ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
What Students&apos; Want in Written Feedback: Praise, Clarity and Precise Individual Commentary
Author: Austen, Liz
Date: 2018-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Feedback (Response),Student Attitudes,Summative Evaluation,Undergraduate Students,Social Sciences,Focus Groups,Best Practices,Preferences,Positive Reinforcement,Content Analysis,Interpersonal Relationship,Phrase Structure

This research paper explores a sample of written summative feedback which was provided to undergraduate social science based students in 2014-2015. A series of focus groups were facilitated where students evaluated 95 pieces of individual written feedback and discussed their findings. Texts were scored, ranked and used to create mini corpora of high and low ranking feedback. A contrastive analysis examined frequency counts, keyword analyses as well as concordances, collocations and semantic analyses. This analysis was supported by student annotations of their evaluations and thematic coding of the verbal discussions which took place. This research has been able to outline the characteristics of feedback which students in this sample judged to be effective-specific praise, clarity and completeness, forward orientation, interpersonal positioning and clear and error free text. The contrastive analysis brought the metadiscoursal features strongly into focus, with distinct linguistic patterns emerging in the use of modals, personal pronouns and the mitigation of criticism. Findings confirmed the highly interpersonal nature of academic feedback and students demonstrated particular sensitivity to the tenor of the feedback and the way criticism was incorporated. There were also distinct preferences concerning the length and presentation of text, the quality of praise, and whether it contained a forward orientation.
Students&apos; Informal Peer Feedback Networks
Author: Headington, Rita
Date: 2018-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Feedback (Response),Informal Education,Peer Evaluation,Peer Groups,Social Networks,Longitudinal Studies,Student Teacher Attitudes,Network Analysis,Interviews,Diaries,Cohort Analysis,Foreign Countries

The nature and significance of students' informal peer feedback networks is an under-explored area. This paper offers the findings of a longitudinal investigation of the informal peer feedback networks of a cohort of student teachers [n = 105] across the three years of a UK primary education degree programme. It tracked the dynamic nature of these networks through the use of Social Network Analysis and gained qualitative insights into the significance of informal peer feedback through diaries and interviews of a smaller student group [n = 12]. The research found that students were actively engaged in informal peer feedback networks from their first year of study. Where some students found strength within feedback 'cliques', others preferred the fluidity of relationships that were based upon identified needs and changing circumstances. The inter-connections between students' personal (ego) networks offered access to information flow across and beyond the cohort. Identified levels of informal peer feedback ranged from proof-reading aspects of assignment completion to the development of conceptual understanding that drew upon shared analysis of tutor feedback, assignment briefs and assessment criteria. While aspects of informal peer feedback built upon examples from tutor-led scenarios, trust and reciprocity were fundamental to the success of these informal peer feedback relationships.
Hegemony and Assessment: The Student Experience of Being in a Male Homogenous Higher Education Computing Course
Author: Sheedy, Caroline
Date: 2018-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Student Experience,Males,Homogeneous Grouping,Higher Education,Focus Groups,Gender Differences,Computer Science Education,Interviews,Beliefs,Competence,Masculinity,Institutional Characteristics,Course Evaluation,Student Satisfaction

This work emanates from a previous study examining the experiences of male final year students in computing degree programmes that focused on their perceptions as students where they had few, if any, female classmates. This empirical work consisted of focus groups, with the findings outlined here drawn from two groups that were homogeneous with respect to gender. It identified that the masculinisation of computing and the resulting hegemonic masculinity has far-reaching impact. An unanticipated theme was how this homogeneity impacted their course assessments. Students participating in this research identified discomfort with their experience of the institutional hegemonic masculinity. Further work to understand how this hegemonic masculinity impacts teachers is also proposed.
Promoting Student Engagement with Academic Literacy Feedback: An Institute Wide Initiative
Author: Cleary, Ann
Date: 2018-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Learner Engagement,Feedback (Response),Higher Education,Information Literacy,Academic Discourse,Transitional Programs,Student Experience,Reflection,Institutional Cooperation,Partnerships in Education,Teamwork,Questionnaires,Foreign Countries

The transition to Higher Education, while often exciting, is demanding for many students. Successful transition necessitates learning the conventions of scholarly conversation, including how to read and create work in an academic context. Knowledge of academic literacy practices is an important part of this process but these discourses and practices are often unfamiliar to students and this has implications for the development of academic identities. In this article, we report on an institution-wide initiative between librarians, lecturers and learning developers, designed to raise awareness of the role of feedback in developing academic literacies. While the rate of participation was low this initiative offered a space outside the formal curriculum and assessment processes to engage with students about feedback. The associated publicity raised the profile of feedback internally and offered valuable opportunities to open conversations about feedback with students and staff. The evolution of the initiative is discussed.
Maximizing Teacher Time: The Collaborative Leadership Role of the Principal
Author: Sterret, William L.
Date: 2018-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Teaching Conditions,Principals,Administrator Attitudes,Administrator Surveys,Likert Scales,Class Size,Teacher Responsibility,Qualitative Research,Time Management,Teacher Collaboration,Teacher Role,Educational Resources,Community Involvement,Student Behavior,Leadership,Professional Development,Teaching Methods,Statistical Analysis

