DOI: https://doi.org/10.37811/cl_rcm.v8i1.10474
Peer Asse ssment In Reading Comprehension Facilitated By Padlet
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María José Cárdenas Reyes[1] https://orcid.org/0009-0003-1074-867X Universidad Estatal de Milagro Ecuador
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Carla Isabel Lozano Alvardo https://orcid.org/0009-0003-1963-1339 Universidad Estatal de Milagro Ecuador
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ABSTRACT
The scientific article focuses on the topic of "Peer assessment" in reading comprehension, with a particular focus on its facilitation through the Padlet digital platform. Peer assessment is an important strategy to improve reading comprehension and promote collaborative learning among students. The study involved university students at the A2 Level according to CEFR, with a convenience sample of 26 participants. The research aimed to find conclusive results for the research and took place over 10 hours of the English class. The research proposal aimed to improve students' reading comprehension skills, particularly in the context of increasing demand for English Learning proficiency B2 in Ecuador. The use of strategies and technological sources, such as Padlet, was considered important for developing better comprehension skills. The methodology of the study included a pre-test and post-test, as well as qualitative interviews and practical application through the peer assessment tool. The research questions focused on the extent to which peer assessment improves reading comprehension skills and students' perspectives toward the use of peer assessment facilitated by Padlet. The study implemented peer assessment strategies, skimming, and scanning techniques, as well as the use of Padlet for idea collection, assessment, and feedback. Students engaged in collaborative group work, critical thinking, and evaluation of participation using a rubric.
Keywords: reading skills, peer assessment, technology, padlet
Evaluación entre Pares en Comprensión de Lectura Facilitada por Padlet
RESUMEN
Palabras clave: destrezas lectoras, evaluación entre pares, tecnologia, padlet
Artículo recibido 05 enero 2024
Aceptado para publicación: 02 febrero 2024
INTRODUCTION
This scientific article focuses on the topic of "Peer assessment" in reading comprehension, with a particular focus on its facilitation through the Padlet digital platform. One important strategy to improve reading comprehension is peer assessment. Furthermore, peer assessment can promote collaborative learning because it is the active participation of students together to develop any activity, bearing in mind the goal that must be reached. Students who share their knowledge among themselves can profit and take responsibility for their knowledge and become independent readers. ( Totten, Sills, Digby, & Russ, 1991 ).
Many interesting new technological tools allow teachers to develop communicative learning teaching activities in the classroom. So, the teacher displays a dynamic process as Champione, Brown (1987) and Newman (1989) considered that “It is important to view transfer as a dynamic process that requires learners to actively choose and evaluate strategies, consider resources and receive feedback”. As a result, In this proposal, we will integrate an active and dynamic process of assessment that is proportionated by peer, in which students can participate and receive feedback from their partners that can consolidate their confidence and develop their reading comprehension.
Furthermore, our educational system has developed a friendly and open politic to acquire the English language as Ecuador designed a curriculum that includes the learning of English from primary level, 2nd grade to the last year of formal education in High school (Ministerio de Educación, 2016). Understanding the importance of the English language as a universal motor has become a key point in developing educational programs in our country and around the world. Pan L. (2011) communicated “it is critically important because it is the most widely used language”. The research done in the field of Peer assessment has some important implications. Interestingly, only half of the detailed formative assessment statements demonstrated a correspondence between the evaluations provided by staff and peers. Despite this, minimal evidence of conflict emerged between the perspectives of staff and peers; instead, their focus seemed to be on distinct aspects of the writing. The partial overlap in detail between staff and peer assessments raises questions about the completeness of the evaluation process, suggesting that further investigation is needed to fully understand the dynamics and potential improvements in this reciprocal paired qualitative formative peer assessment approach. (Keith, 2000)
Additionally, in the study of Peer assessment in an oriented class context it was found that Peer assessment fostered collaboration among students, resulting in language acquisition and heightened engagement in classroom conversations. The research findings also highlighted statistically significant impacts of structured cooperative learning on vocabulary retention and recall among EFL learners, as evidenced by a one-way repeated measures ANOVA. In summary, the outcomes indicate that scaffolded peer assessment stands out as an effective strategy for enhancing speaking abilities and expanding vocabulary proficiency in language learners. This approach facilitates interaction and cooperation among students, contributing positively to their language learning experience. (Mina, 2022).
