Making productive use of exemplars: Peer discussion and teacher guidance for positive transfer of strategies

Abstract

Discussion of exemplars of student work is a productive means of explaining tacit knowledge and guiding students into the requirements of academic writing. Through two cycles of action research in a postsecondary institution in Hong Kong, this study examines how exemplars can be used to enhance student understanding of quality and to promote positive transfer of strategies and skills from exemplars to assessment task. Interventions included peer discussion, teacher-led interaction and student mini-presentations in relation to exemplars. To gauge perceptions of these processes, we collected data via open-ended surveys and focus group interviews with students, commentaries from a critical friend and a teacher-researcher reflective journal. Findings suggest that peer discussion and teacher guidance play a complementary role in engineering a supportive learning environment for positive transfer of insights. Peer discussion is useful in allowing students to generate ideas and negotiate meanings. Teacher guidance serves to explicate the characteristics of good quality work and to increase students' critical awareness of the differences between exemplars and their own writing. Teaching implications for dialogic use of exemplars are discussed, and some avenues for future exemplar-related research outlined.

Developing evaluative judgement: enabling students to make decisions about the quality of work

“…Earlier work done by Orsmond et al (2002) identified that student discussion regarding a range of exemplars without the revelation of grades aided in understanding notions of quality. To and Carless (2015) more recently have advocated for a 'dialogic' approach involving student participation in different types of discussion, as well as teacher guidance. However, teachers may need to reserve their own evaluative judgement to allow students to co-construct understandings of quality (Carless and Chan 2016).…”

Role play as a teaching method to improve student learning experience of a bachelor degree programme in a transnational context: an action research study

“…The inclusion of more local content in my module is another approach I should like to explore, with examples, short videos and case studies related to public health in China, so that they may able to distinguish how public health systems in Asian and Western countries differ from each other. By means of pedagogical context in assessment tasks, I can help to improve the student learning experience (Jayakumar, 2008;To and Carless, 2016). I acknowledge that, when I design the role play activity again, I should like to set more initial ground rules, whilst also giving more flexibility to the students.…”

Are Assessment Exemplars Perceived to Support Self-Regulated Learning in Teacher Education?

“…Assessment exemplars provide opportunities for students and teachers to explore assessment task requirements. Most recently, To and Carless (2015) and To and Liu (2017) reported on studies that focussed on the "dialogic use of exemplars" which they described as student participation in discussion to maximize the potential of analyzing exemplars. They also noted the importance for the teacher that "teacher guidance serves to explicate the characteristics of good quality work and to increase students' critical awareness of the differences between exemplars and their own writing" (p. 1).…”