Using data from the 2014 North Carolina Teacher Working Conditions (NCTWC) biennial survey researchers identified a sample from over 2,500 principals. The researchers surveyed 68 principals; 24 principals participated in a 19-item survey containing 5 demographic questions, 7 Likert-scale questions, and 7 open-ended questions. The descriptive analyses revealed that the principals in the study had the highest agreement with time constructs related to &quot;reasonable class size&quot; and &quot;protecting teachers from duties that interfere&quot; and lowest levels of agreement with &quot;efforts made to minimize routine paperwork.&quot; The qualitative analyses shared further principal perspective regarding specific strategies with the seven time constructs. The findings are discussed in relation to the extant literature and implications for fostering a strong learning community and in designing principal preparation programs. Overall, the results from this exploratory study offer insights regarding how principals lead with time, and how they support a community of teaching and learning.
&quot;It Wasn&apos;t Mentioned and Should Have Been&quot;: Principals&apos; Preparation to Support Comprehensive School Counseling
Author: Lowery, Kendra
Date: 2018-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Principals,School Counseling,Administrator Surveys,Administrator Education,School Counselors,Standards,School Size,Counselor Role,Administrator Qualifications,Leadership Qualities,Individual Characteristics,Racial Factors,Income,Gender Differences,Experience,Likert Scales,Alumni,Statistical Analysis

As principals become aware of comprehensive school counseling programs, they will be better prepared to ensure counselors facilitate students' learning, social emotional needs, and college and career readiness, rather than engage in inappropriate tasks such as substitute teaching, standardized testing, or student discipline. We conducted a program review based on a survey of graduates who are current principals, to identify areas for improvement towards the above in our principal preparation program. Survey results revealed significant differences between how principals report counselors are being supported to perform standards-based tasks based on school size in five areas regarding the role of the counselor and time spent performing counselor-related duties. Open-ended responses indicate that there are gaps in our preparation, such as a lack of curriculum and activities focused on counselor roles, that must be addressed in order to prepare them to effectively support counselors.
Improving Work Based Assessment: Addressing Grade Inflation Numerically or Pedagogically?
Author: Robbins, Joy
Date: 2018-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Grade Inflation,Weighted Scores,Evaluation Methods,Evaluation Research,Formative Evaluation,Work Experience Programs,Student Evaluation,Educational Practices,Test Reliability,Test Validity,Feedback (Response),Longitudinal Studies,College Students,Foreign Countries

Work based assessment (WBA) is a common but contentious practice increasingly used to grade university students on professional degrees. A key issue in WBA is the potentially low assessment literacy of the assessors, which can lead to a host of unintended results, including grade inflation. We identified grade inflation in the WBA of the clinical module analysed for this study, and to address it we trialled two adjustments over a four-year period. The first and simpler adjustment, reducing the academic weighting of the WBA component of the module, appeared to lower grade inflation but actually had the inverse effect over time. The second adjustment, introducing a structured formative assessment, reduced the average WBA grade both initially and over time. In addition to this desired result, the second adjustment has brought ongoing benefits to the learning and teaching on the module as a whole.
Moving the Focus from Grades to Feedback: A Case Study of Pass/Fail Marking
Author: O'Keeffe, Muireann
Date: 2018-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Case Studies,Grading,Feedback (Response),Student Evaluation,Knowledge Level,Faculty Development,Evaluators,Surveys,Educational Change,Educational Practices,Models,College Faculty,College Students,Student Attitudes,Scoring Rubrics,Foreign Countries

Assessment is a crucial aspect of academic work. Indeed, there is substantial literature on assessment design and how to ensure the integrity of students' learning. Much work goes into enhancing assessment practices to ensure the validity of assessment to safeguard the reliability of students' knowledge. Yet relatively little research has investigated how university educators might learn about significant assessment concepts through experiencing them for themselves. This evaluation sought to explore how a change in a marking approach on a professional development module for academics supported an assessment for learning approach. The reasons for the change are described and the experience of implementing a pass/fail model on an assessment-focused module is discussed. Data was collected from an interactive student activity, external examiner feedback, and a module evaluation survey. Findings indicated a range of reactions suggesting that consultation processes, orientation time, student involvement, and care with nomenclature are required by those considering similar changes.
Enhancing Student Engagement through Online Portfolio Assessment
Author: Nicholson, Dawn Theresa
Date: 2018-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Undergraduate Students,Learner Engagement,Portfolio Assessment,Portfolios (Background Materials),Electronic Publishing,Feedback (Response),Employment Potential,Student Attitudes,Tutors,Progress Monitoring,Grading,Grades (Scholastic),Printed Materials,Comparative Analysis,Statistical Analysis,Foreign Countries