According to the British Council, a research done in Ecuador (2015), stated that Ecuador has an increasing demand of English teachers with B2 level of proficiency, which indicates that students skills and level should be improved in the coming years and also students should adapt to new challenges as use technological in class. This proposal wanted to focus mainly on this important receptive skill since we talk about receptive skills, reading and how teachers help their students to develop a better comprehension in which students can use strategies and technological sources has become a major concern to our society. The research question for this proposal is: To what extent does peer assessment improve reading comprehension skills? To analyze and investigate the impact of peer assessment it has been created the following objectives to guide this research:
1. Measure the extent to which peer assessment, facilitated by Padlet, influences the improvement of reading comprehension skills among students. Utilize quantitative data from diagnostic and post-tests to analyze changes in average grades, identifying the specific areas of improvement in comprehension.
2. Explore Student Perspectives on Peer Assessment, the importance of understanding student perspectives, and to this end, we will conduct interviews and surveys. By exploring their perceptions of the peer assessment methodology, we aim to gain insights into the effectiveness of feedback, collaborative learning, and the overall impact on their comprehension skills.
3. Identify Factors Contributing to Success in Peer Assessment: Understanding the underlying factors contributing to the success of peer assessment is crucial for refining educational practices.
Theoretical Framework
This research involves peer assessment, reading comprehension facilitated by using Padlet platform. The independent variables are peer assessment and the dependent variable is reading comprehension. Theories, definitions and concepts are explained in this section.
Reading comprehension
Reading has been recognized as an essential skill due to students can enjoy the literature and overall learn new information and learn to evaluate and grab the most meaningful message that a text could have (Noor, 2011). Anderson (2003) stated that individual learners with good reading skills are able to make greater progress in other areas of language learning, while those without good reading ability may encounter many challenges in a language classroom.
Peer Assessment
It is a pedagogical tool that can be implemented in reading skill to diver and enhance the reading comprehension. It consist in provide partner their opinion according to the instruction a rubric given. According to Wiggins (2012) that “if the student receives an appropriate feedback and then has the opportunity to use that feedback; this process will improve the student’s performance and learning”
Communication Language Teaching
Savignon (2017) mentioned that CLT is an approach that is strongly connect with the social behavior of students, so they need to communicate by any mean in order to fulfill their inner core.
Padlet
Padlet is a virtual board that according to Manowong S. (2019) “the Padlet wall seems to play a supportive role in this teaching context by encouraging students to participate more. It was used as an online space for whole-class engagement and students’ infographics exhibitions. It was found that this online space inspired the students to complete their assignments and therefore increased engagement” This incredible tool allows students to share instant comments about planned activities in which students can add information and share ideas between them.
Innovation
The innovation application for this study will last 10 teaching hours over two weeks. In this proposal, it was introduced the strategy of peer assessment and how to apply in the first class. Then, was done the practice by using the first model. Students watched a video about the strategy then, the teacher provided a reading so they could answer the questions of reading comprehension and then used the strategy of peer assessment by writing in Padlet about their findings of the reading and using a rubric created in Google form to assess their partner's participation in the Padlet. At the assessment of the student stage, they shared their comment with their partner. The teacher guided students because it is a student-centered strategy.
The readings were read with the teacher´s guide and then on their own to highlight unfamiliar words, according to level A2. Besides, the questions of reading comprehension helped them to ask and answer their partners. In this stage, students applied skimming and scanning strategies to answer the questions and summarize.
On day 2, they started practicing on their own asking each other during the Zoom session in breakout rooms and writing in Padlet their answer. The researcher guided students when it was necessary.
Students also answered some questions of reflection every class about the peer assessment process: “Am I reading this correctly”, 2. comment on value: What I think works well is… 3. Comment on concern: “What I worry about is..” 4. Suggestions for revision; “Maybe this part would work better If.... to complete and answer some questions from the reading.
Padlet was implemented as a tool for the collection of ideas, assessment, and feedback. So, they shared their comment with their partner. The teacher showed students and provided the correct answer at the end. So that students can realize the correct answers. They apply the strategies of peer assessment, skimming, and scanning. They used this analysis to integrate into their development of critical thinking. They got an agreement as a collaborative group and reread if it was necessary to understand and reach an agreement, at the end of the activity they filled out a Google form with the rubric for evaluation of participation (See appendix 1). They shared with their partners some comments to improve their performance.
