Abstract:
This one-group pre-test, post-test study found that students in this study demonstrated a good
understanding of what exemplars are and how they are used to support learning. While they
generally perceived exemplars positively, they considered higher-graded exemplars to be more
valuable than poorly-performing exemplars because of the emphasis on efficient academic
achievement and achieving the highest grade with the least effort.
This study highlights the inability of students to self-assess their academic writing abilities accurately,
likely because they are novices in the field of academic writing. Despite self-identifying as native
English speakers, students’ self-evaluation of their language skills was not congruent with the writing
that they produced. This leads to a difficulty in their judging strengths and weaknesses in their
writing and identifying specific areas in it to work on. Teachers may find it difficult to help students in
improving their skills if students are unable to identify the type and degree of assistance that they
needed to improve their academic writing.
Ultimately, this study provides insight into student perceptions of exemplars at the tertiary level in
New Zealand, albeit in ways that were not anticipated. While the study instruments failed to
measure impacts on student learning from the intervention, the interview data suggested not only
that meaningful learning gains were made, but also that there are other aspects of exemplar use that
merit further exploration. Nevertheless, this study has confirmed the findings of the existing
literature on the importance of exemplars in supporting student learning at the tertiary level and
raised some intriguing questions about the importance of class time being allocated to exemplar
discussion and the length of the exemplar used for discussion.