Generating Internal Feedback from Self & Peer Review (Swingler, Nicol & Morrow)

Abstract:
Peer review not only results in students receiving additional feedback from peers, but they also compare (i.e. self-assess) their own work against the work they are reviewing and generate internal feedback out of those comparisons. The aim of this study was to make explicit the internal feedback that naturally occurs during peer review and self-review in order to examine it, including the effects of different comparisons on the type of internal feedback students generate. Students anonymously reviewed 3 pieces of work via an established online peer review tool. Two of these online submissions were from their peers, and one was an exemplar written by the teacher. In the first study, after each peer review, students were prompted by the instructions to compare their own work against a rubric (the same rubric used to review their peers’ work). In the second study, after each peer review, students were prompted to make deliberate comparisons of their work with other students’ work. After both, students were asked to write down what they learned (their self-review comments). Both cohorts then received feedback comments from their peers on their work.

Self-review comments were analysed for content, process and self-regulatory feedback. Analysis revealed qualitative differences between the two types of comparisons in the extent of content, process and self-regulatory feedback that students generated, and in the degree of elaboration in their responses to the prompts. Students’ perceptions of the contribution of the review process to their learning were also evaluated using a quantitative questionnaire, open ended questions and focus groups. The findings show that while the process of ‘reviewing and commenting’ is perceived as challenging, students believe they learn more from comparing, reflecting and generating feedback for themselves than from receiving feedback comments. The results will be discussed in terms of the use of peer review as a method to generate internal feedback and how different kinds of comparisons can alter the nature and quality of this internal feedback. We end by briefly discussing these results in the light of other recent research on feedback comparisons that builds on this work.

About the speakers:

Dr Maxine Swingler is a Lecturer in the School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Glasgow and has been teaching since 2003, currently leading the MSc (conversion) programme in psychology and teaching qualitative research methods and professional skills. Her pedagogical research interests focus on embedding graduate attributes within the curriculum, assessment and feedback and she has completed research for the QAA Scotland on graduate skills, led workshops and developed good practice resources in employability and group work. She also works with the British Psychological Society (BPS) Division of Academics Researchers and Teachers (DART-P) and BPS Scottish Branch in organising conferences and CPD events for teachers and researchers in psychology.

Dr Lorna Morrow is a Lecturer in the School of Psychology and Neuroscience University of Glasgow. She is programme lead for the Level 3 Psychological Studies programme, and currently teaches Memory, Research Methods, and Conceptual and Historical Issues in Psychology (online). Her current pedagogical research interests include various factors affecting student performance, such as assessment and feedback, well-being/psychological distress, impostor phenomenon and statistics anxiety.