Literature Review<\/h2>\n\n\n\nSelf-Review<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Reflective practices have been identified as a key instructional component within teacher education programs (Darling-Hammond & Lieberman, 2013). Self-review, one type of reflective practice, is a method that can be utilized with preservice teachers to help develop the skills of providing and incorporating feedback. Self-review promotes learning, motivation, and active involvement in the learning process (Baecher et al., 2013; Case, 2007; Cheung, 2009). Self-review also helps preservice teachers identify their strengths and weaknesses (Andrade & Valtcheva, 2009), and supports the development of autonomy, self-regulation, self-reflection, self-evaluation skills, and goal setting (Baecher et al., 2013; Carless et al., 2011; Case, 2007; Hanrahan & Isaacs, 2001). The use of self-review can also save time and effort for the instructor, while still leading to high-quality outcomes for preservice teachers (Belski, 2009; Bonk et al., 2004).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although the use of self-review and other reflective practices is beneficial, some preservice teachers may be reluctant to engage fully in the self-review process or may not be skilled enough to accurately identify their own limitations, in part, because they may lack self-regulation skills (Carless et al., 2011). Preservice teachers who fail to learn self-evaluation skills may struggle to incorporate feedback from others and improve their performance. Teacher educators may need to provide instructional supports to help preservice teachers in developing self-evaluation practices, such as the use of clear rubrics to help guide the review process (Kong et al., 2009).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Peer Review<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Peer review is an approach similar to self-review that helps preservice teachers develop a number of essential skills (Britton & Anderson, 2010). Much like self-review, peer review supports critical thinking, self-reflection, and self-evaluation (S\u00f8ndergaard & Mulder, 2012), allows preservice teachers to learn self-assessment skills (Lundstrom & Baker, 2009), and engage in higher level thinking (Odom et al., 2009). Peer review also supports the development of collaborative and assessment skills (Freeman, 1995; Hanrahan & Isaacs, 2001). Peer review can improve the timeliness of feedback, as it is often possible for peers to provide feedback more rapidly than an instructor who is responsible for administering feedback for all students in a course (Belski, 2009).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Engaging students in peer review actively encourages the retention of skills and increases preservice teacher involvement in the learning activity (Carless et al., 2011). Additionally, peer review is often seen as more helpful than teacher feedback because it is written using common language (Nicol et al., 2014), includes review from multiple individuals \u2013 increasing the quantity of feedback \u2013 and can include instructional supports that ultimately result in more thorough feedback than instructors typically provide to preservice teachers (Cho & MacArthur, 2010).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Peer review also exposes learners to many different ways of thinking (Bartlett & Spicer, 2015), a limitation of traditional faculty feedback. As such, peer review is an approximation of real-world experiences, in which teachers receive feedback from a variety of sources and incorporate that feedback to improve practice (Nicol et al., 2014).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Benefits of Peer Review in Teacher Education<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Peer review may be especially helpful when training preservice teachers to work with children with disabilities. Introductory special education courses are often held in large university course sections, in which subgroups of preservice teachers have particular learning goals and would benefit from opportunities to practice with relevant, content specific materials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For example, many programs require that all teacher certification candidates (e.g., science, math, or art education) take a single common class to prepare them to work with students with disabilities (Harvey et al., 2010). While the value of incorporating peer review has been well recognized, instructors often find managing the peer review process challenging in large university classes or classes with a considerable diversity in preservice teacher expertise and content focus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Within teacher education, where preservice teachers are often combined into the same courses but with different teacher certification goals, instructor feedback can be complex and may require content knowledge that is outside the expertise of the instructor. Peer review provides an alternative, where in an ideal situation, art education majors would practice and receive feedback from other art education majors on materials related to art education, and science education majors would provide and receive feedback with materials related to science education, and so on. Innovative methods, such as the use of online peer review tools, have been identified for providing peer feedback in an effective, efficient, and meaningful way for preservice teachers (Avery & Meyer, 2012; Lynch et al., 2012). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Technologies to Support Peer Review<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Online peer review technologies support teacher educators in providing feedback using alternative methods. Online peer review allows teacher educators to monitor the peer review process and ensure all preservice teachers are appropriately engaged and using peer feedback to improve their performance (Hatziapostolou & Paraskakis, 2010). Online peer review also supports double-blind review, where neither the author nor reviewer know the identity of each other (Dahl, 2007) and instructors can assign peer reviewers (see Gehringer, 2011), which might include assignment of peers with similar expertise to evaluate assignments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To date, online peer review has been suggested as a promising approach in the areas of computer science (H\u00e4m\u00e4l\u00e4inen et al., 2011), law (Goldin & Ashley, 2010), English composition (Tsai, 2017), psychology (Jhangiani, 2016), architecture (Thompson & McGregor, 2009), and biology (Liang & Tsai, 2010). Within these studies, peer review was shown to result in increased understanding of course content (Jhangiani, 2016), and improved writing skills (Liang & Tsai, 2010). Students were able to identify concerns related to content within peer\u2019s assignments (Goldin & Ashley, 2010), found written comments from peers to be helpful, and did not find the peer review process burdensome (H\u00e4m\u00e4l\u00e4inen et al., 2011). Students also noted the anonymity of online peer review was important (Thompson & McGregor, 2009).