Daniel L. Reinholz

The Assessment Cycle: A Model for Learning through Peer Assessment.

This paper advances a model describing how peer assessment supports self-assessment. Although prior research demonstrates that peer assessment promotes self-assessment, the connection between these two activities is underspecified. This model, the assessment cycle, draws from theories of self-assessment to elaborate how learning takes place through peer assessment. The model is applied to three activity structures described in the literature to analyse their potential to support learning by promoting self-assessment. Broadly speaking, the model can be used to understand learning that takes place in a variety of peer assessment activities: marking/grading, analysis, feedback, conferencing and revision. This approach contrasts most studies on peer assessment, which have focused on calibration of instructor and peer grades, rather than learning opportunities.

Peer conferences in calculus: the impact of systematic training

This paper describes an intervention for improving the quality of peer assessment conferences in calculus. Although a body of work highlights the learning benefits of peer assessment, few papers have described the nature of student conversations during peer conferences/assessment in detail. This paper provides deeper insight into what those conversations actually look like, and shows the impact of systematic training on conferences. The study took place over two consecutive semesters of introductory college calculus, and analyses show that students had considerably improved conversations after training. The improved conversations consisted of much more on-topic talk and productive feedback; after training, students provided more feedback related to processes (communication and underlying reasoning) than products (correctness or incorrectness).

Attending to lifelong learning skills through guided reflection in a physics class

We describe a tool, the Guided Reflection Form (GRF), which was used to promote reflection in a modeling-based physics course. Each week, students completed a guided reflection and received feedback from their instructors. These activities were intended to help students connect past experiences to future improvements. We analyzed student reflections so that we could (1) provide insight into the reflection process itself, (2) describe common themes in student reflections, and (3) explore how student reflections change over time. Most students were able to use the GRF to reflect on their learning by narrating experiences, identifying areas for growth, and outlining plans for meeting their goals. Moreover, the themes present in student reflections provide insights into struggles commonly faced by physics students and how these struggles change over time. We discuss the design of the GRF in detail, so that others may use it as a tool to support student reflections.

Learning to Do Diversity Work: A Model for Continued Education of Program Organizers

Physics and physics education in the United States suffer from severe (and, in some cases, worsening) underrepresentation of Black, Latinx, and Native American people of all genders and women of all races and ethnicities. In this paper, we describe an approach to facilitating physics students’ collective and continued education about such underrepresentation; its connections to racism, sexism, and other dimensions of marginalization; and models of allyship that may bring about social change within physics. Specifically, we focus on the efforts of undergraduate students, graduate students, and postdocs who are members of a student-run diversity-oriented organization in the physics department at the University of Colorado Boulder (CU), a large, selective, predominantly White public university with high research activity. This group’s education was accomplished through quarterly Diversity Workshops. Here we report on six Diversity Workshops that were co-designed and facilitated by the authors. We describe th...

Using Peer Feedback to Promote Reflection on Open-Ended Problems

This paper describes a new approach for learning from homework called Peer-Assisted Reflection (PAR). PAR involves students using peer feedback to improve their work on open-ended homework problems. Collaborating with peers and revising one’s work based on the feedback of others are important aspects of doing and learning physics. While notable exceptions exist, homework and exams are generally individual activities that do not support collaboration and refinement, which misses important opportunities to use assessment for learning. In contrast, PAR provides students with a structure to iteratively engage with challenging, open-ended problems and solicit the input of their peers to improve their work.

Four frames for systemic change in STEM departments

BackgroundThis paper adapts the four-frame model of organizational change to the context of higher education. We offer the model as a tool for researchers and change agents who wish to study and enact systemic change within STEM departments. We provide the four frames in contrast to overly simplistic models of change that have been shown to be unlikely to result in sustainable improvements. As we outline the four frames, we discuss both how the frames provide insight into potential products for change and how they influence the process of change. We provide an extended example of how the four frames can be used to analyze an existing change effort and implications of this approach for future work.ConclusionsThis paper adapts a model for promoting and understanding change efforts in STEM departments. This is a model that can be used by nearly any researcher or administrator to help increase the impact of their work.

Peer Feedback for Learning Mathematics

Abstract This article describes Peer-Assisted Reflection (PAR), a cycle for engaging students with rich mathematical problems. PAR gives students an opportunity to receive peer feedback and revise their work, supporting sustained mathematical engagement. PAR can be incorporated into nearly any course to address logistical constraints that limit how much feedback an instructor can provide. Strategies for using PAR and sample problems are provided.