Abstract
Critical feedback, especially among peers, is difficult to give well but can be taught. Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) and Negotiations teachers can not only teach negotiation and facilitation skills affecting substantive outcomes but also equip students with the confidence and competence to engage well with critical feedback—a skill readily transferrable into any conflict resolution context. In this study, the author engaged a classroom intervention designed to improve peer feedback quality in an undergraduate negotiation course. The intervention included increasing transparency of what makes effective feedback and supplying a video recording of students’ negotiation performance prior to engaging in peer feedback, as well as ensuring at least twenty-four hours of rest time before engaging in feedback. The results revealed that the interventions significantly affected overall feedback quality, with students in the intervention group giving more effective than ineffective feedback while those in the control group gave almost equal amounts of effective and ineffective feedback. Students were also more often willing to tell a peer they exhibited close-mindedness rather than open-mindedness, suggesting increased ease of providing critical feedback. The intervention also improved timeliness of assignment completion. Furthermore, students in the intervention perceived and self-reported greater abilities to give constructive feedback following the course, finding the video playback particularly helpful.
Recommended Citation
Lieutenant Colonel Taren E. Wellman,
Peer Feedback Skills: A Negotiation Teaching Imperative,
69
St. Louis U. L.J.
(2025).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.slu.edu/lj/vol69/iss3/10