‘A Different Voice’ in Peer Feedback: Gender Specificity in Students’ Willingness to Provide Peer Feedback
In the context of the efforts to reach equity in the classroom, peer feedback (PFB) is used, among other participative learning methods, as it is considered to minimize gender differences. Yet, recent studies have reported gender discrepancies in students’ willingness to provide feedback to their pe...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2023-06-01
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| Series: | Education Sciences |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/13/7/654 |
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| author | Dominique-Esther Seroussi Yehuda Peled Rakefet Sharon Nathan Rothschild Osnat Halperin Barlev Eyal Weissblueth Gal Harpaz |
| author_facet | Dominique-Esther Seroussi Yehuda Peled Rakefet Sharon Nathan Rothschild Osnat Halperin Barlev Eyal Weissblueth Gal Harpaz |
| author_sort | Dominique-Esther Seroussi |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | In the context of the efforts to reach equity in the classroom, peer feedback (PFB) is used, among other participative learning methods, as it is considered to minimize gender differences. Yet, recent studies have reported gender discrepancies in students’ willingness to provide feedback to their peers. Building on Gilligan’s theory of moral development, we tried to refine the source of this difference. We conducted a semi-experimental study during which education students of both genders performing a PFB activity in a face-to-face course were asked to fill out a questionnaire. This allowed us to estimate the link between, on the one hand, the comfort in providing PFB and the willingness to provide PFB, and on the other hand, personal characteristics like self-esteem, self-efficacy, and empathic concern, and intellectual characteristics like self-efficacy in the learned discipline and the proficiency to write and understand feedback. The linear regression analysis of 57 students’ answers to the questionnaire did not reveal gender differences in comfort in providing PFB and willingness to do so, but showed that the comfort in providing PFB was linked to cognitive proficiency in students of both genders, whereas the willingness to provide PFB was independent of any other variables in men and linked to self-esteem, empathic concern, and comfort in providing feedback in women. This result indicates a differential sensitivity to social factors in male and female students, aligning with Gilligan’s model of women’s ‘ethics of care’. Possible applications in education would be the use of PFB to train women in self-esteem or, inversely, the improvement of psychological safety in PFB exercises in groups including female students. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-11T01:08:51Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-7f03215bcd624e5eb3ce6391661a6531 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2227-7102 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-11T01:08:51Z |
| publishDate | 2023-06-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Education Sciences |
| spelling | doaj.art-7f03215bcd624e5eb3ce6391661a65312023-11-18T19:02:34ZengMDPI AGEducation Sciences2227-71022023-06-0113765410.3390/educsci13070654‘A Different Voice’ in Peer Feedback: Gender Specificity in Students’ Willingness to Provide Peer FeedbackDominique-Esther Seroussi0Yehuda Peled1Rakefet Sharon2Nathan Rothschild3Osnat Halperin Barlev4Eyal Weissblueth5Gal Harpaz6Faculty of Education, Tel Hai Academic College, Qiryat Shmona 1220800, IsraelDepartment of Education, Western Galilee College, Acre 2412101, IsraelFaculty of Education, Tel Hai Academic College, Qiryat Shmona 1220800, IsraelFaculty of Education, Tel Hai Academic College, Qiryat Shmona 1220800, IsraelFaculty of Education, Tel Hai Academic College, Qiryat Shmona 1220800, IsraelFaculty of Education, Tel Hai Academic College, Qiryat Shmona 1220800, IsraelDepartment of Education and Psychology, The Open University of Israel, Raanana 4353701, IsraelIn the context of the efforts to reach equity in the classroom, peer feedback (PFB) is used, among other participative learning methods, as it is considered to minimize gender differences. Yet, recent studies have reported gender discrepancies in students’ willingness to provide feedback to their peers. Building on Gilligan’s theory of moral development, we tried to refine the source of this difference. We conducted a semi-experimental study during which education students of both genders performing a PFB activity in a face-to-face course were asked to fill out a questionnaire. This allowed us to estimate the link between, on the one hand, the comfort in providing PFB and the willingness to provide PFB, and on the other hand, personal characteristics like self-esteem, self-efficacy, and empathic concern, and intellectual characteristics like self-efficacy in the learned discipline and the proficiency to write and understand feedback. The linear regression analysis of 57 students’ answers to the questionnaire did not reveal gender differences in comfort in providing PFB and willingness to do so, but showed that the comfort in providing PFB was linked to cognitive proficiency in students of both genders, whereas the willingness to provide PFB was independent of any other variables in men and linked to self-esteem, empathic concern, and comfort in providing feedback in women. This result indicates a differential sensitivity to social factors in male and female students, aligning with Gilligan’s model of women’s ‘ethics of care’. Possible applications in education would be the use of PFB to train women in self-esteem or, inversely, the improvement of psychological safety in PFB exercises in groups including female students.https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/13/7/654peer assessmentgenderself-esteemempathyfeminist pedagogy |
| spellingShingle | Dominique-Esther Seroussi Yehuda Peled Rakefet Sharon Nathan Rothschild Osnat Halperin Barlev Eyal Weissblueth Gal Harpaz ‘A Different Voice’ in Peer Feedback: Gender Specificity in Students’ Willingness to Provide Peer Feedback Education Sciences peer assessment gender self-esteem empathy feminist pedagogy |
| title | ‘A Different Voice’ in Peer Feedback: Gender Specificity in Students’ Willingness to Provide Peer Feedback |
| title_full | ‘A Different Voice’ in Peer Feedback: Gender Specificity in Students’ Willingness to Provide Peer Feedback |
| title_fullStr | ‘A Different Voice’ in Peer Feedback: Gender Specificity in Students’ Willingness to Provide Peer Feedback |
| title_full_unstemmed | ‘A Different Voice’ in Peer Feedback: Gender Specificity in Students’ Willingness to Provide Peer Feedback |
| title_short | ‘A Different Voice’ in Peer Feedback: Gender Specificity in Students’ Willingness to Provide Peer Feedback |
| title_sort | a different voice in peer feedback gender specificity in students willingness to provide peer feedback |
| topic | peer assessment gender self-esteem empathy feminist pedagogy |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/13/7/654 |
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