METHODOLOGY
In developing the methodology for this article, it was employed a multifaceted approach to comprehensively explore the perspectives of students regarding the applied innovations in education. The type of research is exploratory and descriptive because the research aims to understand the effectiveness of the intervention and provide a detailed description of the experiences and results observed in the process. This study research design has quantitative and qualitative data gathered through in-depth interviews with students. These interviews serve as a vital conduit for understanding the nuanced viewpoints, experiences, and opinions of the participants. Additionally, it integrated a hands-on component by implementing an educational tool-specifically, a peer assessment application. This tool not only facilitates the practical application of innovative educational methodologies but also allows us to gauge the real-time impact of these approaches on student learning and engagement. The peer assessment application serves as a dynamic element in our research, providing valuable insights into the effectiveness of innovative educational tools from the perspective of those directly experiencing them. It was applied a diagnostic test at the beginning of this study and a post-test at the end of the research. It was applied a quantitative method and compared the results from the beginning and the end of the application. By combining qualitative interviews with practical application through the peer assessment tool, and quantitative data from the pre-test and post-test the methodology aims to offer a holistic understanding of how students perceive and interact with educational innovations in the contemporary learning landscape.
Research questions
1. To what extent does peer assessment improve reading comprehension skills?
2. What will students’ perspectives be towards the use of peer assessment to improve reading comprehension facilitated by Padlet?
Participants
The convenience sample was 26 university students that belong to the A2 Level according to CEFR. According to Etikan, Musa, and Alkassim (2016), a suitable sample in which students can cooperate because of easy accessibility or availability. In the case of this research, the participants were the ones assigned to the teacher doing the action research at the beginning of the module II. The ages of the participants ranged between 19 and 47 years old, 11 males and 15 females (See Appendix 2). The study took place over 10 hours of the English class. This proposal aimed to find conclusive results for the research questions stated as the purpose of the study. Therefore, the expectation was to obtain higher results in the application.
Instruments
To report the first research question: To what extent does peer assessment improve reading comprehension skills? Pre and post-test (Appendix 3 and 4 respectively) will be applied to assess learners’ reading skills at the beginning and at the end of the intervention period to measure improvement. The tests are graded according to the CEFL framework. In this evaluation, the following parameters were taken into account: Section 2 of reading with 5 questions of multiple choice, section 3 Grammar: a long passage with 5 questions of multiple choice, section 6 a review with 4 questions in which students need to write with a word or phrase and finally, section 7 read an article and answer the questions.
The rubric presented to the students to be used with their partners (Appendix 2) has four categories Understanding key concepts, Critical thinking and analysis, communication and expression, participation and engagement. Each category has three levels from excellent, good and satisfactory. In addition, it will be used after each reading activity during the innovation.
To respond to the second research question: What will students’ perspectives be towards the use of technology and peer assessment in reading comprehension? An interview will be held to identify students´ perspectives. It will be semi-structure. (Appendix 4):
These interviews with students will let us understand their attitudes toward reading. This will be applied after students end with the hour of innovation planned.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The pre-test applied as a diagnostic test (See appendix 3) showed these results, there were 26 students who obtained an average of 13,78 over 20 in the diagnostic test, which means that the knowledge of A2 requires more practice and it will be easy to notice if they have improved after the application of the peer assessment technique
Tabla 1
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Diagnostic test Result |
Average |
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26 students |
13.78/20 |
After applying the innovation of Peer assessment facilitated by Padlet it was obtained the following results in the post-test evaluation applied in the Google form (See appendix 4), average grade 16.76 over 20 in the post-test. Which let us know that they have improved their communication skills.
Tabla 2
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Post-test Result |
Average |
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26 students |
16.76/20 |
The analysis of the interview about the perception of students. In the question, Do you like reading? Most participants stated that they like reading. So, they consider it as an important form to enrich their English language knowledge.
Tabla 3
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Do you like reading? |
Yes |
No |
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25 |
1 |
In the question, do you like working with your partner? 50% of the participants strongly agree to enjoy participating with a partner. 26% of the participants agreed to enjoy participating with their partners and 19% of students considered neutral. In addition, 61.5% of the participants felt relaxed when they were assessed and 15.4% of students felt Insecure when they were assessed. Therefore, most of the participants felt relaxed while applying the activity of Peer-assessment. Additionally, In the question, do you like to use Padlet to share your ideas with your peers? According to the participants, 50 % strongly agree to use Padlet to share their ideas with a partner. Therefore, they stated that they like to work with their partners to collaborate in reading activities.
