🌿 Reflective Leadership: Building Confidence Through Peer Assessment & Agency

vanessa speigle
2 days ago
2 min read

🌱 Have you ever watched a child’s confidence bloom, not because of your praise, but because of another student’s words?

Two students sitting together and discussing schoolwork, modeling peer assessment and mutual reflection in a CBC-aligned classroom.

Last week, I shared a story from a Nairobi classroom. A quiet student looked at a classmate and said, “You explained that really well. I understood it because of you.” That one sentence changed everything.

The student who received the comment didn’t need my feedback that day. They already felt seen. Their classmate’s affirmation built something far more powerful than a mark/grade ever could: trust.

That is where leadership in learning truly begins. Not when students take charge of others, but when they take responsibility for each other’s growth.

🎯 Reflection → Feedback → Agency

In Finland, the National Agency for Education (2016) reminds us that assessment is part of learning itself.........not a judgment. Every feedback moment is a chance to build confidence.

Kenya’s Competency-Based Curriculum carries the same spirit. Through self and peer assessment, learners begin to recognize their own progress and support others’ growth.

When students reflect together, they move from “How did I do?” to “How can we grow?” That’s the moment when reflection transforms into leadership.

🪴 Classroom Practices that Build Student Leadership

Primary students eagerly raising their hands during a classroom lesson, representing active participation and confidence through feedback.

Here are a few simple routines that help students lead through feedback:

🌿 Peer Reflection Circles – 2-minute debriefs after group work: What worked well? What can we try next time?
🌿 Two Stars and a Wish – Two positives and one growth suggestion.
🌿 Reflection Journals with Peer Highlights – Students record what they learned from a classmate.
🌿 Student-Led Rubric Check-ins – Pairs discuss how they’d rate their work and why.

Each of these practices nurtures voice, choice, and ownership, the very foundations of student agency described in the OECD Learning Compass (2019).

💛 Trust Over Perfection

Peer feedback isn’t about getting it “right.” It’s about learning to trust each other’s perspectives.As Pasi Sahlberg (2021) says, “Trust is the glue of the Finnish education system.” We don’t wait for students to be perfect before we trust them, we trust them so they can become responsible.

And in crowded CBC classrooms, this trust creates equity. Every learner’s voice is heard. Every child’s progress can be noticed.

🌍 The Leadership We Don’t Always See

Educators sitting in a circle engaged in reflective discussion, symbolizing collaborative peer feedback and leadership in learning.

When feedback becomes a conversation, leadership becomes visible. You’ll see it in the student who begins to help others clarify ideas, in the group that listens before responding, and in the quiet confidence that grows when learners realize: My thinking matters.

This is how leadership begins, not from control, but from connection.

🎥 Watch the New Video

Screenshot of a Rekla Education slide titled “From Reflection to Collaboration: The Three Steps of Reflective Leadership,” showing Vanessa Speigle presenting a 27-minute video on peer assessment and student agency.

✨ Reflective Leadership: Building Confidence Through Peer Assessment & Agency🎬 Watch on YouTube → click here!

In this episode, I explore how peer assessment transforms reflection into leadership with classroom examples, Finnish research, and small shifts you can start tomorrow.