Peer-to-Peer in Inclusive Learning Groups: How Cognitively Activating Are Inclusive Peer Feedback Conversations?
Submitted by:
Katharina Böhnert
Abstract:
Peer feedback discussions, especially in phases of evaluating writing products, have been a subject of much research nationally in Germany (e.g. Ferencik-Lemkuhl 2021) and internationally (e.g. Myhill & Newmann 2019) in recent years. The focus of the evaluation of these conversations is often how speaking about written language structures (metatalk, cf. Myhill & Newman 2016) can contribute to increased metalinguistic awareness among students. The results of the qualitative studies mentioned suggest that there is indeed an increase in meta-awareness.
The present study addresses cognitive activation in peer feedback conversations. Cognitive activation is one of three basic dimensions of teaching quality (Klieme et al. 2001), which were transferred to grammar teaching by Stahns (2013) and Böhnert (2020). Both studies examined using videotaped grammar lessons to what extent these lessons were cognitively activating. The level of cognitive activation varied greatly across the recorded classes (cf. e.g. Böhnert 2020: 33-38 & 41-45), but in both studies only teacher-guided class discussion were examined. In contrast to this, the focus of the present study is on peer feedback conversations. Peer feedback discussions were videotaped in three lessons each in two learning groups (grades 6 and 8) and evaluated using qualitative content analysis (Mayring 2015). The results indicate that the degree of cognitive activation in the smaller peer discussions correlates with whether the discussions guided by the teacher were cognitively activating as well (cf. Böhnert 2020). Therefore, the study suggests that cognitively activating conversation skills can be trained by the teacher and can therefore also be used in peer-to-peer conversations. Further results and implications of the study will be presented and discussed in the presentation.
References
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