For my tutoring inquiry project, I chose to analyze the differences in effectiveness between peer feedback and teacher feedback.
DOWNSIDE OF PEER FEEDBACK
Teachers use experience and skills that aren’t necessarily accessible to peer tutors (ie. superior knowledge of a topic and a deep understanding of the criteria for an assignment). This is why peers are not always the most appropriate assessors to provide feedback compared to teacher feedback.
A study I read by Gielen et al. found that a majority of students from their study did not want to use peer feedback on their future assignments because they found it to be a waste of time. Student perception of the effectiveness of peer feedback plays a vital role in the success of peer tutoring. If a student takes feedback more seriously, they are more likely to participate in the peer feedback process and apply that discussion to their revisions.
There are also some of the risks found with peer feedback: lack of clear goals and standards, a lack of intellectual stimulation and effective teaching, and reliance on surface learning strategies.
UPSIDE OF PEER FEEDBACK
Trained peer feedback can promote autonomous motivation which is important, especially for English language learner students who depend heavily on teacher feedback.
This source also confirmed that when writers engage with peer feedback, their ability to understand the advantages and disadvantages of their own writing improves.
Peer feedback can improve how well students perform on assignments because the thought that they could embarrass themselves among their peers brings out an increased effort.
It also found that students generally think peer feedback is more clear and understandable and peer feedback usually takes less time to make it back to the writer.
DOWNSIDE OF TEACHER FEEDBACK
There isn’t really a significant difference in the improvement of students’ writing ability after using peer feedback compared with those who receive teacher feedback.
Writers are more likely to hide their weaknesses and doubts from their teachers because of the power dynamic between the two. This can be counterproductive because teachers are then unaware of student difficulties and are not able to sufficiently address the problem.
UPSIDE OF TEACHER FEEDBACK
Teacher feedback produced larger gains in self-efficacy for the writing task itself and underlying writing skills. This means that they are confident enough to approach writing tasks with a positive mindset.
Teacher feedback on grammar outperformed peer feedback on grammar. This is because teachers tended to give feedback on content and form that would result in increased grammatical accuracy.
Teacher feedback is particularly important in English language learner contexts. This is likely due to the fact that teachers usually have a deeper understanding of language structure and also tend to have more experience with the most effective way to explain English language complexities to students.
IMPORTANCE TO THE WRITING CENTER
For tutors navigating this topic in their ongoing writing center work, it’s important to recognize the strengths and weaknesses of both teacher feedback and peer feedback. This can aid tutors because then they know where their strengths lie, and what areas of revision they may want to suggest students consult the teacher for. It can also possibly aid peer tutors who would be able to adapt their tutoring strategy to include the receptive nature of peer feedback with the structured nature of teacher feedback.
To encourage tutors related to my topic, I would emphasize your role not only as a tutor but as a peer. This role allows you to foster an atmosphere that cannot be replicated with a teacher. So, while there are strengths and weaknesses in both types of feedback, peer feedback still remains very important. Make your suggestions with the best intentions and effort and the benefits of peer feedback will manifest.
For tutors to learn more about my topic, I might suggest they work alongside teachers in the way they give feedback. This would deepen peer tutor’s understanding of the process of teacher feedback. This collaboration could also encourage teachers to alter their process to reflect the advantages that come with peer feedback.
References
Gielen, S., Tops, L., Dochy, F., Onghena, P., & Smeets, S. (2010). A comparative study of peer and teacher feedback and of various peer feedback forms in a secondary school writing curriculum. British Educational Research Journal, 36(1), 143–162. https://doi.org/10.1080/01411920902894070