Bibliometric Analysis of Research on Peer Feedback in Teaching and Learning

Abstract

A growing body of literature has highlighted the pivotal role of peer feedback in teaching and learning. However, a paucity of studies explore the trend of literature in this research area, particularly using a bibliometric approach. Therefore, this study was conducted to reveal the major trends in the research area and construct an intellectual landscape of the relevant studies in the field. Bibliometric details of a total of 276 research articles, published from 1985 to 2020 (August), were retrieved from the Scopus database for further analysis. In particular, the publication trend, the most productive countries, the most productive authors, the top ten source titles, and keyword used in the research area, were explored using bibliometric indicators. The rapid growth of publications on peer feedback was observed since 2010, with a sharp peak noted in 2019. Furthermore, writing context was found as the central focus of peer feedback research. Among others, three key themes that surfaced out of term-occurrence analysis included: impacts/effects of using peer feedback approach, sub-themes concerning peer feedback implementation, and peer feedback in writing context. Additionally, from the review of 30 top-cited publications, 3 prominent themes: effects of using peer feedback approach, effective or ineffective peer feedback, and potential challenges or issues in peer feedback implementation emerged. Based on the findings, this paper concludes with some recommended avenues for future research.

Ten Years after Sutton (2012): Quo Vadis Feedback Literacy? (A Bibliometric Study)

“…On the other hand, the paucity of articles on feedback literacy also seems to reflect the general neglect suffered by the realm of feedback. In a sense, the 130 articles over 10 years in this study are approximately comparable to Chin and Chew's (2021) 412 articles on electronic feedback over three decades and Nguoi and Habil's (2021) 276 articles on peer feedback over 36 years. Certainly, feedback in general could benefit from a greater number of researches.…”

“…Specifically, the journal published 47 articles on feedback literacy and received 767 local citations, thus proving to be the most relevant and impactful journal, respectively. It is interesting to note that this journal also topped the list in the bibliometric study of Nguoi and Habil (2021) on peer feedback. In terms of productivity, the journal is followed by the Innovations and Teaching in Education International journal (n = 5) and the Assessing Writing journal (n = 3).…”

“…He is followed by David Boud (n = 9), who also published from 2018 to now, and Edd Pitt, with six publications in the past three years (2020-2022). These authors did not feature in past Bibliometric studies on peer feedback (Nguoi & Habil, 2021) and electronic feedback (Chin & Chew, 2021), suggesting the authors' focus on feedback literacy research.…”

“…Utilizing VOSViewer as the bibliometric tool, they revealed several foci of electronic feedback research and identified the USA as the country which contributed the most to the research in this field. Nguoi and Habil (2021) similarly retrieved 276 Scopus-indexed journal articles from the year 1985 to 2021, with peer feedback as the search criteria. With VOSViewer as the data-mapping application, they indicated the historical pattern in peer feedback research period and context, as well as prominent themes based on co-occurrence analysis.…”

“…Bibliometric analysis is deemed to be the most appropriate methodological approach to perform such synthesis of a particular construct (Mukherjee et al, 2022) due to its capability of providing data visualization on individual and institutional research productivity, the main themes and trends of a particular domain, the impact of authors or journals in the field, future trends of research, as well as the collaboration network of scholars (Donthu et al, 2021). While there are extant bibliometric studies on the various constructs of feedback (Chin & Chew, 2021;Nguoi & Habil, 2021;Xie, 2022), hardly such study on feedback literacy has been found so far. Thus, to fill the void, this study attempts to undertake a bibliometric analysis of research works on feedback literacy from 2012 to 2022, with the ultimate aim of shedding light on the trends and future research direction.…”