Reflections on peer feedback in disciplinary courses as a tool in pre-service teacher training

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe assumption behind the use of peer feedback in disciplinary courses in teachers’ colleges is that it can help pre-service teachers to learn, to develop reflective skills, and to train professional skills pertaining to assessment situations or to peer collaboration. In fact, as the authors show in a review of the literature on the topic, there is little evidence that pre-service teachers succeed in transferring the skills they acquire in disciplinary peer feedback to other fields, and that the behaviour of students in disciplinary peer feedback is a valid predictor of their abilities in those fields. Indeed, the peer feedback situation is loaded with psychological factors which do not exist in the other situations: sensitivity to social relations; beliefs about the expertise of peers as assessors; motivation; and gender-related factors. Therefore, special care should be employed when using disciplinary peer feedback in teachers’ colleges.