The first year of study is very exciting for many students. Everything is new: the school, your schedule, the teachers, and your fellow students. How can a university ensure a smooth transition for first-year students? For this, Inholland launched the Students for Students (S4S) project in the 2019-2020 academic year. In this project, second-year students (studentcoaches) support first-year students with their studies. They do this based on their own experience and the training they receive during their year as studentcoaches. Research shows that peer-mentoring is very successful in aiding first-year students through their first year of the study program. Peer-mentoring has the potential to increase well-being, social bonding, the feeling of belonging, and student resilience. It also ensures smoother academic integration, as peer-mentoring focuses on developing academic skills as well. Additionally, a studentcoach is often a low threshold point of contact for students where they can go with questions.
DOCUMENT
Formative assessment (FA) is an effective educational approach for optimising student learning and is considered as a promising avenue for assessment within physical education (PE). Nevertheless, implementing FA is a complex and demanding task for in-service PE teachers who often lack formal training on this topic. To better support PE teachers in implementing FA into their practice, we need better insight into teachers’ experiences while designing and implementing formative strategies. However, knowledge on this topic is limited, especially within PE. Therefore, this study examined the experiences of 15 PE teachers who participated in an 18-month professional development programme. Teachers designed and implemented various formative activities within their PE lessons, while experiences were investigated through logbook entries and focus groups. Findings indicated various positive experiences, such as increased transparency in learning outcomes and success criteria for students as well as increased student involvement, but also revealed complexities, such as shifting teacher roles and insufficient feedback literacy among students. Overall, the findings of this study underscore the importance of a sustained, collaborative, and supported approach to implementing FA.
DOCUMENT
Just what and how eight experienced teachers in four coaching dyads learned during a 1-year reciprocal peer coaching trajectory was examined in the present study. The learning processes were mapped by providing a detailed description of reported learning activities, reported learning outcomes, and the relations between these two. The sequences of learning activities associated with a particular type of learning outcome were next selected, coded, and analyzed using a variety of quantitative methods. The different activity sequences undertaken by the teachers during a reciprocal peer coaching trajectory were found to trigger different aspects of their professional development.
DOCUMENT
While feedback is frequently emphasized as a crucial principle of presentation courses in higher education, previous studies revealed that teachers outperform peers in terms of impact on students’ development of oral presentation competence. Further, presentation research showed that the lack of quality of peer feedback can be considered as an essential argumentation for the identified differences in effect. Follow-up field experiments demonstrated that Virtual Reality (VR) can be considered as a valuable alternative feedback source for developing public speaking skills, since this technology is able to simulate real-life presentation situations as well as to deliver feedback from the VR system to the individual learner. Recent technological developments allowed to convert quantitative information from VR systems into qualitative feedback messages that directly relate to the standards for high-quality feedback. If students are able to individually interpret the feedback messages without the intervention of a human feedback source, it could enrich the quality of feedback in peer and self-learning and further increase students’ oral presentation competence development. This chapter provides a synthesis of the literature in presentation research with the aim to construct a research agenda on computer-mediated feedback in VR for peer learning in this field. Further, two recent VR experiments in presentation research are discussed with the aim to effectively construct feedback messages in VR for improving peer learning.
LINK
To examine the association of adolescents' snack and soft drink consumption with friendship group snack and soft drink consumption, availability of snacks and soft drinks at school, and personal characteristics, snack and soft drink consumption was assessed in 749 adolescents (398 girls, 351 boys, age 12.4 - 17.6 years), and their friends, and snack and soft drink availability at schools was measured. In regression analysis, consumption by friends, snack and soft drink availability within school, and personal characteristics (age, gender, education level, body mass index) were examined as determinants of snack and drink consumption. Snack and soft drink consumption was higher in boys, soft drink consumption was higher in lower educated adolescents, and snack consumption was higher in adolescents with a lower body weight. Peer group snack and soft drink consumption were associated with individual intake, particularly when availability in the canteen and vending machines was high. The association between individual and peer snack consumption was strong in boys, adolescents with a lower education level, and adolescents with lower body weights. Our study shows that individual snack and soft drink consumption is associated with specific combinations of consumption by peers, availability at school, and personal characteristics.
