Teacher and Peer Tandem Response: A Practical Inquiry Analysis

Abstract

Programs like Google Docs enable both teacher and peer response to student writing in the same digital space, yet few studies have investigated the possibilities of both feedback practices in an interactive tandem. While traditional approaches to feedback might argue such practices to be separate, a Community of Inquiry (CoI) approach might encourage the possibilities of enhanced metacognition through diverse socialization and teacher guidance. One important concept within Communities of Inquiry is an emphasis of practical inquiry (PI) which carries participants through critical phases of action and deliberation to solve academic problems. This study explores feedback activity practices within an L2 writing course in South Korea, where Google Docs was employed to enable discussion threads among essay writers, peer respondents and their teacher. In these practices, student writers prompted discussions on their own work, and both peer respondents and the instructor acted as consultants to help determine revision plans. The analysis probes their feedback practices to describe instances of the following practical inquiry phases: triggering events, explorations, integrations and resolutions. Students also completed survey reactions to the response activities that comment on successes both overall and with each phase.