Peer-to-peer dialogue about teachers’ written feedback enhances students’ understanding on how to improve writing skills

Abstract

Academic writing is a complex competence in higher education. To develop this competence, teachers' written feedback is vital, especially if it contains feed-up, feedback and feedforward information. However, academic writing does not always improve after provision of written feedback. The purpose of this study was to explore if peer-to-peer dialogue between students about teachers' written feedback does enhance students' understanding of written feedback. Sixtythree second-year university students participated in a pretest-post-test design with mixed methods. Questionnaire data showed that peer-to-peer dialogue increased students' understanding of feed-up, feedback and feed-forward information. Focus group data demonstrated that the dialogue helped students to understand the assessment criteria better (feed up) and offered suggestions for improvement (feed forward). High quality teachers' written feedback was perceived as an important condition. Peer-to-peer dialogue among students about teachers' written feedback seems promising in enhancing students' understanding on how to improve their academic writing assignments.

The role of tutor's questioning in mentoring learners' responses to and uptake of feedback on writing

“…This particular finding supports the current argument that learners should be active in the process (Henderson et al, 2019). It is also in line with Schillings et al (2019) that learner-learner dialogue enhances students' understanding of teacher feedback.…”

“…Carless (2020) stated that teacher effective feedback should engage learners in interacting with teachers to establish mutual understandings and resolve dissonances resulting from feedback. Moreover, interaction is another means to improve students' comprehension of teacher feedback (Schillings et al, 2019).…”

“…University students need effective feedback to develop their competence and academic writing skills (Schillings et al, 2019;Winder et al, 2016). Being repositioned as a learner-centered process, teacher feedback is currently viewed as an interactive process in which learners should actively respond to the information, process it, and make good use of it in improving their writing (Carless, 2020;Carless & Boud, 2018;Henderson et al, 2019;Schillings et al, 2019).…”

“…University students need effective feedback to develop their competence and academic writing skills (Schillings et al, 2019;Winder et al, 2016). Being repositioned as a learner-centered process, teacher feedback is currently viewed as an interactive process in which learners should actively respond to the information, process it, and make good use of it in improving their writing (Carless, 2020;Carless & Boud, 2018;Henderson et al, 2019;Schillings et al, 2019). As opposed to the unidirectional written feedback (Nassaji, 2011), teachers' practical and interactive feedback should allow learners to communicate their ideas, talk about the issues in their writing and interact with teachers/instructors and peers around these issues.…”

Constructive Feedback, Learning Motivation and Academic Achievement in Chemistry Subject: Qualitative Experiences from Classroom Intervention

“…Feedback intervention not only affects students but also affects pre-service teachers' motivation, which enhances their reflective thinking power (Çimen &Çakmak, 2020). Schillings et al (2020) also confirmed that teachers' provided feedback improved students' understanding of the assessment criteria (feedback) and offered suggestions for improvement (feed-forward). Written feedback from high-quality teachers was regarded as an essential criterion for improving students' motivation and understanding of how to improve their academic writing assignments.…”