Peer-Assessed Gallery Walk as a Teaching Strategy: A Professional Development Experience for 21st Century Education Peer-Assessed Gallery Walk as a Teaching Strategy: A Professional Development Experience for 21st Century Education

Abstract

Preparing students for a 21st century fast-changing world requires professional development that propel teachers to reexamine and refine their teaching practices. This study was undertaken to gauge the response of 27 teachers in an international school on a 'Global Warming' lesson using Peer-Assessed Gallery Walk as a teaching and learning strategy. This study examined the teachers' feedback on how the lesson was conducted, their perceived effectiveness and their experience of going through the lesson in Peer-Assessed Gallery Walk. Survey analysis indicated that teachers viewed Peer-Assessed Gallery Walk positively in term of its flow and organisation, effectiveness and learning experience. However only teachers' hands-on experience as learners in the learning process was found to be significantly correlated to their willingness to use Peer-Assessed Gallery Walk in the classroom. Teachers noted that this strategy promoted learners' participation in communicaton and exchange of ideas. Learning was thought to be more engaging and less stressful. Major concerns raised by teachers were chaotic classroom environment and challenging time management. Results suggest that follow up study is necessary to investigate how these teachers have actually carried out lessons as a Peer-Assessed Gallery Walk and their experience in embracing gallery walk as a possible 21st century teaching and learning strategy that empower students in their own learning.

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PEER-ASSESSED GALLERY WALK
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Peer-Assessed Gallery Walk as a Teaching Strategy:
A Professional Development Experience for 21st Century Education
Chin Chee Keong1, Teh Tiam Kian1, Jesse B. Aquino2
1Teacher Education Institute Tuanku Bainun Campus, Penang, Malaysia
2Department of Education, Tarlac Province, the Philippines
Author Note
This paper is dedicated to the late Dr Khor Kwan Hooi who has been a valuable team
member in our previous work on gallery walk for practical assessment. We cherish his passion
and contribution in teacher education. He is dearly missed by all who had the privillege of
working with him.

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Abstract
Preparing students for a 21st century fast-changing world requires professional development that
propel teachers to reexamine and refine their teaching practices. This study was undertaken to
gauge the response of 27 teachers in an international school on a ‘Global Warming’ lesson using
Peer-Assessed Gallery Walk as a teaching and learning strategy. This study examined the
teachers’ feedback on how the lesson was conducted, their perceived effectiveness and their
experience of going through the lesson in Peer-Assessed Gallery Walk. Survey analysis indicated
that teachers viewed Peer-Assessed Gallery Walk positively in term of its flow and organisation,
effectiveness and learning experience. However only teachers’ hands-on experience as learners
in the learning process was found to be significantly correlated to their willingness to use Peer-
Assessed Gallery Walk in the classroom. Teachers noted that this strategy promoted learners’
participation in communicaton and exchange of ideas. Learning was thought to be more
engaging and less stressful. Major concerns raised by teachers were chaotic classroom
environment and challenging time management. Results suggest that follow up study is
necessary to investigate how these teachers have actually carried out lessons as a Peer-Assessed
Gallery Walk and their experience in embracing gallery walk as a possible 21st century teaching
and learning strategy that empower students in their own learning.
Keywords: gallery walk, teaching practice, empower students

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Peer-Assessed Gallery Walk as a Teaching Strategy:
A Professional Development Experience for 21st Century Education
Introduction
In response to the need of preparing students with skills for jobs that have yet to exist in
the uncertain future, education in schools has to be done differently. Education has to be
visionary and future-oriented to move in tandem with the rapid changes of the 21st century
(Raja, 1991). It is critical to realise that when the expected outcomes of education has changed
for the 21st century future, not only the content of education has to be revised but the process of
transforming the content into a learning experience need to be reconsidered. Consequently
training for both pre-service and in-service teachers should be reinvented to meet the challenge
of providing an instructional experience that is consistent with the need of future-oriented
teaching and learning.
Teacher continuous professional development (CPD) has been noted to be the key factor
to impact student outcomes (Barber & Mourshed, 2007; OECD, 2005). However, poorly planned
teacher CPD could results in waste of time and resources. In a survey accounting for more than
2000 teachers in Britain, 63% of teachers regarded CPD to meet the needs of the school rather
than the teachers personally and only 55% of teachers found that CPD met their needs (Hustler,
McNamara, Jarvis, Londra, & Campbell, 2003). Despite the lack of international comparisons to
identify common features of effective CPD, independent studies and reviews of teacher CPD in
different countries have recognised six features for effective teacher CPD (Whitehouse, 2011).
To produce permanent change in teaching practices, CPD must be based on students’ and
teachers’ learning needs and be sustained (Figure 1). CPD should be subject-specific and be