DOCUMENT
Clinical practice guidelines are considered important instruments to improve quality of care. However, success is dependent on adherence, which may be improved using peer assessment, a strategy in which professionals assess performance of their peers in a simulated setting. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to determine whether peer assessment is more effective than case-based discussions to improve knowledge and guideline-consistent clinical reasoning in the Dutch physical therapy guideline for low back pain (LBP).
LINK
From the article: "Whilst the importance of online peer feedback and writing argumentative essays for students in higher education is unquestionable, there is a need for further research into whether and the extent to which female and male students differ with regard to their argumentative feedback, essay writing, and content learning in online settings. The current study used a pre-test, post-test design to explore the extent to which female and male students differ regarding their argumentative feedback quality, essay writing and content learning in an online environment. Participants were 201 BSc biotechnology students who wrote an argumentative essay, engaged in argumentative peer feedback with learning partners in the form of triads and finally revised their original argumentative essay. The findings revealed differences between females and males in terms of the quality of their argumentative feedback. Female students provided higher-quality argumentative feedback than male students. Although all students improved their argumentative essay quality and also knowledge content from pre-test to post-test, these improvements were not significantly different between females and males. Explanations for these findings and recommendations are provided"
MULTIFILE
The rising rate of preprints and publications, combined with persistent inadequate reporting practices and problems with study design and execution, have strained the traditional peer review system. Automated screening tools could potentially enhance peer review by helping authors, journal editors, and reviewers to identify beneficial practices and common problems in preprints or submitted manuscripts. Tools can screen many papers quickly, and may be particularly helpful in assessing compliance with journal policies and with straightforward items in reporting guidelines. However, existing tools cannot understand or interpret the paper in the context of the scientific literature. Tools cannot yet determine whether the methods used are suitable to answer the research question, or whether the data support the authors’ conclusions. Editors and peer reviewers are essential for assessing journal fit and the overall quality of a paper, including the experimental design, the soundness of the study’s conclusions, potential impact and innovation. Automated screening tools cannot replace peer review, but may aid authors, reviewers, and editors in improving scientific papers. Strategies for responsible use of automated tools in peer review may include setting performance criteria for tools, transparently reporting tool performance and use, and training users to interpret reports.
DOCUMENT
This study provides an illustration of a research design complementary to randomized controlled trial to evaluate program effects, namely, participatory peer research (PPR). The PPR described in current study was carried out in a small sample (N = 10) of young adults with mild intellectual disabilities (MID) and severe behavioral problems. During the PPR intervention, control and feedback to individuals is restored by training them to become participant-researchers, who collaborate in a small group of people with MID. Their research is aimed at the problems the young adults perceive and/or specific subjects of their interest. The study was designed as a multiple case study with an experimental and comparison group. Questionnaires and a semistructured interview were administered before and after the PPR project. Results of Reliable Change Index (RCI) analyses showed a decrease in self-serving cognitive distortions in the PPR group, but not in the comparison group. These results indicate that PPR helps to compensate for a lack of adequate feedback and control, and in turn may decrease distorted thinking and thereby possibly later challenging behavior.
DOCUMENT
Peer discussions play a major role in students’ collaborative problem-solving activity. These discussions provide researchers and teachers with a wealth of information about the students' reasoning. To analyse such discussions, different theoretical lenses are available, such as Schoenfeld’s problem solving model, the Florida Taxonomy of Cognitive Behaviour, and the Scheme for Educational Dialogue Analysis. The question is, however, how these three perspectives can complement each other. To investigate this, the discussion between four students was analysed through the three lenses. Results indicate that these frameworks are both complementary and connected. This connection allows an in-depth analysis of the discussion and reveals possibilities and limitations for an integration of the three models, which will guide future discussions’ analyses in our study.
DOCUMENT
