G5 Doctoral dissertation (article)
Exploring interconnections between student peer assessment, feedback literacy and agency (2021)
Vertaisarviointi ja sen yhteys oppilaan palauteosaamiseen ja toimijuuteen

Ketonen, L. (2021). Exploring interconnections between student peer assessment, feedback literacy and agency [Doctoral dissertation]. Jyväskylän yliopisto. JYU Dissertations, 379. http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-951-39-8635-3

JYU authors or editors

Publication details

All authors or editors: Ketonen, Laura

eISBN: 978-951-39-8635-3

Journal or series: JYU Dissertations

eISSN: 2489-9003

Publication year: 2021

Number in series: 379

Number of pages in the book: 1 verkkoaineisto (92 sivua, 31 sivua useina numerointijaksoina, 3 numeroimatonta sivua)

Publisher: Jyväskylän yliopisto

Place of Publication: Jyväskylä

Publication country: Finland

Publication language: English

Persistent website address: http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-951-39-8635-3

Publication open access: Openly available

Publication channel open access: Open Access channel

Abstract

This thesis aimed to advance the understanding of peer assessment, its dynamics, and its possibilities. The research involved multiple implementations of peer assessment in two lower secondary physics and chemistry classrooms in an urban school in Central Finland. The students (n = 29) were followed from the beginning of seventh grade to the middle of eighth grade. Data were collected using field notes, audio recordings, student interviews, students’ written work, and written peer feedback. The qualitative data analyses were driven partly by data and partly by theory. The first study examined the dynamics of a single peer assessment, asking who benefits from peer assessment and why. The analysis of individual students’ pathways through peer assessment showed that receiving constructive critical feedback was beneficial for assessees. Otherwise, the students’ role was significant because their engagement in the original task and their understanding of formative assessment influenced the benefits they experienced. The second study explored students’ feedback literacy (their understandings, capacities, and attitudes related to feedback) in the context of peer assessment, revealing a spectrum of skills that varied from neglecting feedback to actively seeking, processing, and using it. This variance must be accounted for when implementing peer assessment in the classroom. During the year of study, students developed their skills, implying that feedback literacy, so far a concern of higher education, can also be practiced at the secondary level. The third study examined students’ agency, specifically their capacity to act in the social context of the classroom during peer assessment. The analysis revealed several forms of agency and showed that students were unequally challenged by peer assessment. Certain forms of agency that were essential for productive peer assessment - such as judging others’ work - were difficult for some students. The difficulties in exercising agency made students fall short in supporting one another’s learning. Hence, besides a sense of responsibility, knowledge, and skills, students need agency to participate productively in peer assessment.

Keywords: peer review (assessment methods); upper comprehensive school pupils; feedback; interaction; social skills; know-how; human agency; upper comprehensive school; educational evaluation

Free keywords: peer assessment; formative assessment; feedback; feedback literacy; agency; secondary school; physics; chemistry; science

Contributing organizations

Ministry reporting: Yes

Reporting Year: 2021