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grounded in classroom practice. Ideally CPD should be collaborative and involve external
expertise.
Gallery walk provides an opportunity for active learning by encouraging learners’
participation (Francek, 2006). Learners’ discussion promotes higher-order thinking skills as
learners exchange ideas based on the tasks given (Johnson & Mighten, 2005). In our previous
study on gallery walk, 66.7% of students reported higher motivation to learn, 66.7% looked
forward to more lessons being carried out as gallery walk, and 80.9% students were more
inclined to ask questions during gallery walk (Chin, Teh, & Khor, 2015). Enhanced critical
thinking was observed when required tasks in gallery walk were expressed as divergent
questions (unpublished).
This paper presents an attempt to introduce peer-assessed gallery walk as a teaching
strategy for a group of 27 teachers in an international school as part of a continuous professional
development programme. In a traditional gallery walk, typically conducted in groups, learners
display the completed tasks assigned to them and learners walk from one exhibit to another to
learn the work produced by other groups. In a peer-assessed gallery walk, learners are
encouraged to evaluate each others’ work and voice their opinions and critiques.
Various trainings has been provided to improve the professional practice of teachers. The
pertinent concern is whether teachers make use of the training they have received as part of their
classroom instruction. It would be a waste of time and resources in conducting seminars,
workshops, and introducing online learning platform in which teachers are compelled to attend
but are not willing to integrate as part of their teaching practice to improve their teaching and
enhance students’ learning. In this study, three factors (perceived benefit of the new practice,
ease of carrying out the new practice, personal experience with the new practice during the CPD

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session) were correlated with the willingness of teachers to practice what they have learnt during
a CPD session in their own teaching practice (Figure 2). This study was carried out with the
following aims:
a) examine the factors that could persuade teachers to apply what they have learnt
(peer-assessed gallery walk) during a CPD session in their classroom teaching
b) identify teachers’ concern in putting into practice what they have personally
experienced in peer-assessed gallery walk
Method
This study involved 27 teachers who attended a CPD session. Teachers were divided into five
groups and were given questions to discuss related to the issue of global warming. As a group,
teachers recorded their answers on a manila card and posted them on the wall. Peer-assessed
gallery walk was carried out as each group visited the exhibit of other groups at their respective
stations. Two presenters remained at their station to present their answers and to response to
questions that were raised by visiting groups.
At the end of the session, survey data was collected in 5-point Likert agreement scale
(strongly disagree to strongly agree) questionnaire. Questionnaire was piloted and internal
consistency was achieved at 0.833 Cronbach’s alpha. Three open-ended questions were included
to allow teachers to express their likes and dislikes about peer-assessed gallery walk and their
concerns about using it as their classroom practice.

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Results
Teachers responded positively to the process of conducting peer-assessed gallery walk
that was presented to them (Table 1). Direction provided was clear (mean = 4.32, SD = 0.32) and
the questions posed for discussion were well understood (mean = 4.14, SD = 0.64). Teachers also
reported benefits of peer-assessed gallery walk in term of participation (mean = 4.36, SD = 0.73),
collaboration (mean = 4.23, SD = 0.75) and listening respectfully to each other (mean = 4.32, SD
= 0.72). However teachers’ response was neutral in term of better understanding of the
discussion topic compared to traditional lecture style (mean = 2.82, SD = 0.80). Teachers have
the perception that peer-assesed gallery walk was easy to be used in classroom (mean = 4.05, SD
= 0.72) and are willing to practice this teaching strategy in their classroom (mean = 3.91, SD =
1.02)
Based on Pearson correlation analysis, only teachers personal experience was moderately
correlated with their willingness to apply what they have learnt on peer-assessed gallery walk (r
= 0.543, p < 0.01 (Table 2). Perceived benefits of peer-assessed gallery walk and ease of
conducting this strategy were not correlated with how likely teachers would try out this strategy.
Open-ended response from teachers indicated that they valued peer-assessed gallery walk
as it gives learners the opportunity for ‘constructive criticism among peers’, promote ‘idea
exchange’ and provides ‘air time for students’. On the other hand, they were wary of trying this
classroom strategy as it could be ‘chaotic if students do not co-operate’. Teachers were also
concerned about classroom management, probably because there would be a lot of student
movements and exchange of ideas during gallery walk.

