The learner as co-creator: A new peer review and self-assessment feedback form created by student nurses

Background

Engagement with peer review and self-assessment is not always regarded by student nurses as an activity that results in a positive learning experience. Literature indicates that withdrawal from the learning process becomes attractive to individuals affected by a negative experience of peer review. Literature also provides examples of student nurses' feeling ‘torn to shreds’ during the process of peer review, resulting in loss of confidence and self-esteem. An influencing factor in such situations appears to be the absence of specific learner-driven criteria against which student nurses can assess peer and self-performance. The idea was thus ignited, that creation and utilisation of a learner-driven feedback form might potentially prevent, or at least minimise, the possibility of negative peer review experience.
Context

Set within the context of a pre-registration nursing programme, within a Higher Education institution, student nurses (n = 25), created a peer review/self-assessment feedback form. Its potential cross-discipline, global applicability is reasonably speculated.
Methods

Purposive sampling, followed by Stratified Random sampling, maximised participant variation. Data collection took place on 34 occasions, utilising focus group discussions using Nominal Group Technique, a practical task which was video recorded for mediating artefact purposes, and individual interviews. Analysis was concept and theme driven.

Findings

The study found that participants desired a new feedback form that specifically asks the evaluator to judge human qualities, such as ‘compassion’ and ‘kindness’, in addition to the skills and knowledge criteria that any peer review or self-assessment form used currently had incorporated.

Conclusion

Providing the participants with the opportunity to develop criteria, against which performance could be measured, with emphasis being afforded to student inclusivity and resultant shift in power balance from the educator to the learner, embraces the idea of teaching and learning in the 21st Century.