Year: 2007
Type: article
Abstract: Some theorists consider writing and cognition to be symbiotic if not synonymous.Writing is regarded not only a means of communicating and assessing understanding of content knowledge, but as a way of constructing knowledge.Yet, though writing is likely a beneficial activity in most, if not all, disciplines, it has been difficult to implement in content courses.Robust online peer review systems for student writing now offer solutions to many of the problems that have impeded peer review activities in the past.Research in self-explanations and reciprocal teaching has suggested that students stand to benefit cognitively by articulating explanations to self and others, but this research has been conducted primarily in math and science domains.There have been few, if any, investigations of the effects of articulating feedback for others on one's own subsequent writing.The goal of this study was to examine the effects of reviewing on one's subsequent writing.Further, the study sought to illuminate distinctions between different types of reviewing and reviewer preparation, namely the effects of feedback elaboration and the effects of providing prototypical examples of helpful and unhelpful feedback.Results indicate that students who provided elaborate forms of feedback, which included free-form comments, performed significantly better on their own writing than students who provided numerical ratings only.In this context, the use of examples did v not have significant effects on reviewers' subsequent writing quality.Also, review-first groups did not perform significantly better than write-first groups, however, the author notes that the design of the study may have inadvertently counteracted reviewing effects.viACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank several individuals who made substantial contributions toward the completion of this research project.First, I would like to extend my sincere appreciation to my advisor, Dave Dalton, who has been a remarkable mentor to me academically and professionally, and for his patient guidance through this dissertation process.I would also like to thank my other committee members-Dr.Chris Was, Dr. Shawn Fitzgerald, and Dr. Christian Schunn-for their generous investments of time, energy and expertise.Dr. Schunn deserves additional thanks for designing the SWoRD system, the sine qua non of this dissertation, and for reaching across institutional and geographic boundaries to participate in this project.Second, I would like to thank Dr. Kwangsu Cho, who helped to create and administer the SWoRD system.During this project, he graciously fielded the increased demands created by treatment conditions
Author: Ryan S Wooley
Institution: Kent State University
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W130558415