Making Space for Innovative Practice Supporting Teaching and Learning through Integrating Online Peer-to-Peer Feedback Between Geographically Separated Students

This dissertation is comprised of three linked studies investigating integrating online feedback practices into traditional classrooms. It focuses on one innovative practice, that of online peer-to-peer feedback, and highlights aspects of the process of developing this practice in each article. Each article relies on separate but connected analyses and draws on separate literature bases and developing conceptual frames.;The first article investigated student needs and perceptions of an online community developed for the purpose of exchanging peer feedback on their scientific explanations. It considered teacher instructional decisions and design choices of existing online tools as teachers sought to bridge from traditional pedagogy into supporting student interactions online. Drawing upon analyses of interviews and surveys, students reports about their experiences suggested conditions for online feedback that were largely inconsistent with both related literature in higher education and with what teachers had expected their students would need with regards to the online community.;The second article examined the quality of student online asynchronous talk as well as the skills and processes needed to effectively contribute to feedback discussions online as they worked through an engineering design process. Applying an explanatory mixed methods design, findings suggested a possible mismatch between the emphasis on teaching students how to give feedback and what actually sustains conversation to support reflective thinking.;The third article investigated how teachers implemented the innovations aimed at enabling geographically separated students to give and receive feedback online. Four master teachers identified contextual factors and events that supported or hindered their ability to bring the new tool of online peer feedback into their classrooms: their "implementation pathways". While online peer feedback technology integration helped focus teacher thinking, this article involved teacher reflection on the process of implementing innovative ideas more broadly. Findings demonstrate how important context is in providing the space for innovative practice.