Effects of Peer Feedback on Adolescent Writing: A Meta-Analysis

Purpose Peer feedback is increasingly recognized as a crucial socio-cognitive learning strategy that improves students’ writing skills. However, no review to date has specifically examined the effectiveness of peer feedback on writing among adolescent students, a group for whom peer feedback may function differently than it does for younger children or adults. In this meta-analysis, we examined the effectiveness of peer feedback on adolescent writing and explored factors that moderate its impact.Method Using robust variance estimation within a random-effects model, we analyzed 24 independent true or quasi-experimental studies, encompassing 70 effect sizes and 1,975 participants from middle and high schools across 13 countries.Results Results revealed a moderate-to-large positive effect of peer feedback on adolescent writing (ES = 0.56), with statistically significant improvements in writing quality (ES = 0.60), higher-order writing elements (ES = 0.63), and lower-order writing elements (ES = 0.72). Moderator analyses indicated that written peer feedback had a greater impact than oral feedback. The effects were also larger in studies with passive control groups (i.e. business-as-usual) than active ones (i.e. teacher or self-feedback). Peer feedback was also more effective for second-language writers than first-language writers, although the effects are somewhat confounded with context of study findings (i.e. North American or international studies).Conclusion Peer feedback is a valuable instructional strategy for enhancing adolescent writing and should be integrated into writing instruction with structured training to maximize its effectiveness.