Abstract Literature suggests that a crucial element of peer assessment is feedback; through giving and receiving feedback, peer assessment works to engage student learning on a deeper level (Liu and Carless, 2006; Topping, 1998). Equally, the ability to give and receive feedback and to critique have been recognised as important life skills beyond the classroom that are applicable to work contexts. Given this reality, learning how to give constructive feedback should be viewed as ‘an essential generic skill’ (Cushing et al, 2011: 105). This presentation reports on a model for an incremental trajectory for building confidence and competence in peer assessment and feedback for Higher Education learners. The model was developed from a case study of a postgraduate programme in an Irish Higher Education context. Arising from a small-scale study incorporating a combination of student feedback, teacher observations and informed by relevant literature (for more detail on the methodology underpinning the development of the model see Egan and Costelloe, 2016), the model recognises that giving and receiving peer feedback is not an innate skill and that learners require a scaffolded approach to develop the requisite skills (Adachi et al, 2018; Cassidy, 2006). This presentation focuses specifically on the ‘peer feedback’ component of the proposed model and outlines how the model might support incremental skill development, particularly (i) the ability to assess others, (ii) the ability to give and receive feedback and (iii) the ability to make judgments. The model suggests that learners should firstly become comfortable engaging in self-assessment tasks, which should incorporate a form of feedback from a more competent other. From here, self-assessment and peer-assessment should commence to allow the learner to understand how a peer may perceive elements of assessment and feedback differently. Following this, group-to group peer assessment and feedback is encouraged, as this can enhance confidence in judgement and communication of feedback. From this point, one-to-one and one-to-group peer assessment and feedback can commence. We argue that such an approach encourages the use of peer assessment as and for learning, whereby students are gradually scaffolded - through various formative “low stakes” assessment tasks and activities - to develop the ability to provide formative peer feedback. While the model requires further testing and validation, it offers a pathway for practitioners for the incremental development of peer assessment and feedback skills.

1. Proposing a model for the incremental
development of peer assessment and
feedback skills: a case study
Dr Laura Costelloe
Mary Immaculate College, Limerick
Ireland
Co-authored with Dr Arlene Egan, Roffey
Park Institute, Dublin

2. Overview of Paper
• Context
• Theoretical observations
• Methodology
• Brief examples from practice
• Discussion: student feedback from focus group
• Overview of theoretical feedback skills development model
• Conclusion

3. Context
• 60 ECTS PG Diploma for Higher
Education teachers;
• Mainly targeted at early-career
teachers;
• Programme aims to develop teachers’
knowledge, skills and dispositions in a
variety of key areas of academic
practice;
• 5 ECTS module on Educational
Assessment, but programme team
recognised a need to embed skills
related to assessment and feedback
across the programme
Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash

4. National understanding of assessment
of/for/as learning
(National Forum, 2017)

5. Theoretical Observations
• Assessment broadly defined: formative and summative assessment, involves
actions such as ‘evaluation, grading, marking, critiqueing, reviewing etc.’ (Adachi,
Tai & Dawson, 2018: 454);
• Skill development is maximised when a programmatic approach is adopted (Jessop
& Tomas, 2017);
• Giving and receiving feedback are not innate skills – multiple opportunities to
practice these skills are needed (Adachi, Tai & Dawson, 2018; Cassidy, 2006);
• Sought to build on opportunities for self-assessment to support peer assessment
and feedback (Reinholz, 2016)

6. Our Aims
• Learners are viewed as both producers and consumers of feedback
(Andrade, 2010); shift away from the teacher as ‘expert’ and only source of
feedback, i.e. develop feedback literacy (Winstone & Carless, 2019);
• Embed formative assessment tasks, including self- and peer-assessment,
throughout the programme and across modules to enable student learning
to be maximised through their active involvement in the learning process
(Gibbs & Jenkins, 1992; Ramsden, 1992);
• Aimed to promote best practice to allow for a ‘congruence between
assessment practices and the kinds of learning a course aims to promote’
(Boud, Cohen & Sampson, 1999: 413).
Photo by Silvan Arnet on Unsplash

7. Moving from ‘transmission’ to
‘transformation’ (Winstone & Carless, 2019)
• Old paradigm approach:
• Turnaround time
• Detailed comments
• Educators delivering feedback
• Consistency of feedback across modules
• Impact of feedback practices on student
satisfaction
• New paradigm approach:
• Timed to enable application to
subsequent tasks
• Actionable comments
• Opportunities for students to seek and
generate feedback
• Connectivity of learning across modules
• Impact of feedback practices on students’
learning
Effective feedback is not something that happens
after assessment has taken place; rather, it is
designed into learning processes from the outset
(Winstone & Carless, 2019: 9)

8. How did we do it?
‘Chalk Talk’ exercises
(following Brookfield)
Structured teacher
feedback dialogues
Self-assessment
questionnaires
Co-creation of rubrics
Structured formative
peer review of writing
Guided small group
discursive activities
Individual reflective
writing
Group application of
rubric to group draft
outputs
Programmatic approach: ongoing communication between programme teachers to develop a structured plan for the
‘when’ and ‘how’ of assessment and feedback

9. Did it work? Methodology
• Hosted focus group, attended by 40% of class cohort (n=6)
• Early career higher education teachers (Early Childhood Education,
Psychology and Education)
• 1-4 years experience
• 5 female, 1 male; representative of the disciplines that were present
(Lynch, 2010; UNESCO, 2011)
• Data analysed thematically

