The current classroom environment is filled with expectations for both teacher and student but is often lacking in time. Skolverket (2011) outlines ambitious goals such as developing students’ critical thinking abilities, adapting teaching to each student’s individual needs, and encouraging students to actively take part in the development of their own educational process, to name just a few. It is crucial to develop and use techniques that aid in attaining these objectives. Peer response could be such a tool. There is an abundance of research which demonstrates how effective it is, but there is also a great reluctance on the part of teachers and students alike to employ it in the classroom. This could be due in part to the idea that learners lack the necessary knowledge to correct and give feedback. However, this and other criticisms directed against peer feedback could be alleviated through deliberate formal peerresponse training. Most of today’s research on this topic seems to focus on English as a Second or Foreign Language (ESL/EFL) classrooms in the U.S.A and Asia, with little work having been done in the Swedish context. Also lacking are investigations regarding peer response in grammar testing, since most of the research emphasizes essay writing. This paper aims to add to the body of existing research on prompted peer response by examining its application in English classrooms in Sweden. To do so, two secondary school English classes in Sweden are tested by means of an abbreviated version of Gan’s (2011) prompted peer response model. More specifically, this paper’s objective is to explore if prompted peer response leads to improvements in grammar (operationalized in this case as reducing grammatical errors in a grammar test) when compared to unprompted peer response. In addition, this paper intends to explore whether peer response can possibly produce any additional rewards and what those could be. The results for this study seem promising. The primary results of this paper support the existing research in this area that prompted peer response leads to a reduction in student’s grammatical errors. Perhaps more importantly, the results suggest that it also aids students in developing a progressive approach to peer response which ultimately can lead to students developing learning strategies and self-reflection over their own learning process.

<p>The method of peer response has become an important part in process oriented writing classes and is often used at universities, but not in upper secondary school. The aim of this paper is to investigate how students in upper secondary school react when introduced to peer response, and whether or not they find it a beneficial way of working when trying to improve their writing. The aim is also to find out if the students’ texts improve as a result of a peer response session.</p><p>The results of my investigation show that the majority of the students who participated had positive reactions when introduced to peer response. All students agreed that the method was beneficial to improving their texts. Furthermore, according to the teacher, who read both the first and final versions of the texts, many of the students improved their texts enough after peer response to raise their grades. This confirms that peer response is, in fact, a good method to use when trying to improve students’ writing. However, even though the majority of the participants were positive to the idea of using peer response again, there were some students who prefer that only the teacher reads their assignments. This could be due to a lack of confidence concerning their own abilities or the fact that some texts are perceived as too personal and private. There will often be students who do not like to share their writing but the method could be modified and adapted to the situation of each class. Peer response can be combined with teacher response, or the groups can be reduced to pairs of two persons.</p>

In this study, we investigate pupils’ perceptions in Swedish 3 of the allocation of time of the Canons of Rhetoric when working with oral presentations. We also investigate which relations that exist between pupils’ perceptions of the allocation of time of the Canons of Rhetoric and perceptions of knowledge of the Canons of Rhetoric as well as perceptions of their oral presentation. The study was conducted via a questionnaire and carried out among 245 pupils. Raw data has been analysed to determine the descriptive statistics of the allocation of time of the Canons of Rhetoric and tests for statistical significance have been performed to determine the effects that the allocation of time has on pupils’ perceptions of their oral presentation. We have analysed our results by the use of the cognitive and the socio-cultural perspective. Results show that pupils feel that no phase is given sufficient time and that they believe the three first phases to be higher prioritised than the remaning phases. The amount of class hours is of importance to the perceived knowledge of the Canons of Rhetoric, how easy pupils find it creating a presentation, their sense of preparation and the perceived development as a speaker. Regarding response, emendatio, the time for teacher response does not show any significant correlation to pupils’ perceptions of their oral presentation. If peer response is given before presentations, it has a positive effect on pupils’ satisfaction with the presentation, but has otherwise no influence. In addition, teachers’ scaffolding seems to have a larger effect on pupils’ perceptions of their oral presentation than teacher and peer response. Finally, self-assessment occurs to a low extent and is shown to affect the knowledge of the Canons of Rhetoric and how easy it is creating a presentation in a positive manner.

”Man utvecklar sitt arbete när man har ett bollplank” är en kvalitativ studie där studiens syfte är att undersöka vilka erfarenheter elva gymnasieelever har av kamratrespons och hur de ser på att agera responsgivare och responstagare i ämnet svenska, samt vilka förväntningar eleverna har av hur kamratrespons ska se ut.Semistrukturerade gruppintervjuer utgör grunden till studien, och tidigare forskning presenteras och diskuteras tillsammans med intervjuresultaten. Studiens resultat visar att eleverna har positiva erfarenheter av kamratrespons men att det skiljer sig beroende på om de ska agera responsgivare eller responstagare. Deras erfarenheter innehåller en stor del känslor och de upplever det som jobbigt och svårt att agera responsgivare, eftersom de är rädda att responsen kan uppfattas som kritik. Samtidigt visar studiens resultat att de tycker kamratrespons är en metod som utvecklar deras lärande, och det finns en förväntan hos eleverna att få respons som innehåller reflektionsfrågor och utvecklade svar på vad de kan förbättra.