This paper reports on an existing undergraduate academic skills module where the assignment, a printed portfolio, has been replaced with an online portfolio. Qualitative feedback reveals that students most valued the provision of rapid and regular feedback on work, and had a raised awareness of employability goals. Tutors most valued the ability to monitor students' progress and provide rapid feedback on work. Some also valued the ease of the marking process and the positive impact on tutorials. However, portfolio organisation adversely impacted on the marking process for some, while others struggled with the effect of the online approach on face-to-face meetings, highlighting the need for further guidance on tutorial management. Quantitative analysis of student grades tentatively indicates higher attainment levels for online portfolios compared with printed equivalents. The findings suggest that online portfolios, combined with progress monitoring, peer learning, feedback practice, and intrinsic motivation, can promote student engagement.
Engaging Practical Students through Audio Feedback
Author: Pearson, John
Date: 2018-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Feedback (Response),Audiovisual Communications,Summative Evaluation,Intervention,Action Research,Delivery Systems,Focus Groups,Access to Information,Readability,Learner Engagement,Usability,Theater Arts,Design,Higher Education,Teaching Methods,Foreign Countries,College Students

This paper uses an action research intervention in an attempt to improve student engagement with summative feedback. The intervention delivered summative module feedback to the students as audio recordings, replacing the written method employed in previous years. The project found that students are keen on audio as an alternative to written feedback, perceiving it to be clearer, and more comprehensive and accessible. The use of spoken language allowed inflection and context in a manner absent from written feedback. Additionally, students stated that they were more likely to revisit feedback recordings in conjunction with their written materials, indicating a willingness to reflect upon their work. The project found that challenges of practical implementation around both the creation and dissemination of audio feedback can be a hurdle to engagement with this technique.
Five Go Marking an Exam Question: The Use of Adaptive Comparative Judgement to Manage Subjective Bias
Author: Barber, Jill
Date: 2018-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Student Evaluation,Alternative Assessment,Scoring,Test Bias,Judges,Value Judgment,Peer Evaluation,Summative Evaluation,Pilot Projects,Feedback (Response),Evaluation Criteria,College Students,Pharmaceutical Education,Accuracy,Case Studies,Foreign Countries

Adaptive Comparative Judgement (ACJ) is an alternative to conventional marking in which the assessor (judge) merely compares two answers and chooses a winner. (Scripts are typically uploaded to the CompareAssess interface as pdf files and are presented side-by-side.) Repeated comparisons and application of the sorting algorithm leads to scripts sorted in order of merit. Boundaries are determined by separate review of scripts. A small pilot of ACJ in the fourth year of the Manchester Pharmacy programme is described. Twelve judges used ACJ to mark 64 scripts previously marked conventionally. 50 students peer-marked their own mock examination question using ACJ. Peer-marking was successful with students learning from the process, and delivering both marks and feedback within two weeks. There was very good consistency among the students acting as judges, and accuracy (as defined by Pollitt, 2012) of 0.94. Staff were similarly consistent, but the agreement with marks obtained by conventional marking was disappointing. While some discrepancies could be attributed to conventional marking failing under the stress of marking during teaching term, the worst discrepancies appeared to originate from inadequate judging criteria. We conclude that ACJ is a very promising method, especially for peer assessment, but that judging criteria require very careful consideration.
An Application of the Partial Credit IRT Model in Identifying Benchmarks for Polytomous Rating Scale Instruments
Author: Dogan, Enis
Date: 2018-05-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Rating Scales,Benchmarking,Questionnaires,Achievement Tests,Cutting Scores,Item Response Theory,Sense of Community,Student Surveys,Evaluation Research,Psychometrics,Middle School Students,Models

