The impact of a peer-feedback intervention on the attitudes and beliefs of first-year Social Care students in Ireland

Abstract

One way of actively engaging students with the feedback process and enhancing feedback literacy is through peer-feedback. However, there is little research to date in Ireland on undergraduate students’ beliefs and attitudes towards peer-feedback. All participants completed a validated questionnaire, ‘Beliefs about Peer-feedback Questionnaire’, to explore their beliefs about and attitudes towards peer-feedback, before and after a peer-feedback intervention. Both before and after the intervention, approximately 80% of respondents valued peer-feedback as an instructional method and as an important skill, while 87% of these first-year students engaged with the peer-feedback intervention. A clear implication for teaching is that peer-feedback can and should be further utilised to address the feedback problem in Ireland. Prior to the intervention, approximately 60% of students were confident in their ability to generate peer-feedback while approximately 80% were confident in their peers’ ability to generate feedback. The intervention changed these attitudes with confidence in their own ability growing slightly (10%) and confidence in their peers’ ability decreasing substantially (by 20%). Developing students’ evaluative judgement and the capacity to generate high-quality feedback through training and repeated opportunities to practise is a key recommendation. A longitudinal study, exploring beliefs and confidence with cumulative experiences over time, is also highly recommended.