The chief aim of this study is to investigate the impact of context on written peer response. A second aim is to explore students’ attitudes towards peer response. The investigation has taken place at an upper secondary school in the south-east of Sweden, involving 20 students in grade 2 and 3 in the course Swedish C. The investigation is based on the students’ comments on their peers’ speech drafts and six qualitative interviews. The material embraces 211 comments, all of which are analysed by use of methods from SFL. The theoretical frame is founded on Grice’s (1975) principle of communication and Brown &amp; Levinson’s (1987) principle of politeness. The investigation shows, among other things, that in the choice between giving effective response (according to the principle of communication), or giving response that maintain the social balance (according to the principle of politeness), the students in general choose the latter. This is reflected in the results of the linguistic analysis and confirmed in the six interviews.

The method of peer response has become an important part in process oriented writing classes and is often used at universities, but not in upper secondary school. The aim of this paper is to investigate how students in upper secondary school react when introduced to peer response, and whether or not they find it a beneficial way of working when trying to improve their writing. The aim is also to find out if the students’ texts improve as a result of a peer response session. The results of my investigation show that the majority of the students who participated had positive reactions when introduced to peer response. All students agreed that the method was beneficial to improving their texts. Furthermore, according to the teacher, who read both the first and final versions of the texts, many of the students improved their texts enough after peer response to raise their grades. This confirms that peer response is, in fact, a good method to use when trying to improve students’ writing. However, even though the majority of the participants were positive to the idea of using peer response again, there were some students who prefer that only the teacher reads their assignments. This could be due to a lack of confidence concerning their own abilities or the fact that some texts are perceived as too personal and private. There will often be students who do not like to share their writing but the method could be modified and adapted to the situation of each class. Peer response can be combined with teacher response, or the groups can be reduced to pairs of two persons.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / This study explored how to best incorporate peer response activities into the high school classroom. Three honors 10th grade classes completed peer response activities at different places in the research paper writing process, modeling Elbow and Belanoff's "bones, muscles, and skin" analogy. Surveys and final draft grades were used to evaulate where and how peer response can have the most benefit.

The purpose of this study has been to explore how a class of year 8 students from a school in the middle region of Sweden experience peer assessment on written assignments in the Swedish subject as well as their feelings towards peer assessment and their opinion of how well it works as a tool for learning. To answer this question an observation of a peer assessment session concerning a debate article was conducted. This was followed up by a focus group interview with five students during which peer assessment was thoroughly discussed. The purpose of the observation was for the researcher to gain insight into how the class worked with peer assessment. It also served as a foundation for the interview. The study shows that the students see many benefits with peer assessment, mainly, they appreciate giving response. Receiving responce was often viewed as a difficulty, both as the receiver and giver as the students wanted to avoid hurting others. They also felt that they were unable to be completely honest to their peers and that were sometimes hard to rely on the feedback they got. The students asked for more exercises in peer assessment, mainly in the earlier years, in order to gain the positive effects described by the literature.

<p>Peer response is a method which is widely used on higher levels of second-language learning in Sweden, such as universities. The approach is not used as much in upper secondary school; and, the aim of this paper is to investigate upper secondary students' opinions of the value of peer response. The aim is also to investigate if the teacher's grading differed between the first version of a text and the final vesrion that had been revised after peer response.</p><p>Research has shown that there seems to be more negotiation of meaning when students are working collaboratively and this can lead to better revisions of written texts, especially in terms of content development. On the other hand, collaborative writing can also create anxiety in some students who therefore dislike peer response. This investigation has shown that students taking part in the investigation are generally positive towards the approach. They also believe that giving and receiving feedback can help them improve their writing. There are, however, a few students who dislike it and want the texts to be read only by the teacher. The investigation has also shown that students mainly focus on formal aspects such as spelling and grammar when giving feedback to each other, whereas content was rarely commented on. Moreover, the results have shown that many of the students' grades improved on the final version compared to the first version. In conclusion, this investigation indicates that peer response could be used as an alternative, or complement, to ordinary teacher-student feedback in upper secondary school.</p>

Abstract In this study, we investigate pupils’ perceptions in Swedish 3 of the allocation of time of the Canons of Rhetoric when working with oral presentations. We also investigate which relations that exist between pupils’ perceptions of the allocation of time of the Canons of Rhetoric and perceptions of knowledge of the Canons of Rhetoric as well as perceptions of their oral presentation. The study was conducted via a questionnaire and carried out among 245 pupils. Raw data has been analysed to determine the descriptive statistics of the allocation of time of the Canons of Rhetoric and tests for statistical significance have been performed to determine the effects that the allocation of time has on pupils’ perceptions of their oral presentation. We have analysed our results by the use of the cognitive and the socio-cultural perspective. Results show that pupils feel that no phase is given sufficient time and that they believe the three first phases to be higher prioritised than the remaning phases. The amount of class hours is of importance to the perceived knowledge of the Canons of Rhetoric, how easy pupils find it creating a presentation, their sense of preparation and the perceived development as a speaker. Regarding response, emendatio, the time for teacher response does not show any significant correlation to pupils’ perceptions of their oral presentation. If peer response is given before presentations, it has a positive effect on pupils’ satisfaction with the presentation, but has otherwise no influence. In addition, teachers’ scaffolding seems to have a larger effect on pupils’ perceptions of their oral presentation than teacher and peer response. Finally, self-assessment occurs to a low extent and is shown to affect the knowledge of the Canons of Rhetoric and how easy it is creating a presentation in a positive manner.