First-year engineering students' peer feedback on open-ended mathematical modeling problems

Abstract

Peer feedback is a key component of STEM education, but there is not an accepted pedagogy for teaching students effective critical feedback skills. The quality and nature of current peer reviews must be understood to establish what students need to learn to give effective feedback. This research begins to identify the nature and quality of peer feedback on mathematical models through a mixed-methods approach. The quantitative analysis shows that students typically score models higher than an expert, and the qualitative analysis shows that most students do not address the mathematics used in solutions but rather focus on the presentation of solutions. This research indicates that students need better guidance on how to engage in a more critical feedback process on solutions to open-ended problems. This research also raises some new research questions.