Event Highlight: Successful Seminar on "How Students Learn from Peer Feedback: Insights from Empirical Studies"
The Department of Mathematics and Information Technology at The Education University of Hong Kong (EdUHK) successfully hosted a seminar titled "How Students Learn from Peer Feedback: Insights from Empirical Studies" on 19 November 2025. The event featured Dr Zhang Yi, a distinguished lecturer from the College of Education for the Future at Beijing Normal University, Zhuhai. It attracted a distinguished audience of 27 scholars and researchers from EdUHK and several mainland universities and institutions, fostering a vibrant cross-institutional dialogue on the cognitive mechanisms and pedagogical applications of peer feedback in learning processes.
Seminar Overview
Peer feedback has been widely recognised as a powerful pedagogical strategy, yet less attention has been paid to the processes through which students actually learn from it. In her presentation, Dr Zhang provided insights from a series of empirical studies examining how students engage with, interpret, and act upon peer feedback in different learning contexts.
Drawing on both quantitative and qualitative data, Dr Zhang highlighted key mechanisms that facilitate learning from feedback, including identification, explanation, suggestion, and praise. The analysis revealed how variations in student engagement, feedback literacy, and the affordances of digital platforms shape the effectiveness of peer feedback. By integrating evidence across multiple studies, Dr Zhang aimed to advance our understanding of peer feedback not merely as a product, but as an interactive process that supports knowledge construction, critical thinking, and self-regulation. Implications for designing peer learning environments and the potential role of generative AI in augmenting feedback practices were also discussed.
Key Insights from the Presentation
Dr Zhang commenced her presentation with a compelling research diagram entitled “Overwhelmed receivers vs. overly ambitious providers,” illustrating the significant disparity between students' perceptions and their actual behaviours when engaging with feedback. This key finding emphasised the substantial difference between how students perceive feedback and how they act upon it. Dr Zhang noted that while students frequently favour direct "suggestions" when assessing feedback, they engage more deeply with "explanations" that assist their understanding during revisions. This distinction highlights the need for educators to thoughtfully design feedback to enhance student engagement and learning outcomes—a phenomenon she referred to as "double separation."
Dr Zhang presents key insights from her research on peer feedback during the seminar, emphasising the importance of explanatory feedback.
Dr Sun Daner, Associate Professor and Associate Head at the Department of Mathematics and Information Technology, expertly moderates the seminar, facilitating discussions and ensuring a dynamic interaction between the speaker and participants.
Dr Zhan Ying, Associate Professor from the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, actively engages with Dr Zhang during the Q&A session, highlighting the collaborative spirit of the event.
Conclusion and Future Directions
This seminar significantly contributes to ongoing discussions about the critical role of peer feedback in education, emphasising the interactive processes that underpin effective learning. The insights shared by Dr Zhang will aid educators in refining their feedback strategies for enhanced student engagement and success. This seminar has further reinforced EdUHK's esteemed position in the fields of educational technology and learning sciences, paving the way for ongoing collaborative initiatives in the future.
