Feedback and Review
Strengthen your students’ learning and support their development as self‑regulated learners – by integrating formative feedback and peer review into your teaching with FeedbackFruits.
Why formative feedback and peer review are important tools
At DTU, we work with a student‑centred view of learning. This means designing teaching activities that actively engage students and encourage them to take responsibility for their own learning. In practice, this involves creating learning activities that prompt students to interact meaningfully with course content and with one another, while also supporting the development of self‑regulated learning skills
Self-regulated learning is an active constructive process whereby learners set goals for their learning and monitor, regulate, and control their cognition, motivation, and behaviour, guided and constrained by their goals and the contextual features of the environment.
Feedback plays a central role in both teaching and learning. A common distinction is made between summative and formative feedback. Formative feedback is specifically aimed at improving and accelerating learning. It serves an instructional purpose by providing students with targeted information about their work or learning process, helping them reduce the gap between their current level and the desired outcome. As such, formative feedback is particularly effective in supporting both academic development and self‑regulated learning.
In practice, formative feedback is often provided on work‑in‑progress and focuses on students’ future development. It includes concrete suggestions for improvement and actionable guidance. Formative feedback can be delivered orally or in writing, individually or collectively, but it is essential that it allows space for dialogue, reflection, and questions.
What characterises effective feedback?
The ability to give and receive feedback is a key competence for both teachers and students. It is therefore important that teachers are familiar with principles of effective feedback and are able to communicate these clearly to students.
Here are seven principles for good feedback practice that support the development of a self‑regulated learner, developed by Nicol and Macfarlane‑Dick (2006):
- Clarify what good performance is
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Facilitate self-assessment
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Deliver high quality feedback information
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Encourage teacher and peer dialogue
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Encourage positive motivation and self-esteem
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Provide opportunities to close the gap
- Use feedback to improve teaching
Traditionally, feedback has primarily been provided by the teacher. However, formative feedback can also be self‑generated or exchanged between students through activities commonly referred to as peer review.
Peer review is a learning activity in which students provide feedback on each other’s work based on criteria defined by the teacher. The activity can be organized in various ways—individually, in pairs, or in groups—and may be integrated into teaching sessions or conducted outside scheduled class time.
Why use peer review?
Peer review offers several benefits in teaching and learning. It can strengthen students’ understanding as well as their presentation and communication skills, while also supporting the development of self‑regulated learning strategies. Because the process is reciprocal, students learn not only from receiving feedback but also—often to an even greater extent—from giving feedback and reflecting on the feedback process as a whole.
Peer review can help students to:
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identify their own strengths and areas for development
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gain insight into alternative approaches to problem solving
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receive concrete and actionable suggestions for improvement
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develop their ability to interpret and apply feedback to their own learning goals
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deepen their understanding of course content and assessment criteria
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practise providing high‑quality, formative feedback
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develop communicative, critical, and creative competencies
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strengthen their sense of belonging through dialogue and shared reflection on learning
The way peer review is designed and facilitated is crucial to its success. When planning a peer‑review activity, consider the following elements:
Students need clarity about:
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what constitutes a high‑quality performance
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how their current work relates to this standard
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what specific actions can help close the gap
This can be achieved by using assessment criteria, identifying focus areas, and applying rubrics. Students should be encouraged to elaborate on their feedback rather than relying solely on quantitative ratings. You may also consider whether anonymous feedback is appropriate.
FeedbackFruits
Facilitating peer review can be challenging. Digital tools such as FeedbackFruits can help structure and support the process, making it more manageable for both teachers and students.
FeedbackFruits is a peer‑review tool available to all DTU staff and integrated directly into DTU Learn. The tool enables students to submit assignments individually or in groups and provide feedback on each other’s work, while allowing teachers to maintain oversight and control of the entire process.
Teachers can decide how feedback is allocated or allow the system to assign reviewers automatically. FeedbackFruits supports deadlines, time management, and progress monitoring. It also enables peer‑feedback activities to take place outside scheduled teaching hours.
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activates all students through structured feedback processes
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provides templates for a variety of peer‑review activities
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integrates seamlessly with DTU Learn
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offers insight into individual students’ engagement in the feedback process
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includes checklists and rubrics that clarify assessment expectations
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supports multiple media formats, including text, video, and audio
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automates reviewer allocation and guides students through each step of the process
Several teachers at DTU successfully use FeedbackFruits in their teaching. One example is Torben Hede, Associate Professor at the Department of Engineering Technology and Didactics.
In his course, Torben worked with group‑based oral presentations, where students received feedback on their ideas, business models, and presentation performance. Prior to using FeedbackFruits, he found that the quality of peer feedback was often low and that students rarely acted on the feedback they received.
Torben introduced FeedbackFruits to formalise the feedback process, improve feedback quality, and support students in using feedback more effectively. By working systematically with different feedback formats, he achieved a very positive results: 82% of students reported that the tool improved their experience of both giving and receiving feedback.
Here is what the students said about the tool:
“You get to reflect on your own solution when you give feedback to others”
“Nice for people that are not so comfortable speaking up”
“Having the feedback in writing means we can look at the feedback after the pitch “
“Nice to have specific areas to give feedback from”
FeedbackFruits can be used in a wide range of teaching activities, including written and oral feedback, discussion, and collective reflection. The tool can also support other forms of active learning.
You can find examples and activity templates in FeedbackFruits’ Learning Design Community.
Referencer:
Pintrich, P. R. & Zusho, A. (2002) Student motivation and self-regulated learning in the college classroom, in: J. C. Smart & W.G. Tierney (Eds) Higher Education: handbook of theory and research (vol. XVII) (New York, Agathon Press).
Nicol, D. J., & Macfarlane-Dick, D. (2006). Formative assessment and self-regulated learning: a model and seven principles of good feedback practice. Studies in Higher Education, 31(2), 199-218.
Tinto, V. (2017). Through the Eyes of Students. Journal of college Student Retention: Research, Theory & Practice, 19(3), 254-269.
Hattie, J., & Timperley, H. (2007). The power of feedback. Review of Educational Research, 77(1), 81–112.