Is Peer Feedback an Effective Approach for Creating Dialogue in Politics?

Feedback practices have recently come under increasing scrutiny in British Universities, most notably because of the impact of the National Student Survey. This article draws on the work of a National Teaching Fellowship Scheme funded project (‘It's Good to Talk: Feedback, Dialogue and Learning’.) that seeks to identify, evaluate, develop and promote ways to improve feedback to students within the discipline of Politics. The article contends that student dissatisfaction with assignment feedback, coupled with increased pressures on teaching time, calls for a new approach to feedback delivery in the teaching of Politics. At the centre of this is the issue of encouraging lecturer and student dialogue around learning by developing peer feedback. This means moving away from a ‘transmission’ approach to feedback to techniques that involve discussion and reflection. In this article, we consider the literature on one approach by focusing on student-to-student peer feedback. Through an exploration of the literature, we argue that it offers an effective way to support student learning.