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The use of online peer review has also been explored with preservice teachers and appears to be a promising, although understudied, approach (Avery & Meyer, 2012; Lynch et al., 2012). Online peer review has been used to support preservice teacher creation of project-based engineering activities (Lynch et al., 2012) and to design and carry out scientific experiments in instructional settings (Avery & Meyer, 2012).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Results from studies utilizing online peer review with preservice teachers indicate improved learning, increased self-efficacy, and overall satisfaction with the peer review process (Avery & Meyer, 2012; Lynch et al., 2012). Yet limited research has focused on preservice teachers and content areas such as math and social studies. No study to date has utilized commercially available online peer review tools with preservice teachers or addressed preservice teacher skills to support students with disabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Peer review could be especially beneficial to prepare preservice teachers to support students with disabilities, given the collaborative approaches required to provide high-quality education to these students (Alquraini & Gut, 2012). Given the lack of research with preservice teachers and the potential benefits of online peer review with this population, further exploration of online peer review tools and use of online peer review to support activities appropriate for students with disabilities is warranted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Commercially available online peer review tools, often available within online course management systems on college campuses, may help support instructors in facilitating peer review within their courses. Turnitin\u00ae <\/sup>(2015), an online assignment submission and grading tool that is widely available in institutes of higher education, has a peer review feature called Peermark\u2122<\/sup>. Through Peermark, preservice teachers can submit assignments within existing course management systems, and instructors can facilitate double-blind peer review as part of the learning process prior to final assignment submission (Dahl, 2007). The goal of the tool is to allow preservice teachers to receive and incorporate feedback without added workload on the instructor (Han, 2012). The tool also mirrors professional practice and builds important skills by providing preservice teachers with opportunities to give and receive feedback.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Given the lack of research exploring online peer review tools with preservice teachers, and the potential benefits of incorporating this practice into preservice teacher education to meet the needs of adult learners, we explored the use of peer review with preservice teachers enrolled in a large undergraduate, introductory level special education class. Although this course included multiple sections, each contained preservice teachers in a variety of content areas (e.g., science, math, and art education).<\/p>\n\n\n\n In this experimental study, we carefully selected a learning activity (i.e., graphic organizers) that is an important teaching strategy across a range of content areas, but commonly misused without sufficient instructor feedback (Dexter & Hughes, 2011). Graphic organizers,visual displays that can support student understanding of the relationship between facts and concepts (Akhondi et al., 2011; see Figure 1 for examples of three commonly used graphic organizers), are a beneficial tool to use in inclusive educational settings where students with disabilities are instructed alongside their typically developing peers in the general education classroom (Knight et al., 2013).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Figure 1 <\/strong>Graphic Organizer Examples<\/p>\n\n\n\n Graphic organizers have been shown to support learning in social studies, science, English\/language arts, and mathematics classes across a variety of grade levels (Barton-Arwood & Little, 2013; Dexter & Hughes, 2011). They are commonly used in classrooms to support comprehension (Stetter & Hughes, 2010), but students require explicit instruction to effectively utilize graphic organizers (Dexter & Hughes, 2011), and preservice teachers require systematic training to provide effective instruction to students in comprehension strategies, including graphic organizers (Mason & Hedin, 2011).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Unfortunately, research has shown that students receive little explicit instruction on graphic organizers even when present in textbooks (Catley & Novick, 2009). Therefore, the learning activity, Creation of Graphic Organizers, was specifically selected for this study because of its usefulness to support students with various disabilities in a variety of content areas (Dexter & Hughes, 2011) and the need for systematic training to help preservice teachers learn how to implement graphic organizers effectively within a lesson (Mason & Hedin, 2011). In addition to the creation of graphic organizers, we included a peer review element to support preservice teachers\u2019 explicit understanding of using graphic organizers for students with disabilities in specific content areas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Given the characteristics of preservice teachers as adult learners (e.g., self-directed an having preference for collaborative approaches to learning), we framed our study around adult learning theory, which provided insights into adult learner characteristics and ways instructors can best meet their needs (Bonk et al., 2004; Chen, 2014). In a model outlined by Taylor and Hamdy (2013), adult learners start with existing knowledge then engage in a task where the instructor provides resources to support