Peer Feedback in the International Classroom
Welcome to my website about peer feedback in the international classroom. It provides an overview of the results of my Comenius teaching fellow project. I hope to update the website regularly with outcomes of my upcoming doctoral research on this subject.
Jannemieke Geessink.
Peer Feedback in the International Classroom
Providing peer feedback in an international classroom can show cultural differences and high differences in feedback scores. A research project has been done at the International School of Business (ISB), HAN University of Applied Sciences, where the combination of peer feedback, international classroom, and developing intercultural competencies among ISB students has been explored.
The toolkit
The project of peer feedback in the international classroom resulted in the creation of a toolkit. It consists of a guideline for teachers, manuals for students, including a glossary and a training module.
The project
Providing peer feedback is a powerful instrument for learning. It contributes to the development of important skills and helps students to become curious professionals. It is suggested that the learning elements of providing peer feedback also contribute to the development of intercultural competencies.
The project is focused on the combination of providing peer feedback, the international classroom environment and the development of intercultural competences.
The Comenius Grant
This project was awarded an NRO Comenius Teaching Fellow Grant in 2019. The aim of this grant is to provide practical innovations that can be applied in the classroom. These innovations contribute to the improvement of Higher Education in the Netherlands. They directly benefit students and give education professionals the opportunity to develop their careers further.
Highlights
Students from collectivist cultures tend to interpret group work as teamwork, while students from individualistic cultures split up the work to work on their own part, and then combine the results into one product.
Students find it difficult to give peer feedback on behaviour or ways of working. Students from collectivist cultures indicated it is a somewhat Western-oriented process to provide individual feedback in groups.
Hierarchy and relationships play a vital role in the comfortability of providing peer feedback on individual behaviour. In some cultures, it is common that only elders give feedback.
The results
Peer feedback should be deployed from a vision on the use of the instrument. It is almost counterintuitive for students from collectivist cultures to give peer feedback on individual behaviour during group work.
Because of such cultural differences, careful guidance of the peer feedback process is recommended in an international classroom. Training, guiding, and coaching students are required to reach the intended learning goals and skills.
Students identify peer feedback with criticizing. Peer feedforward has a positive connotation and stimulates the learning process of both providers and receivers.
The designed toolkit can be found here.
Want to know more?
Do you have a question for one of our team members or would you like to receive the manuals for your own usage, don't hesitate to contact us! We are always willing to help and aim to respond within 24 hours.
