Student peer review in the classroom: a teaching and grading tool (original) (raw)

It is helpful for instructors to provide students with critique, not only upon completion of a writing assignment but also during the writing process. However, due to time constraints, instructors may not be able to read writing assignments more than once during a particular course, especially in large classes. Students may gain only limited feedback from a single source (the instructor). This paper discusses the use of student peer review to provide students with feedback early in the process of writing a term paper, and to give students experience in reviewing scientific material. Students were assigned a term paper that was then reviewed by classmates. The term paper consisted of the student's laboratory report summarizing the experiments performed during the course, and integrating both lecture and laboratory materials. The review process was double-blind to provide anonymity for both authors and reviewers, but was otherwise handled in a fashion similar to that used by scientific journals. Students were accountable for the quality of their reviews as well as their term papers. Peer review provided students with feedback early in the writing process, and required little additional time investment by the instructor. It also gave students important experience in critical thinking. The qualit)' of the final product (the finished term paper) was improved a result of the experiences of reviewing classmates' work, and receiving and implementing comments from peers. Peer review may be a valuable teaching and grading tool for the instructor who wishes to focus course activities on writing, but has limited resources or time for reviewing writing assignments.