Peer Review of Writing: Learning from Revision using Peer Feedback and Reviewing Peers' Texts

To better understand the ways in which peer feedback can vary across contexts to shape learning outcomes, the current dissertation examined how student ability levels shapes peer review. Peer review involves opportunities to learn from receiving feedback and providing feedback. Both elements were considered within one larger experiment. A sample of 189 students enrolled in an Introduction to Psychological Science course participated in this experiment. As part of the requirements for class, students wrote a first draft of their paper, reviewed four peers' papers, revised their draft based on peer feedback, and wrote a new paper on a different topic. In this experiment, I manipulated to whom the students provided feedback and from whom they received feedback in order to observe the relationships between writer ability, quality of text reviewed, and ability of the feedback source. In the first study, I determined which types of comments had an impact on draft quality and whether there were differences in the amounts received and implemented depending on the writer ability and feedback source. In the second study, I examined the extent to which students could learn from reviewing peers' texts and how the ability of the writer and the quality of the text being reviewed influenced the amount of improvement. Based on the findings from the two studies, theoretical and pragmatic implications were offered