The effects of gender and training on peer feedback characteristics

Abstract

Previous research has demonstrated the benefits of peer feedback for improving student work. Gender, as an individual characteristic, is now receiving increased attention due to its influence on the peer feedback process. This study examined the effects of gender and peer assessment training on the amount and content of peer feedback provided by assessors for poor, average and excellent writing samples, using a randomised controlled design. A total of 240 undergraduate psychology students participated in the study. Half of the participants received peer assessment training, while the other half received task instructions only. Participants were assigned to eight subgroups, providing peer feedback to writing samples attributed to fictitious male or female assessee. Analysis of 3017 feedback segments revealed that women provided a greater amount of peer feedback compared to men. Women also offered more positive verifications and suggestive elaborations for average and poor writing samples. Male assessees received more suggestive elaborations, while trained assessors provided more positive verifications. These findings suggest the need for a multifaceted training programme to bridge the gap between gender-based differences in peer feedback characteristics.

Keywords:

• Gender
• peer feedback content
• peer feedback amount
• training
• randomised-controlled design

Acknowledgements

Our sincerest gratitude to Dr. David Kofoed Wind for the platform access, and Ms. Patricia Mae Taba, Dr. Rita Aringo, and Dr. Ian Llenares for the assistance in data collection.

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Funding

The first author of this project received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under the Marie Skłodowska Curie grant agreement N° 847624. A number of institutions co-financed the project. The Spanish National R + D call from the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (Generación del conocimiento 2019) [Reference number: PID2019-108982GB-I00]. Basque Government call for Ayudas para apoyar las actividades de grupos de investigación del sistema universitario vasco para los años 2022-2025 [Reference number: IT1624-22]. The third author is funded by the Formación de Personal Investigador [reference PRE2020-092280].