Research: Teacher Comments on Students' Writing

Question: How does giving reasons for feedback improve writing quality?

Source: Gielen, S., Peeters, F., Onghena, P., & Struyven, K. (2010). Improving the effectiveness of peer

feedback for learning. Learning & Instruction, 20(4), 304–315.

Answer: “Examines the effects of peer feedback on 43 seventh-grade students’ writing quality as well as the use of instruction to foster student writer reflection on the peer feedback they received. Finds that the degree to which feedback is accompanied with reasons for comments enhances writing quality, more so than the accuracy of comments. Asking students to reflect on feedback resulted in minimal gains in writing quality.”

Comment: I’m not sure what “giving reasons for feedback” means, but students are often confused by teacher comments on their writing. Anything that will help to clarify the teachers’ comments on students’ writing has to help students understand what to do with the comments. RayS.

Title: “Annotated Bibliography of Research in the Teaching of English.” Richard Beach et al. Research in the Teaching of English (November 2010), Internet. Note: The editors of RTE said that so much research was available they did not want to burden the paper edition of the journal with it, so they relegated their annotated reports on research to the Internet.