Participating in peer review
On this page, you'll learn why engaging in peer review is so valuable. We will also give practical tips on how to give excellent peer feedback (and receive feedback well) for your university assignments and group work.
It will take 10-15 minutes for reading and reflection.
Why peer review?
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 work in groups, give and receive advice and develop innovative ideas with a team. In fact, surveys consistently show that Australian 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 great feedback?
Make it…
- Timely - Provide feedback when it is fresh in everyone’s mind
- Balanced – Try the ‘sandwich’ method. Another option is the 3:1 rule (three positive points per point for improvement)
- 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…”
Avoid these traps…
- Being vague or overly positive – “It was just all good!” might feel good to hear but doesn’t help in a concrete way.
- Overloading your listener – Don’t try to cover too many points, or 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
During
Listen/read carefully – Take in the feedback in its entirety. Try to be open to what the reviewer wants you to know, not only what you would like to hear. Don’t zero in on only the criticism; consider what they thought you did well.
Be open to other ways of thinking – We all come to uni with different life experiences, backgrounds and communication styles. It might be challenging to find out that your reviewer has a different perspective to yours but think about how this can help you gain a more well-rounded view of the topic and strengthen your overall argument.
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. If your peer has misunderstood your work, perhaps others will too.
Acknowledge your emotional reaction - It is normal to feel a reaction when we receive critical feedback. Try to distance yourself from your work, and view the feedback objectively.
Try these:
- My reviewer left critical feedback about how I left some terminology unexplained … but they liked my overall argument and analysis.
- How can I use this to strengthen my work?
- Maybe I need to re-think how I’ve articulated my ideas.
- I've got to remember this feedback isn’t about me personally, it’s addressed to the piece of work.
- I’ll take a break and come back to it with a cool head!
After
Stay calm and ensure you’ve got the full picture - Read or listen to the feedback in its entirety before responding. Focus on clarifying or discussing, rather than refuting or correcting. It can help if you give yourself time to take a break between reading your peers’ comments and responding to them.
Be selective – You don’t have to engage in detail with every bit of feedback you receive. Indeed, 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 one of your peers to get a second opinion.
Try these:
- "I want to make sure I’ve clearly understood what you mean. When you say XXX do you mean ...?”
- These comments are about my contributions in tutorial discussions. They really don’t seem relevant to my paper that was being reviewed. I’ll just say ‘ok’ and move on.
Final Tip
Whether you are engaging in formal or informal peer review, at uni or beyond, here are a few things to keep in mind:
- It’s ultimately your responsibility to act on feedback and how (or whether) you use it.
- Feedback is simply a process that helps you reflect on your work. The goal is to use what you have learned to improve your future performance.
- It’s fine to feel challenged by the feedback process. Peer feedback activities provide you with a chance to practise and develop skills to evaluate and improve your own work in your studies and beyond.
We are all different, and this may mean that you will be at varying points of familiarity and comfort around the peer review process. Remember to be compassionate in how you give and receive feedback.