Feedback on teachers' text assessment: Does it foster assessment accuracy and motivation?

Teachers' assessment of students' performance on complex tasks, such as writing, is important both for their teaching and for students' learning. Teachers must be able and motivated to assess texts correctly. According to theoretical assumptions, feedback can help promote the diagnostic competencies required to assess texts correctly, but, up until now, no empirical studies have examined the effects of accuracy feedback on teachers' assessments. We conducted an experimental study comparing the effects of two feedback interventions with a practice-only control group on teachers' assessment accuracy and motivation. Student teachers (n = 181) and experienced teachers (n = 114) assessed 10 students' texts in all groups. The feedback in both of the feedback groups showed the teachers a comparison between their own assessments and correct assessments. We varied the feedback presentation between one single presentation after five texts and single presentations after each of the first five texts. We measured assessment accuracy and situational interest, which conceptualizes motivation, to assess the next five texts. The results showed that feedback promoted situational interest but not assessment accuracy. We discuss why teachers found feedback interesting and under what circumstances training interventions could be useful.Die Beurteilungen von Lehrkräften zu den schriftlichen Leistungen ihrer Schülerinnen und Schüler spielen eine wichtige Rolle für die Unterrichtsgestaltung und das Lernen. Daher sollen für die Aus- und Weiterbildung von Lehrkräften Trainingsmöglichkeiten geschaffen werden, welche die Kompetenz und Motivation der Lehrkräfte zur korrekten Beurteilung erhöhen. Es ist anzunehmen, dass Feedback diagnostische Kompetenzen fördern kann, aber momentan fehlt es an empirischen Studien, die die Effektivität von Feedback im Vergleich zu Beurteilungsübungen ohne Feedback untersuchen. Der vorliegende Artikel stellt eine experimentelle Studie vor, in der die Effekte von zwei Feedback-Interventionen auf die Beurteilungsgenauigkeit und Motivation der Lehrkräfte mit einer Kontrollgruppe, in der Texte ohne Feedback beurteilt wurden, verglichen wurden. Lehramtsstudierende (n = 181) und erfahrene Lehrkräfte (n = 114) bewerteten in allen Gruppen zehn Schülertexte. In beiden Feedbackbedingungen wurde den Lehrkräften ein Vergleich der eigenen Bewertung mit der Bewertung des Textes durch Expert:innen gezeigt. Zwischen den Gruppen variierte die Feedback-Präsentation zwischen einer einmaligen Präsentation nach fünf Texten und mehrmaliger Präsentation nach jedem der ersten fünf Texte. Danach wurde die Motivation weitere Texte zu beurteilen, sowie die Beurteilungsgenauigkeit bei der Beurteilung der zweiten fünf Texte gemessen. Die Ergebnisse zeigten, dass beide Feedbackbedingungen im Vergleich zur Kontrollgruppe das situative Interesse an der Beurteilung förderten, aber nicht die Genauigkeit. Es wird diskutiert, warum Lehrkräfte die Beurteilung mit Feedback interessanter fanden und unter welchen Umständen Trainingsinterventionen nützlich sein können.Peer Reviewe

Don't Just Judge the Spelling! The Influence of Spelling on Assessing Second-Language Student Essays

When judging subject-specific aspects of students’ texts, teachers should assess various characteristics, e.g., spelling and content, independently of one another since these characteristics are indicators of different skills. Independent judgments enable teachers to adapt their classroom instruction according to students’ skills. It is still unclear how well teachers meet this challenge and which intervention could be helpful to them. In Study 1, N = 51 pre-service teachers assessed four authentic English as a Second Language (ESL) essays with different overall text qualities and different qualities of spelling using holistic and analytic rating scales. Results showed a negative influence of the experimentally manipulated spelling errors on the judgment of almost all textual characteristics. In Study 2, an experimental prompt was used to reduce this judgment error. Participants who were made aware of the judgment error caused by spelling errors formed their judgments in a less biased way, indicating a reduction of bias. The determinants of the observed effects and their practical implications are discussed

Robotic resection for esophageal cancer

<jats:title>Summary</jats:title><jats:sec> <jats:title>Background</jats:title> <jats:p>In the surgical treatment of esophageal cancer, complete tumor resection is the most important factor and determines long-term survival. With an increase in robotic expertise in other fields of surgery, robotic-assisted minimally invasive esophagectomy (RAMIE) was born. Currently, there is a lack of convincing data on the extent of expected benefits (perioperative and oncologic outcomes and/or quality of life). Some evidence exists that patients’ overall quality of life and physical function improves, with less fatigue and pain 3 months after surgery. We aimed to review the available literature regarding robotic esophagectomy, compare perioperative, oncologic, and quality of life outcomes with open and minimally invasive approaches, and give a brief overview of our standardized four-arm RAMIE technique and explore future directions.</jats:p> </jats:sec><jats:sec> <jats:title>Methods</jats:title> <jats:p>A Medline (PubMed) search was conducted including the following key words: esophagectomy, minimally invasive esophagectomy, robotic esophagectomy, Ivor Lewis and McKeown. We present the history, different techniques used, outcomes, and the standardization of robotic esophagectomy.</jats:p> </jats:sec><jats:sec> <jats:title>Results</jats:title> <jats:p>Robotic esophagectomy offers a steeper learning curve with fewer complications but comparable oncological results compared to conventional minimally invasive esophagectomy.</jats:p> </jats:sec><jats:sec> <jats:title>Conclusions</jats:title> <jats:p>Available studies suggest that RAMIE is associated with benefits regarding length of stay, clinical outcomes, and quality of life—if patients are treated in an experienced center with a standardized technique for robotic esophagectomy—making it a potentially beneficial tool in the treatment of esophageal cancer. However, center-wide standardization and prospective data collection will be a necessity to prove superiority of robotic esophagectomy.</jats:p> </jats:sec&gt

