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Peer Review: Modeling Civil Engineering Practice, Another Way To Improve Learning

Scott R. Hamilton Department of Civil & Mechanical Engineering, U.S. Military Academy, West Point, New York

Abstract

This paper presents the initial results of a research project designed to foster in students the habit of checking their work for accuracy. The problem observed was that students seemed to regard their homework submissions as simply a product to be handed in, and the correctness of their solutions did not seem to concern them. This struck the author as the wrong approach in educating future Civil Engineers (and Army Officers in our case).

In the spring of 2004, the author instituted a system of mandatory collaboration in the Structural Analysis course, through forced “peer review” of all individual work. This became, similar to structural design, an iterative process of working towards achieving the following goals to increase student learning: • from their classmates • from having to explain their own work • from correcting mistakes and errors in others’ work • from learning their own abilities and limitations • by modeling the professional aspects of having work reviewed for correctness

This paper discusses the initial results from the two iterations of this procedure, as well as the revisions in the procedure introduced for the Spring Term of 2005. In addition, the author will provide an assessment of learning outcomes as well as student attitudes toward the procedure and perceived value of “peer review” as a learning tool. The author found that after two semesters of using Peer Review 56% of the students indicated that peer review had a positive effect on their learning and another 28% provided a response that indicated that it was only the mechanics of the process used that limited their success; largely due to their peers not being able to provide a timely review. When asked if they would use peer review for other assignments (when not required), 61% indicate they would and another 22% said they would some of the time, only 17% indicated they would not. In end of the course assessments a positive trend in this course was also noted in two questions dealing with students being made responsible for their own learning and learning from their fellow students. Results are based on student surveys of those who had used peer review compared to other years without peer review. Finally this paper discusses future work on this project to validate the value of “peer review” as a learning aide.

“Proceedings of the 2005 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2005, American Society for Engineering Education”

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Hamilton, S. (2005, June), Learning Through Peer Review Of Work Paper presented at 2005 Annual Conference, Portland, Oregon. 10.18260/1-2--15319