Peer review
Students give feedback on each other's work, for example an essay or presentation.
- Pairs
- Small groups (3-10)
- 10-30 minutes
- 30-60 minutes
- >60 minutes
- Assessment
- Practicing academic skills
- Apply
- Create
- Evaluate
When to use it?
- When you want students to learn from one another.
- When you want to stimulate the critical evaluation skills of students.
- When you want students to clarify their own ideas as they explain them to their peer.
Activity instructions
Preparation
- Formulate clear assessment criteria that the students can use when they give each other feedback. Decide whether they need to give each other a score on each criterion or whether they can give open feedback. Explain these assessment criteria to the students.
- Give the students an assignment that will be peer reviewed, for example an essay, (video) presentation or podcast. They should finish the assignment before class.
Activity steps
- Make groups
Divide the students into pairs or small groups. - Peer review
Let the students review each other's work by using the assessment criteria. - Discuss
Let the pairs or small groups explain their feedback to each other.
Tips for implementation & variation
- Online teaching: Students can peer review each other's work in Brightspace or FeedbackFruits and discuss their feedback to each other in breakout rooms.
- It's ideally used for giving feedback on more complex work where no right or wrong answers are possible.
- You can use a rubric for the assessment criteria. It helps students focus on the work at a conceptual level, and prevents them from only paying attention to language, spelling or refuting the content.
Supporting tools