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Discussion
Peer-assessed gallery walk on global warming provided ample oppurtunities for learners
to interact with each other. Based on open-ended questions that promoted critical thinking,
learners were able to assess each others point of view and justify each others’ thought on the
issue. Active communication was evident in participation of students in question-and-answer
sessions.
The findings of this study shows that the factor that could compel teachers to apply what
they have learnt in a CPD programme is their personal experience in participating as learners.
Perceived benefits and the ease of performing the task may not be a meaningful predictor of
teachers’ practical follow up of what they have learnt in a CPD programme. Open-ended
response of teachers also implied that most teachers are still comfortable to carry out daily
teaching routine in the traditional didactic method, in which teacher’s role is to deliver subject
content and students are passive receiver of the content. Teachers need to be provided with the
skills of classroom management to increase their confidence in practicing teaching and learning
strategies that empower learning onto the hands of students and teachers play a more passive role
to monitor and facilitate the learning process.
Hampson, Pattron, & Shanks (n.d.) proposed 10 ideas in transforming today’s education
into education of the 21st century. Teachers are challenged to tap into students’ digital expertise
to empower them in their own learning, therefore expecting students to be teachers and teachers
to assume the role as students. Peer-assesed gallery walk can be integrated with such proposals to
be more relevant to 21st century students who are very digital. Peer-assessed gallery is also ideal
to train students in higher order thinking using open-ended questions on issues that are open to
debate.

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References
Barber, M., & Mourshed, M. (2007). How the world’s best-performing school system come out
on top. New York: McKinsey and Company.
Chin, C.K., Teh, T.K., & Khor, K.H. (2015). Is Gallery Walk an Effective Teaching and
Learning Strategy for Biology? In: E. Gnanamalar Sarojini (Ed.), Biology Education and
Research in a Changing Planet (pp. 55-59). DOI: 10.1007/978-981-287-524-2
Francek, M. (2006). Promoting discussion in the science classroom using gallery walks.
Journal of College Science Teaching, 36. Retrieved from
http://www.nsta.org/publications/news/story.aspx?id=52391
Hampson, M., Pattron, A., & Shanks, L. (n.d.) 10 Ideas for 21st centry education. [pdf] Retrieved
from
http://www.innovationunit.org/sites/default/files/10%20Ideas%20for%2021st%20Centur
y%20Education.pdf
Hustler, D., McNamara, O., Jarvis, J., Londra, M., & Campbell, A. (2003). Teachers’
perceptions of continuing professional development (Report No. 429). Norwich:
Department for Education and Skills.
Johnson, J.P., & Mighten, A. (2005). Research briefs—a comparison of teaching strategies:
Lecture notes combined with structured group discussion versus lecture only. The
Journal of Nursing Education, 44(7): 319-322.
OECD. (2005). Education at a glance: OECD indicators 2005. Paris: OECD Publishing.
Raja, R.S. (1991). Education for the twenty-first century: Asia-Pacific persepective. Bangkok:
UNESCO.

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Whitehouse, C. (2011). Effective continuing professional development for teachers. Manchester:
Centre for education research and policy.

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Table 1
Mean scores of teachers’ responses to peer-assessed gallery walk
Item
Mean
SD
1. The direction for gallery walk was clear. I knew what to do
to successfully complete the gallery walk.
4.32
0.72
2. The topic in the gallery walk was intesting for me.
3.91
0.75
3. We worked more collaboratively than usual class discussion.
4.23
0.75
4. All group members participated in the gallery walk.
4.36
0.73
5. My group listened respectfully to one another.
4.32
0.72
6. I gain better understanding compared to lecture.
2.82
0.80
7. The questions on global warming were clear.
4.14
0.64
8. We had enough time at each station.
3.73
0.94
9. Gallery walk was easy to use.
4.05
0.72
10. I would like to participate in another gallery walk.
4.05
0.79
11. I will use gallery walk in my classroom.
3.91
1.02

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Table 2
Correlations Among and Descriptive Statistics For Key Study Variables
Variables
M (SD)
Benefit
Ease
Experience
Willingness
Benefit
3.94 (.50)
1.000
.444*
.544**
.079
Ease
4.07 (.54)
1.000
.695
.384
Experience
4.14 (0.58)
1.000
.543**
Willingness
3.96 (.98)
1.000
* p < .05, ** p < .01

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Figure 1. The cycle of effective teacher CPD (Whitehouse, 2011)
Figure 2. This study correlated factors that play a significant role in persuading teacher to apply
the new practice they have learnt in their actual classroom teaching.
Willingness to
use new
pactice in
classroom
Introduction
to
new practice
(peer-assessed
gallery walk)
Benefit of
new
practice
Ease of
carrying
out new
practice
Personal
experience
of the new
practice