10. Opening Question: what comes to mind when
you think of peer feedback?

11. Discussion: key themes
(1) Practice is needed, giving feedback is hard!
“because I think that, as a teacher, giving feedback and assessment is actually
really difficult”
“I didn’t find it [...] easy, but that’s because I’m not used to it, I’m not used to
getting constructive feedback, I’m not used to giving it”
“I found it really hard to give the feedback”
Participants also referred to their dual identity (learner/teacher) and the
tensions/lack of confidence they felt.
Students need opportunities to
develop their abilities to assess others

12. (2) Rubrics, templates and guidelines were particularly welcomed to
structure the assessment and feedback activities
“I think if you have a structure then you know what you are looking for,
rather than just being like ‘I really liked this’”
Rubrics, templates and guidelines help to address any of the feelings of
fear and mistrust that can accompany peer assessment and feedback
activities;
Our findings support existing research highlighting the importance of
rubrics, templates and clear guidelines to scaffold learners (Adachi et al.
2018; Evans, 2013; Topping, 1998).
Students need opportunities to
develop their abilities give and
receive feedback

13. (3) Emphasis on group-to-group peer assessment/feedback particularly
beneficial
“I prefer when it’s the whole group giving feedback together, I think it’s easier
than giving it 1-1. You might say ‘oh I really liked when they did this’ and then
[another student] would jump in and say ‘oh yeah, that was really good’. So you
didn’t feel like you were just one person”
“When we were marking them we could see what other people were scoring
and we could say it as a group...safety in numbers”
Indication of the difficulty in making evaluative judgments experienced by
students, including early career HE teachers
Students need opportunities to
develop their abilities to make
judgments

14. (4) Relationships really matter
“..it was hard to know, to give the feedback, but also to take it as
well….from a peer, it was hard”
“I think that we had a really good group dynamic, in general, across the
whole year. So if next year, people didn’t click as well […] doing something
like that early in the semester might not work as well. Because I think
everyone did really get on, and were open to feedback […] I think it
depends on the group dynamics”
“So if you have a group of students where one student thinks the other
students are rubbish, their feedback is not going to mean anything to
them”

15. “We really need to look at building relationships I think, and people
trusting each other and everybody seeing each other as peers. Because
you can’t really give peer feedback unless everyone sees themselves as
equals”

16. A model for incremental feedback skill
development
01
SELF ASSESSMENT
AND FEEDBACK WITH
A MORE QUALIFIED
OTHER
02
SELF AND PEER
ASSESSMENT AND
FEEDBACK
03
GROUP-GROUP PEER
ASSESSMENT AND
FEEDBACK
Collaboratively developed
rubrics/frameworks;
Guided questioning;
Guided discussions
04
1-1 PEER ASSESSMENT
AND FEEDBACK
Apply rubrics to outputs;
1-1 discussions
05
1-GROUP
ASSESSMENT AND
FEEDBACK
Apply rubrics to outputs;
Group discussions
Tutor dialogues; Self-
assessment forms;
Reflective pieces
Use of structured
rubrics/frameworks;
Structured discussions
(Egan and Costelloe, 2016; Costelloe and Egan, 2020)

17. Conclusions
• Giving and receiving feedback are not innate skills and require
practice and opportunities to develop abilities – even for early career
Higher Education teachers;
• Important to create a safe atmosphere of trust and inclusion where
learning is embraced and concerns are shared – critically important to
create ‘feedback rich environments’ (Esterhazy and Damşa, 2019)
• Students ‘must feel comfortable and trust one another in order to provide
honest and constructive feedback’ (Burke and Pieterick, 2010: 64)
• Particular considerations in the context of developing teacher
feedback literacy – how can we support the development of teacher
feedback literacy in accredited teaching and learning programmes?

18. Works Cited
• Adachi, C., Tai, J. and Dawson, P. (2018) 'A framework for designing, implementing, communicating and researching peer
assessment', Higher Education Research & Development, 37(3), 453-467.
• Andrade, H.L. (2010) 'Students as the definitive source of formative assessment: academic self-assessment and the self-
regulation of learning', NERA Conference Proceedings 2010, 25.
• Boud, D., Cohen, R. and Sampson, J. (1999) 'Peer learning and assessment', Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 34(4),
413-426.
• Burke, D. and Pieterick, J. (2010) Giving Students Effective Written Feedback, Maidenhead, UK: Open University Press.
• Carless, D. and Boud, D. (2018) 'The development of student feedback literacy: enabling uptake of feedback', Assessment &
Evaluation in Higher Education, 43(8), 1315-1325.
• Cassidy, S. (2006) 'Developing employability skills: peer assessment in higher education', Education + Training, 48(7), 508-517.
• Costelloe, L. and Egan, A. (2020) “Because, as a teacher, giving feedback and assessment is actually really difficult”: using self-
and peer-assessment to develop Higher Education teachers’ skills in assessment and feedback’, Proceedings of Higher Education
Advances Conference, Editorial Universitat Politecnica de Valencia: 501-508. DOI:https://doi.org/10.4995/HEAd20.2020.11096
• Egan, A. and Costelloe, L. (2016) 'Peer assessment of, for and as learning: a core component of an accredited professional
development course for Higher Education teachers', AISHE-J: The All Ireland Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher
Education, 8(3), 2931-29313.
• Esterhazy, R. and C. Damşa (2019). "Unpacking the feedback process: an analysis of undergraduate students' interactional
meaning-making of feedback comments." Studies in Higher Education 44(2): 260-274.
• Evans, C. (2013) 'Making sense of assessment feedback in Higher Education', Review of Educational Research, 83(1), 70-120.

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• UNESCO (2011) Women and the Teaching Profession: exploring the feminisation debate.

20. THANK YOU
Laura.Costelloe@mic.ul.ie
@Lostelloe
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