In two-stage exams, students produce some academic work individually then do the same work again in small groups. Both works contribute to the individual grade. Prior research shows that students perceive that the feedback dialogue they engage in, during two-stage exams, aids their learning. Also, outcome studies show that this method benefits individual student learning. However, there is no research on the internal feedback students generate during two-stage exams, when they compare their own individual performance against the group discussion and the developing group output. To investigate this, internal feedback was made explicit, in a two-stage exam, by having students write a feedback commentary on their own learning at both the individual and group stages. Analysis showed that students not only generated content and process feedback but also self-regulatory feedback, and that this feedback was of a higher quality than and went beyond that which the teacher provided. The implications for future implementations of two stage exams are considered as well as how this research adds to the literature on internal feedback.
Making internal feedback explicit: harnessing the comparisons students make during two-stage exams
