Engaging First-Year Students in Meaningful Peer Review

Who?
Litka Milian, Department of Chemistry; Helen Costello, Academic Skills Centre, Durham Centre for Academic Development; approximately 160 students who take this open undergraduate module (this year all science disciplines were represented in the first-year cohort)
What?
The project seeks to help first-year students improve their essay writing skills through the peer review process on a formative assessment. Our aim is for students to provide peer review that is meaningful, supportive and constructive and to have an understanding of the benefits engaging in the process. The collaboration between the Chemistry department and the Academic Skills Centre has been ongoing for a number of years now and the peer review project has grown in scale and size.
When?
The five collaborative peer review sessions are timetabled for the first term of year one.
How?
- The first one-hour collaborative session allows students to deconstruct a sample essay. An exploration of the marking criteria and the related link to the values of the Chemistry department, allows students to understand how they might produce a successful essay.
- Students then write a 700-word essay related to using salt on icy roads in wintertime.
- A second collaborative session ensures that students understand the benefits of peer review and how to critique work in a sensitive and constructive manner.
- Students then use the Feedback Fruits online platform to read and provide anonymous peer feedback on two other essays. This is framed in three parts: firstly a brief essay summary, followed by some positives of the text, and finally students make two or three suggestions for improvements.
- Once the peer feedback process is completed, students attend small group workshops; these are practical in nature and students critique an essay as a group and also evaluate samples of feedback. Global essay feedback is also given at this point.
Why?
- Enhancing peer review skills is important not only for university work but also as a valuable skill for any future career in science. These skills are closely tied to the Graduate Attributes framework Graduate Skills in the Faculty of Science – Science Digital Education.
- As student cohorts become increasingly diverse, it is equitable and fair to ensure that all students are equipped with the academic skills needed to thrive within their specialism. Peer review provides the opportunity to evaluate one’s own work and that of another.
- This important transitional year means that students need to adapt their existing academic practices. This transition is supported by an enhanced understanding of both the reading into writing process and assessment criteria.
- The exposure of reading peer essays is of real use to transitional students and allows them to explore different ways of approaching a task.
How did it go?
The move to Feedback Fruits was a positive one, both in terms of set up and student engagement. Students were able to navigate around the interface and use the software with minimal input.
The peer feedback was good both in terms of quality and quantity. Students suggested ideas for improvements using tentative language and recommendations were generally substantive and in no way focussed on surface level improvements.
Students expressed an increase in confidence and rated the peer feedback they had been given as valuable.
What’s next?
The peer feedback component is going to be extended to include the summative essay in Term 2.