Participating in peer review

Benefits of peer review

Your peers can give you feedback from a perspective that's closer to you. And combining feedback from your tutor and your peers can give you a more holistic view. Ashley, First year student

Study success

A peer review or peer evaluation process involves giving and getting feedback. Going through this process pushes you to solve problems and think critically; there aren't always simple answers or one way of understanding. By reviewing other students’ work, you can learn more about the topic. You also get to experience different ways of communicating ideas, and develop your writing and speaking skills in turn.

Employability

Feedback skills are essential in the workplace. Workers often need to collaborate in groups, give and receive advice and develop ideas with a team. In fact, employers highly value soft skills such as communication and teamwork when hiring new graduates.

Lifelong development

Approaching feedback with curiosity and openness is an example of having a growth mindset. People who have a growth mindset in life see challenges as a chance to learn, grown and develop new skills. By embracing these opportunities, you can be more creative, cope with change and thrive in challenging situations throughout life.

Giving feedback

Which aspects of my peers' work should I focus on?

It can help to start with what you know about the task, and how its success will be measured. For example:

Look at the criteria or marking rubric to decide what is important.
Consider the aim of the task: to appraise, reflect, persuade etc. Did your peer’s work meet this aim?
Who is the intended audience? Imagine yourself in their shoes and ask yourself if the work met this audience’s expectations.

When it comes to feedback, quality is more important than quantity: you don’t have to comment on every detail. Prioritise the issues that you think have most impact.

How do I frame effective feedback?

The top of the sandwich is a positive comment. The filling is 'constructive criticism'. The bottom is a final positive comment.

To give effective feedback, make it:

Balanced – Try using the 3:1 rule (three positive points per point for improvement). Another option is the ‘sandwich’ method.
Open to dialogue – Allow the recipient to respond or ask questions if the format permits
Objective and specific – Base feedback on your observations of the performance or work—not on personal attributes.
Constructive, not critical – “I’d like to see…” is more helpful than “You shouldn’t have…”
Likewise: try “You could consider including…” instead of “You didn’t include…”

Things to avoid when giving peer feedback:

Being vague or overly positive – “It was all good!” might feel good to hear but doesn’t help in a practical way.
Overloading – Don’t try to cover too many points, or provide exhaustive detail. If it’s not possible to say what you mean clearly and concisely, reconsider whether you need to say it at all.
Comparing with others – Evaluate your peer against the requirements of the task, not other students.
Being unrealistic – “How about you start from scratch...” Give your peer suggestions that are manageable for someone with the time, resources and level of expertise they have.

Receiving feedback

Acknowledge your feelings

Notice your emotions and reactions as you receive feedback. It’s normal to feel worried beforehand, or frustrated or upset at the point you receive critical feedback. Try to remember that the person is trying to help you learn, not criticise you, and the feedback is directed at the piece of work, not you personally . It can help if you give yourself time to take a break between reviewing your peers’ comm ents and responding to them.

Listen or read carefully

Read or listen to all of the feedback before responding. Try to be open to what the reviewer wants you to know, not only what you would like to hear. Don’t focus in on only the criticism; notice what they thought you did well, too.

Be open to other ways of thinking

Engaging with different perspectives to yours can be challenging, but think about how it can help you gain a more well-rounded view of the topic and strengthen your work.

Treat feedback as a learning opportunity

Even if you don’t agree with what someone has said, ask yourself what you can learn from this. Focus on clarifying and expanding on your understanding, rather than refuting or correcting. If your peer has misunderstood your work, perhaps others will too.

Be selective

You don’t have to engage in detail with every bit of feedback you receive. If you think the criticism is harsh, unfair, or misguided, it’s often better to simply take note of it and move on. If you’re unsure whether the feedback is appropriate, talk to your tutor or a different one of your peers to get a second opinion.

Reflect and act

Consider what you have learned from this feedback, and what your next steps will be. Ask yourself:

How can I use this to strengthen my work?
What strengths did the reviewer highlight?
What questions can I ask the reviewer to better understand this feedback?
If this reviewer misunderstood my idea, could I articulate it in a different way?
Do I need to take a break and come back to this feedback with a cool head?
How could I break the feedback down into manageable chunks or categorise it to make it easier to digest?

Tip: Use a reflection template

Consider documenting the feedback, your reflections and plans for implementation. You can download and adapt this template for your own work.

Feedback reflection template [DOCX 36.6KB]

Final tip

We are all different, and this may mean you and your peers have different levels of familiarity and comfort around the peer review process, so remember to be compassionate in how you give and receive feedback.