success. Each learner approaches the task with different levels of development, motivation, and preferences and approaches, which can result in dissonance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To resolve this dissonance, the learner engages in activities such as discussion, self-review, and peer review. This process allows learners to incorporate new skills and insights into future learning. To support adult learners, instructors act as facilitators (Chen, 2014) and provide supports, which in turn, allows learners to gain feedback and collaboration skills (Bonk et al., 2004). In an effort to reduce adult learner (i.e., preservice teacher) dissonance (Taylor & Hamdy, 2013) within this study, the researchers (as facilitators; Chen, 2014) introduced a generalizable strategy to support students with disabilities across content areas (i.e., graphic organizers) and provided opportunities for peer review as a collaborative effort (Bonk et al., 2004; Taylor & Hamdy, 2013), with an aim to support further understanding of graphic organizer use and effectiveness (see Figure 2). Because instructors face challenges providing feedback in areas outside their expertise, a focus on graphic organizers appeared to be an area where peer review might be especially beneficial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Figure 2 <\/strong>Theoretical Framework for Current Study<\/p>\n\n\n\n Existing literature has shown that the use of adult learning theory principles can support teacher development of instructional, collaborative, and feedback skills. Specifically, research indicates the benefits of incorporating adult learning theory within professional development practices for teachers. This research included the benefits of using adult learning theory to support instructional coaching (Heard & Peltier, 2021) and professional learning communities (Peppers, 2015), which has led to increased skills (e.g., opportunities to respond, behavior specific praise, and collaboration) in educators. Additionally, a review of professional development programs for teachers conducted by Darling-Hammond et al. (2017) highlighted that effective professional development for teachers utilizes adult learning principles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/strong>In this study, we examined the impact of online peer review, using the PeerMark feature in TurnItIn (2015) with preservice teachers to support the creation of graphic organizers applicable to their educational concentration areas (e.g., science, math, or art education). We sought to answer the following research questions: (a) Does the use of online peer review improve the quality of preservice teacher graphic organizers from pre- to postreview? (b) Are there differences in mean gain scores for preservice teacher graphic organizers when comparing treatment (i.e., online peer review) and control groups (i.e., self-review)? (c) Are differences in mean gain scores also observed for preservice teacher graphic organizers when comparing treatment and control groups within different content areas (e.g., preservice math teachers in the treatment compared with preservice math teachers in control)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n To answer these research questions, we used a pretest-posttest design with random assignment to the experimental (i.e., online peer review) or control group, in which preservice teachers were directed to make use of a rubric (designed by the instructor and third author of this article) to self-evaluate and make changes to their graphic organizer (i.e., self-review).<\/p>\n\n\n\n The study was conducted in an undergraduate special education course at a research-intensive university in the northeastern United States. The course provided content in secondary education methods for students with disabilities and was required for all preservice teachers who were seeking secondary certification. The third author of this article, an assistant professor in special education with experience teaching secondary students with special needs and 4 years of experience teaching the course, was the course instructor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The course utilized a hybrid approach with online and face-to-face instruction. Each week, prior to class, preservice teachers engaged in online instruction, including lectures and questions related to the lecture. Then, once a week, preservice teachers met face-to-face with the instructor and received and participated in an in-class activity related to the course content for that week. After the face-to-face class, preservice teachers completed and submitted a learning activity demonstrating that week\u2019s learning using an online course management system where they then received feedback from the course instructor using a rubric that was shared with students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Prior to the start of the study, we received approval through an institutional review board. All preservice teachers within the secondary special education methods course sections were invited to participate through an announcement in their face-to-face class. During recruitment, participation requirements were detailed, informed consent was provided, and the risks and benefits of participation were detailed. Preservice teachers who did not provide consent were still provided with the same materials and activities in the course and were informed that nonparticipation would not affect their grade in the course. However, their data were not included in this study. Preservice teacher participants were randomly assigned to treatment (n <\/em>= 40) and control (n <\/em>= 36) groups. See Table 1 for information regarding participant education concentration and group assignment.<\/p>\n\n\n\nRationale for Current Study<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Graphic Organizers<\/em><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/citejournal.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/v21i2general1Fig1-1024x449.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nTheoretical Framework<\/em><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/citejournal.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/v21i2general1Fig2-1024x464.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nResearch Questions<\/em><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Methods <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Setting<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Participants<\/h3>\n\n\n\n