Several large scale assessments include student, teacher, and school background questionnaires. Results from such questionnaires can be reported for each item separately, or as indices based on aggregation of multiple items into a scale. Interpreting scale scores is not always an easy task though. In disseminating results of achievement tests, one solution to this conundrum is to identify cut scores on the reporting scale in order to divide it into achievement levels that correspond to distinct knowledge and skill profiles. This allows for the reporting of the percentage of students at each achievement level in addition to average scale scores. Dividing a scale into meaningful segments can, and perhaps should, be done to enrich interpretability of scales based on questionnaire items as well. This article illustrates an approach based on an application of Item Response Theory (IRT) to accomplish this. The application is demonstrated with a polytomous rating scale instrument designed to measure students' sense of school belonging.
Engaging Students with Assessment and Feedback: Improving Assessment for Learning with Students as Partners
Author: Andrews, Martin
Date: 2018-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Feedback (Response),Student Evaluation,Learner Engagement,Case Studies,Architectural Education,Evaluation Research,Evaluation Criteria,Partnerships in Education,Focus Groups,Design,Benchmarking,Higher Education,Foreign Countries,Statistical Analysis

Within the Higher Education sector in the UK, it is acknowledged that the area of 'Assessment and Feedback' receives consistently poor levels of satisfaction from students when they complete module level feedback, course level feedback and the National Student Survey (NSS). There is evidence to suggest that this problem is pronounced within Schools of Architecture, particularly with the assessment and feedback of design work. This case study describes reflective practice at Portsmouth School of Architecture, UK, where academics worked in consultation with students to identify the issues. The aim of the project was to evaluate assessment and feedback strategies from across the School resulting in the creation of a new and innovative set of 'Assessment for Learning' tools produced with students as partners. These tools include: a refined marking matrix, an improved 'design review' and a 'lexicon' for marking design projects to enhance understanding and autonomy. This case study also explores how alignment and enhancement of learning through assessment and feedback and the quality of assessment tools has the ability to increase students' confidence and assessment literacy, their overall satisfaction and levels of autonomy.
Rounding in Angoff Ratings
Author: Wyse, Adam E.
Date: 2018-05-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Interrater Reliability,Evaluation Criteria,Scoring Formulas,Achievement Rating,Rating Scales,Cutting Scores,Standard Setting (Scoring),Medical Education,Correlation,Credentials

One common modification to the Angoff standard-setting method is to have panelists round their ratings to the nearest 0.05 or 0.10 instead of 0.01. Several reasons have been offered as to why it may make sense to have panelists round their ratings to the nearest 0.05 or 0.10. In this article, we examine one reason that has been suggested, which is that even if panelists are given the opportunity to provide ratings to the nearest 0.01 they often round their ratings to the nearest 0.05 or 0.10 anyway. Using data from four standard settings, we show that in many cases ratings ended in a 0 or 5 when panelists were given the option of using a scale from 0 to 100 in one-point increments and that only about 9% of all ratings ended in a digit other than a 0 or 5. We also examined the impact of different rounding rules and we found that results were quite similar when using different rounding rules. Additional analyses showed the common phenomenon of panelists giving too high of ratings for hard items and too low of ratings for easy items in comparison to conditional p-values. It is suggested that rounding ratings to the nearest 0.05 or 0.10 represent reasonable alternatives to rounding ratings to the nearest 0.01.
Exploring EFL Learners&apos; Self-Efficacy in Academic Writing Based on Process-Genre Approach
Author: Zhang, Ying
Date: 2018-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: English (Second Language),Self Efficacy,Foreign Countries,Academic Discourse,Graduate Students,Writing Instruction,Mixed Methods Research,Questionnaires,Teaching Methods,Second Language Learning,Semi Structured Interviews

This study explores the change of EFL learners' level of self-efficacy in process-genre academic writing instruction. The teaching experiment was conducted for 14 weeks. A total of 59 graduate students participated in the experiment. Before the experiment, the results showed that the general level of EFL graduates' self-efficacy in academic writing was relatively low. After 14 weeks of academic writing instruction conducted by the process-genre approach, participants' self-efficacy improved significantly. In the interview, participants also reported an increasing level of confidence in academic writing. Based on the findings, implications of academic writing instruction to improve students' self-efficacy are discussed in the paper.
Understanding Cultural Context in Responding to Literature: Researching the Teaching of Literature in EFL Classroom Context
Author: Mustofa, Ali
Date: 2018-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Cultural Context,English (Second Language),Second Language Learning,Second Language Instruction,Literature,Teaching Methods,Reader Text Relationship,Cultural Awareness,Educational Benefits,Authors

This paper shares some insights into the notion of having EFL students collectively respond to literature. Understanding and appreciating a piece of literature is determined by how one can convey the concepts and words to new situations. During this process, several types of interaction happen: interaction between experience and the text, interaction between author's culture and reader, and interaction of the reader with other readers. In order to interpret a text in the way the author has intended, readers need to develop knowledge of the author's cultural and historical contexts. This paper describes several innovative, interactive methods that will help students make connections between life experiences and literary texts, between the author's culture and their own, and between their ideas and those of other readers.