Abstract

In two-stage exams, students complete some academic work individually then immediately complete the same work again in small groups. Prior research shows that students perceive the dialogue they engage in at the group stage aids their individual learning. Outcome studies also suggest that engaging in dialogue benefits individual student learning. This investigation takes a different perspective. Learning during two-stage exams is conceptualised as deriving from internal feedback processes, with comparison seen as the mechanism that fuels these processes. To investigate this interpretation, students were asked to write a feedback commentary on their own learning during a two-stage exam. The intention was to make explicit the internal feedback that would naturally occur during the group stage, as students compare their earlier individual performance against the group dialogue and the unfolding group output. Analysis showed that students not only generated content and process feedback but also self-regulatory feedback, and that this feedback was of a higher quality than, and went beyond, the comments the teacher provided. This investigation yields new insights into the nature, scope and power of internal feedback processes, and into how to improve students’ learning during such two-stage sequences.

摘要

在两阶段考试中，学生单独完成一些学术作业，然后立即以小组的形式再次完成相同的作业。先前的研究表明，学生认为他们在小组阶段进行的对话有助于他们的个人学习。结果研究还表明，参与对话有益于学生个人的学习。这项调查采取了不同的视角。两阶段考试期间的学习被概念化为源自内部反馈过程，比较被视为推动这些过程的机制。为了调查这种解释，学生被要求在一个两阶段的考试中写一篇关于他们自己学习的反馈评论。其目的是明确在小组赛阶段自然会出现的内部反馈，当学生将他们早期的个人表现与小组对话和展开的小组输出进行比较时。分析表明，学生不仅产生了内容和过程反馈，而且还产生了自我调节的反馈，而且这种反馈的质量比老师提供的评论更高，甚至超越了老师的评论。这项调查对内部反馈过程的性质、范围和力量，以及如何在这样的两个阶段序列中提高学生的学习产生了新的见解。