Robotic surgery for thoracic surgery

<jats:title>Summary</jats:title><jats:p>Indications for the use of RATS vary between the facilities but correspond as far as possible to other minimally invasive surgical findings. In general, RATS is currently a therapeutic option for the management of early-stage NSCLC without mediastinal lymph node involvement in oncological surgery, although depending on the planned intervention and the surgical facility, hilar lymph node involvement may be accepted</jats:p&gt

Do teachers spot AI? Evaluating the detectability of AI-generated texts among student essays

The potential application of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in schools and universities poses great challenges, especially for the assessment of students’ texts. Previous research has shown that people generally have difficulty distinguishing AI-generated from human-written texts; however, the ability of teachers to identify an AI-generated text among student essays has not yet been investigated. Here we show in two experimental studies that novice (N = 89) and experienced teachers (N = 200) could not identify texts generated by ChatGPT among student-written texts. However, there are some indications that more experienced teachers made more differentiated and more accurate judgments. Furthermore, both groups were overconfident in their judgments. Effects of real and assumed source on quality assessment were heterogeneous. Our findings demonstrate that with relatively little prompting, current AI can generate texts that are not detectable for teachers, which poses a challenge to schools and universities in grading student essays. Our study provides empirical evidence for the current debate regarding exam strategies in schools and universities in light of the latest technological developments

Detection of Circulating and Disseminated Tumor Cells and Their Prognostic Value under the Influence of Neoadjuvant Therapy in Esophageal Cancer Patients

Detection of circulating (CTC) or disseminated tumor cells (DTC) are correlated with negative prognosis in esophageal cancer (EC) patients. In this study, DTC- and CTC-associated markers CK20 and DEFA5 were determined by RT-PCR in EC patients and correlated with clinical parameters to determine their prognostic impact. The blood and bone marrow (BM) of 216 EC patients after tumor resection with or without neoadjuvant therapy and as control blood samples from 38 healthy donors and BM from 24 patients with non-malignant diseases were analyzed. Both markers were detected in blood and BM of EC patients and the control cohort. A cut-off value was determined to define marker positivity for correlation with clinical data. CK20 expression was detected in 47/206 blood samples and in 49/147 BM samples of EC patients. DEFA5 positivity was determined in 96/206 blood samples and 98/147 BM samples, not correlating with overall survival (OS). However, CK20 positivity in BM and DEFA5 negativity in blood were associated with reduced OS in EC patients without neoadjuvant therapy, while in patients with neoadjuvant therapy DEFA5 positivity in BM was associated with improved OS. Overall, our study suggests DEFA5 as a prognostic biomarker in liquid biopsies of EC patients which requires further validation

Long-Term, Health-Related Quality of Life after Open and Robot-Assisted Ivor-Lewis Procedures—A Propensity Score-Matched Study

Esophagectomies are among the most invasive surgical procedures that highly influence health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Recent improvements have helped to achieve longer survival. Therefore, long-term postoperative HRQoL needs to be emphasized in addition to classic criterions like morbidity and mortality. We aimed to compare short and long-term HRQoL after open transthoracic esophagectomies (OTEs) and robotic-assisted minimally invasive esophagectomies (RAMIEs) in patients suffering from esophageal adenocarcinoma. Prospectively collected HRQoL-data (from the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Core Quality of Life Questionnaire-C30 (EORTC QLQ-C30)) were correlated with clinical courses. Only patients suffering from minor postoperative complications (Clavien–Dindo Classification of < 2) after R0 Ivor-Lewis-procedures were included. Age, sex, body mass index (BMI), American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status-score (ASA-score), tumor stage, and perioperative therapy were used for propensity score matching (PSM). Twelve RAMIE and 29 OTE patients met the inclusion criteria. RAMIE patients reported significantly better emotional and social function while suffering from significantly less pain and less physical impairment four months after surgery. The long-term follow up confirmed the results. Long-term postoperative HRQoL and self-perception partly exceeded the levels of the healthy reference population. Minor operative trauma by robotic approaches resulted in significantly reduced physical impairments while improving HRQoL and self-perception, especially in the long-term. However, further long-term results are warranted to confirm this positive trend