Tabla 4
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Do you like working with your partner? |
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Strongly Agree |
Agree |
Neutral |
Disagree |
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13 |
7 |
6 |
- |
In the question, “After receiving feedback from your partners, would you agree with your partners’ comments?” Participants said that 23.1 % strongly agreed with the comments of their partners in receiving feedback, 57.7% of the participants agreed with the comments of their partners in receiving feedback, and 19.2% of students considered neutral. Hence, they stated that they would agree with their partner's comments.
Tabla 5
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After receiving feedback from your partners, would you agree with your partners’ comments? |
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Strongly Agree |
Agree |
Neutral |
Disagree |
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6 |
15 |
5 |
- |
In the question, “Do you consider that peer assessment will improve your reading comprehension facilitated in Padlet?”. The 38.5% of the participants stated that they strongly agreed that Peer assessment will improve their reading skills, 42.3% of the participants agreed that Peer Assessment will improve their reading skills, and 15.4% of students considered neutral. Therefore, most of the students consider that Peer assessment will improve their reading skills. Moreover, in the question, “After receiving feedback from your partners, would you agree with your partners’ comments?”. None of the participants disagreed on the comments of their partners after receiving feedback.
Tabla 6
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Do you consider that peer assessment will improve your reading comprehension facilitated in Padlet? |
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Strongly Agree |
Agree |
Neutral |
Disagree |
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10 |
11 |
4 |
- |
DISCUSSION
The results of our study demonstrate a notable enhancement in reading comprehension skills following the implementation of peer assessment facilitated by Padlet. The increase in average grades from the diagnostic test to the post-test suggests that this approach holds promise for improving student learning outcomes in reading comprehension. This section will further discuss the key findings and their implications.
This study could be a source for future research in the field of peer assessment as a factor to contribute to the improvement of students' performance in learning and acquiring a second language. The use of Padlet as a facilitator for peer assessment adds a technological dimension to the process. The platform's user-friendly interface allows for seamless collaboration and provides an organized space for feedback. The visual and interactive nature of Padlet might have contributed to a more engaging and dynamic learning experience, further enhancing the effectiveness of the peer assessment methodology
ILUSTRACIONES, TABLAS, FIGURAS.
Tabla 7
Table 8
Rubric created by Maria Jose Cardenas taken from google form: https://forms.gle/S3wZ8rgHMhCXoFwa7
Grafic 1
Student’s age information taken form the google form about student’s perspectives: https://forms.gle/aSYCkZVdubKVFqFCA
Graphic 2
Diagnostic Test results created by Maria Jose Cardenas Link of google form: https://forms.gle/uvLYkskLrDdH5orb7
Table 9
Post- test data google form created by Maria Jose Cardenas.
CONCLUSIONS
In conclusion, the implementation of peer assessment in reading comprehension facilitated by Padlet, coupled with the diagnostic and post-tests, has yielded significant improvements in student performance. The analysis of the data collected indicates a noteworthy increase in the average grades of the students when comparing the diagnostic test results with the post-test outcomes. This quantitative evidence not only supports our first objective but also emphasizes the potential of peer assessment as an effective pedagogical tool for enhancing reading comprehension. This positive shift underscores the effectiveness of the peer assessment methodology in enhancing reading comprehension skills.
The perspectives of the students regarding the peer assessment process were overwhelmingly positive. Through interviews with 26 students, it became evident that they found the approach not only valuable but also conducive to a deeper understanding of the subject matter. The constructive feedback received from their peers fostered a collaborative learning environment that contributed to the overall improvement in reading comprehension. gaining insight into the qualitative aspects of the student experience has provided a richer understanding of the effectiveness of peer assessment. This aligns with our second objective, emphasizing the importance of not only measuring outcomes but also understanding the students' perceptions and experiences, which ultimately contribute to the success of the intervention.
Padlet's role as a facilitator, the dynamics of collaborative learning, and the integration of technology have emerged as key contributors to the positive outcomes observed in reading comprehension. Students' engagement with the platform, coupled with the diversity of perspectives, has fostered a conducive learning environment. This conclusion supports our third objective and provides valuable insights for educators looking to replicate or adapt similar methodologies. Understanding these contributing factors is instrumental in refining and optimizing the implementation of peer assessment to enhance its effectiveness in improving reading comprehension skills.
The combination of quantitative data and qualitative insights from student interviews paints a robust picture of the success of the peer assessment facilitated by Padlet. The positive outcomes suggest that this methodology has the potential to be a valuable tool in enhancing learning experiences and academic performance. As we move forward, it is essential to consider these findings and further explore the integration of peer assessment methodologies to foster continuous improvement in reading comprehension and overall student learning outcomes.
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