practical implications of the findings for authentic classroom environments are discussed.
How more-improvement and less-improvement groups differ in peer feedback giving and receiving practice-an exploratory study
2024, Chen, Wenli, Lyu, Qianru, Su, Junzhu
Peer feedback is widely applied to support peer learning and accumulating studies pointed out that feedback features directly impact its learning benefits. However, existing peer feedback studies provide limited insights into group-level peer feedback activities in authentic classrooms. This study conducted group-level peer feedback activity in social studies classrooms of a Singapore secondary school. Fourteen groups of students (N = 61, Female = 61) participated in group-level peer feedback during the computer-supported collaborative argumentation activities. Students’ collaborative argumentation and peer feedback were collected. Paired sample t-test was conducted to compare each group’s argumentation performance before and after peer feedback activity. Qualitative content analysis was implemented to identify the cognitive and affective features of peer feedback given and received by more-improvement groups and less-improvement groups. A comparison of the feature networks between two student groups revealed the effective practices of peer feedback. The results demonstrated the key role of the specific solution when student groups gave and received peer feedback apart from problem identification and general suggestions. Besides, providing peer feedback at the overall argumentation level was found to be more beneficial than a word or evidence level. When receiving feedback, the use of hedge was found to bring more group improvement than mitigation language. These findings highlight the important features of peer feedback in group-level peer feedback activities, providing insights for the design and instruction of group-level peer feedback activities in authentic classrooms.