Peer Assessment and Peer Feedback to Foster Collaborative Learning and Consolidate the Writing Skills of University Students

According to national and international studies peer assessment and peer feedback have a major role in student learning processes (Topping et al., 2000; Moretti et al., 2015; Grion, Serbati, 2017). In the process of knowledge building the possibility of making use of peers can foster collaborative learning and the development of critical thinking. Within the university context providing writing activities in peer groups by introducing peer feedback and peer assessment allows to activate analysis, review and self-assessment processes of one’s own paper, consolidating language skills (Boscolo, 2014; Piemontese, Sposetti, 2014). The paper provides the results of an exploratory survey conducted with 380 students from the Roma Tre University. The main goal was to investigate the effectiveness of peer assessment and peer feedback to help develop strategic skills, and to enhance collaborative writing skills in digital format. The peer assessment activities implied the formation of pairs of groups that mutually assessed the argumentative text produced, using a semistructured grid. The students eventually answered a questionnaire. The analysis of the data showed that the work carried out in peer groups, through a process of collaborative learning, contributed to develop both metacognitive skills and the exercise of leadership of the students involved. The outcomes of the research confirm the importance of introducing writing tasks in the university context which, based on peer assessment and peer feedback, can improve the quality of the training.