Peer feedback on academic writing: undergraduate students’ peer feedback role, peer feedback perceptions and essay performance

TLDR

Peer feedback is widely used in higher education, yet a direct comparison of its impact when students provide versus receive feedback on writing performance remains unexplored. The study aimed to examine whether students’ perceptions of peer feedback relate to the type of feedback received and to their writing performance. Eighty‑three undergraduates completed an authentic academic writing task, with half providing anonymous written feedback and half receiving it, allowing comparison of performance outcomes. Both providing and receiving feedback improved writing performance similarly; explanatory comments were linked to perceived adequacy and willingness to improve, but these perceptions did not predict performance gains.

Abstract

Within the higher education context, peer feedback is frequently applied as an instructional method. Research on the learning mechanisms involved in the peer feedback process has covered aspects of both providing and receiving feedback. However, a direct comparison of the impact that providing and receiving peer feedback has on students' writing performance is still lacking. The current study compared the writing performance of undergraduate students (N = 83) who either provided or received anonymous written peer feedback in the context of an authentic academic writing task. In addition, we investigated whether students' peer feedback perceptions were related to the nature of the peer feedback they received and to writing performance. Results showed that both providing and receiving feedback led to similar improvements of writing performance. The presence of explanatory comments positively related both to how adequate students perceived the peer feedback to be, as well as to students' willingness to improve based upon it. However, no direct relation was found between these peer feedback perceptions and students' writing performance increase.