Grudges and gratitude: the social-affective impacts of peer assessment

Students’ dissatisfaction with peer assessment has been widely documented. While most relevant literature places focus on the cognitive (content and uptake of feedback) or structural (feedback design) dimensions, students’ emotions in peer assessment have received scant attention. This study investigates the social-affective impacts of peer assessment by analysing students’ appeal letters addressed to their tutors, reflective posts in the online discussion forum and responses to a survey. A thematic analysis of data indicated three main aspects of students’ (dis)satisfaction: content, scores and process of peer assessment. The most negative emotion that students expressed was related to ‘disrespectful’ behaviour and attitudes of peer reviewers, whereas the feeling of appreciation was triggered by the helpful feedback attributes which were perceived as reflecting reviewers’ respect to others’ works. Students generally held mixed feelings toward peer assessment, valuing learning in the process of providing and receiving feedback but showing resistance to using peer assessment for summative purposes. The findings highlight the significance of respect in peer assessment and argue that the perceived lack of mutual respect seems to underpin the nature of students’ dissatisfaction. This study carries implications for nurturing students’ respectful attitudes and behaviour in and through peer assessment.