Date of Award
Summer 2025
Document Type
Open Access Dissertation
Department
Educational Studies
First Advisor
Ismahan Arslan-Ari
Abstract
The purpose of this action research was to examine the impact of peer review on writing self-efficacy and writing performance in an undergraduate online writing for mass communications course. The study focused on two research questions: (1) How and to what extent does structured peer review affect undergraduate students’ writing self-efficacy in an online writing for mass communications course in a large public Southeastern university? and (2) How and to what extent does structured peer review affect undergraduate students’ writing performance in an online writing for mass communications course in a large public Southeastern university? This research used peer review as the intervention. Twelve students in a Spring Semester 2024 section of the course completed three cycles of peer review on a journalistic writing assessment. During the research, data collected included scores on a writing self-efficacy survey, scores by rubric on an inverted pyramid style writing assessment, student responses from interviews and student peer feedback collected from writing artifacts. A convergent parallel mixed methods design was used to answer the research questions. To analyze the quantitative data, a paired samples t-test was conducted for the pre- and post-assessment scores on the writing self-efficacy survey and the inverted pyramid assessment. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the quantitative findings. Inductive analysis was used to analyze the qualitative data and to develop themes from student responses from interviews and the student peer feedback collected from writing artifacts. Findings showed that performing peer review showed an impact on participants’ writing self-efficacy, with an increase in participants’ scores on the post-intervention survey over the pre-intervention survey. In their post intervention interviews, participants said they perceived they were improved writers with enhanced skills to carry forward. Findings showed that performing peer review had an impact on writing performance, with an increase in participants’ scores on the post-assessment over the pre-assessment. In their interviews, participants reported that performing peer review had an impact on their writing performance. Participants’ comments on their peers’ work showed command of the writing techniques from the course, featuring the vocabulary and methods of the discipline of mass communications writing. Implications are discussed, as well as limitations of the study and recommendations for future researchers and faculty.
Rights
© 2025, Nina Morrison Brook
Recommended Citation
Brook, N. M.(2025). Students’ Experiences Using Peer Review to Affect Writing Self-Efficacy and Writing Performance in an Undergraduate Mass Communications Writing Course. (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/8513