Comparing self-reflection and peer feedback practices in an academic writing task: a student self-efficacy perspective

ABSTRACT

This study evaluated and compared student self-reflections and peer feedback on academic writing tasks with respect to both content and language. Twenty-nine undergraduate students were recruited from a university in Hong Kong. Guided by self-efficacy theory, the study provided three main findings. First, students tended to give feedback based on self-reflections rather than on their classmates’ work. Students with low self-efficacy tended to give feedback addressing similar areas to different peers. Second, feedback givers with low self-efficacy reported greater difficulties in generating ideas and conducting self-reflections, and therefore in giving peer feedback. The sharing of peer feedback became a source of learning for subsequent self-reflections and peer feedback. Third, high self-efficacy students were more active in seeking advice from instructors. They reported giving feedback based on both self-reflection and their peers’ work at both the micro and macro levels.

KEYWORDS:

• Academic writing
• self-reflection
• peer feedback
• elf-efficacy

Acknowledgements

We would like to express our thanks to Miss. Yuhan Huang for her assistance with the literature search for this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Research and Development Project [EDB(LE)/P&R/EL/203/15] of SCOLAR Hong Kong and the CBS L&T Project (CBS/1819/XZ) of Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University.