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Improving oral presentation skills through teacher guided self-reflection on peer feedback
Author
Nora Awang
Supervisor
Lwin Soe Marlar
Abstract
This study examined how the use of peer feedback on the learning of oral presentation skills contributes to self-regulated learning of two intact classes of secondary one Express students in a heartland secondary school in Singapore.
In determining the impact of peer feedback on the improvement of participants’ oral presentation, participants were required to switch roles between being a presenter and a critical audience. In one session they conducted individual presentation while being observed by others, in another they became the critical audience, tasked to write about the strengths and weaknesses of each presentation according to respective criteria in the peer feedback form. The feedback was reviewed and used as reference in preparation for the subsequent oral presentation. However only those in the Experimental group were provided with close teacher-guidance and input on effective strategies to overcome the identified weaknesses. Hence to find out the participants’ perceptions on teacher-guided self-reflection of peer feedback, a questionnaire was administered to all participants and a selected few were interviewed.
The findings from quantitative analysis of the participants’ score indicated that a large majority of the participants recorded significant score improvement in the second round of oral presentation, but those who received teacher guidance made much greater improvement. Meanwhile the qualitative analysis revealed that other than peer feedback, there are several other significant factors that contributed to the participants’ improvement in oral presentation. However, the findings suggested that peer feedback served as the catalyst that sparks the necessary motivation for the participants to seek for various strategies to improve their performance. This finding was linked with Zimmerman’s Self-Regulated Learning model (2009) where closer analysis indicated that the peer feedback exercises conducted in this study contributed to the participants’ self-regulated learning of oral presentation skills.
The results of this study illustrated the impact of peer feedback practices to students’ lifelong learning skills as the effort they undertook to improve their learning skills could be replicated in future tasks. Hence with appropriate adaptation and simplification of its usage, scaffolding and teacher guidance, peer feedback should be employed in various aspects’ of students’ learning in all stages and settings.
In determining the impact of peer feedback on the improvement of participants’ oral presentation, participants were required to switch roles between being a presenter and a critical audience. In one session they conducted individual presentation while being observed by others, in another they became the critical audience, tasked to write about the strengths and weaknesses of each presentation according to respective criteria in the peer feedback form. The feedback was reviewed and used as reference in preparation for the subsequent oral presentation. However only those in the Experimental group were provided with close teacher-guidance and input on effective strategies to overcome the identified weaknesses. Hence to find out the participants’ perceptions on teacher-guided self-reflection of peer feedback, a questionnaire was administered to all participants and a selected few were interviewed.
The findings from quantitative analysis of the participants’ score indicated that a large majority of the participants recorded significant score improvement in the second round of oral presentation, but those who received teacher guidance made much greater improvement. Meanwhile the qualitative analysis revealed that other than peer feedback, there are several other significant factors that contributed to the participants’ improvement in oral presentation. However, the findings suggested that peer feedback served as the catalyst that sparks the necessary motivation for the participants to seek for various strategies to improve their performance. This finding was linked with Zimmerman’s Self-Regulated Learning model (2009) where closer analysis indicated that the peer feedback exercises conducted in this study contributed to the participants’ self-regulated learning of oral presentation skills.
The results of this study illustrated the impact of peer feedback practices to students’ lifelong learning skills as the effort they undertook to improve their learning skills could be replicated in future tasks. Hence with appropriate adaptation and simplification of its usage, scaffolding and teacher guidance, peer feedback should be employed in various aspects’ of students’ learning in all stages and settings.
Date Issued
2017
Call Number
PN4121 Nor
Date Submitted
2017