The affective effect: Exploring undergraduate students’ emotions in giving and receiving peer feedback

ABSTRACT

While the peer feedback process has an important role to play in student learning and has many benefits, it is not without its challenges. One of these is the effect that emotions may have on the way that students engage with the feedback. Yet, the specific emotions experienced during peer feedback is relatively under-explored. Therefore, this exploratory qualitative study unpacks the range of emotions experienced by students during peer feedback. Using Plutchnik’s Wheel of Emotions to analyse students’ questionnaire responses, the study found that students largely exhibited positive emotions, which may be due to their perceptions of themselves in relation to the process, as well as the various scaffolds put in place. Knowing which emotions students experienced during peer feedback may enable a greater understanding of the role of emotions in peer feedback, as well as enabling student feedback literacy development.

KEYWORDS:

• Peer feedback
• emotions
• student feedback literacy
• undergraduate students
• academic literacies

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Notes on contributors

S Bharuthram

S Bharuthram is an Associate Professor in academic literacies at the University of the Western Cape. Her research focus is on reading and writing in higher education as well as on assessment practices. Professor Bharuthram has published in national and international journals and has participated at local and international conferences.

Martina van Heerden is a lecturer at the University of the Western Cape, where she teaches English for Educational Development to students in the Science, Law, and CHS faculties. Dr van Heerden’s research interests include feedback, peer review, academic literacies, and academic development.