Teaching.IU

Context

Question: How do you encourage students in the construction of knowledge through interactions?

Answer: One online tool that I use to encourage students’ construction of knowledge through social interactions is the Canvas Peer Review Tool.

In my Diverse Perspectives on Families graduate course, students listen to a variety of families talking about their experiences with schooling. We focus especially on hearing from families who are historically marginalized by the process of schooling and identifying schooling practices that honor and support them as well as those that do not honor or support them.

Step-by-Step Implementation

1. Discuss the assignment expectations. In Canvas, students first watch videos of pre-recorded interviews with a few families. They then engage in some online assignments where they discuss what they heard and what they learned from listening to each family's story. As a class, we identify a list of questions that we might like to ask families to help us understand how they experience schooling. Each student then personally interviews at least one family who they think likely feels marginalized by the process of schooling and creates a product that tells that family’s story and connects to learning objectives in the course. This product or assignment is called “Hearing from Families.” 

2. Assign peers’ assignments for students to review, and provide guiding questions students will use when completing the peer reviews. After all the students have completed this assignment, I use the Canvas Peer Review tool to randomly assign each student three peers’ products to review and comment on. The reviewer must discuss the following guiding questions with each author and copy me (instructor): 
   1. What are three salient quotes that I heard and how do I feel and/or what do I think about those quotes?
   2. How does this story inspire me or inspire some future action for me?
   3. How does this story give me pause to consider a perspective about schooling that I had not previously considered?  This allows students to ‘hear from’ three additional families, interact socially with three peers’ ideas and products, and submit a reflection to me that connects with course learning objectives. 

3. Make sure to include resources to help students as they complete the reviews. At the end of the assignment description, I include a “Need Help with Peer Review?” section that hyperlinks students to the Assignments section and these specific questions on Canvas Student Guides online:
   1. How do I know if I have a peer review assignment to complete?
   2. How do I submit a peer review to an assignment?
   3. Where can I find my peers’ feedback for peer-reviewed assignments? 

Inclusivity

The use of the peer review tool allows students to ‘hear from’ three additional families and their diverse perspectives on schooling. They also are able to interact socially with three peers’ ideas and products, and submit a reflection to me that connects with course learning objectives.