A Comparison of the Effectiveness of Teacher Versus Peer Feedback on Addis Ababa University Students' Writing Revisions
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Date
1999-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The general objective of this research was to compare the effectiveness of different feedback
methods on students' writing revisions. The specific objcctives were to: (a) discover what feedback
methods are in fact used in responding to students' writing at present (b) find out what students
feel about the different feedback methods used in writing (c) compare the effectiveness of the
teacher versus peer feedback on students' writing revisions, and (d) suggest the feedback method/s
that could promote students' writing skills.
To achieve these objectives, two questionnaires and four essays for students and questionnaires
for writing teachers were used both in the pilot and the main studies. The results of the pilot and
the main studies were analyzed and discussed in chapters five and six, respectively.
The results of the questionnaires for students largely revealed that 'error identification', 'writing
comments', 'conferencing' and 'reformulation' were the most common forms of feedback used in
responding to students' writing. The students reported that their writing teachers mostly used 'error
identification', 'writing comments' and 'conferencing' in descending order. The results of
questionnaire for teachers also revealed that writing teachers usually used 'error identification',
'writing comments' and 'conferencing' in descending order. This practice, however, seems to be
at variance with what students would like to have. The results of the questionnaires for students
revealed that students would like to have 'writing comments', 'conferencing' and 'error
identification' in descending order.
On the other hand, the results of the essays revealed that there was no significant difference
between the mean scores of the two groups (teacher versus peer) for the impromptu essay andthe first and fmal drafts of the other three essays they wrote during this research. However, the
mean scores of the first and fmal drafts were found to be significantly different within the group
for all the three essays. The essay results showed that irrespective of the feedback method (teacher
versus peer) used in responding to studeuts' writing, there was no significant difference between
the writing performance of the two groups. The results may suggest that teacher and peer feedback
are equally effective in responding to students' writing. Moreover, the fact that students' writing
improved significantly when they rewrote the originals suggests that rewriting improves students'
writing significantly.
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teacher versus peer feedback on Addis