Abstract:

Peer feedback has demonstrated to be one of the best methodologies to improve the teaching-learning process in the university context. Previous studies have established that, peer feedback increases motivation for learning, improves the teaching-learning process, enhances a positive climate in class and allow students to improve several academic skills. However, despite the importance that peer feedback has gained in recent years; few studies have been developed validating reliable measures for the assessment of attitudes of students regarding the implementation of this method in class in higher education context. One of the most recent questionnaires created in this sense is the Beliefs About Peer Feedback questionnaire (BPFQ). This evaluation instrument is composed of 10 items with a 5-point Likert-type response scale (1=Strongly disagree, 5=Strongly agree). It is configured through 4 dimensions: Valuation of peer-feedback as an instructional method (VIM), Confidence in own peer-feedback quality (CO), Confidence in quality of received peer-feedback (CR) and Valuation of peer-feedback as an important skill (VPS). This questionnaire has demonstrated adequate psychometric properties, with a reliability ranging from .67 to .76, and it has been widely employed in order to evaluate the feelings and opinions of students toward this type of methodology. Considering that there is a lack of validated and reliable instruments in Spanish to evaluate the students' attitudes to the employment of peer feedback as an evaluation strategy in the university context and attending the adequate psychometric properties of the BPFQ; the main aim of the present study was to carry out a cross-cultural validation of the questionnaire and a preliminary exploratory factor analysis of the Spanish version. The linguistic validation of the instrument was conducted following the procedure of forward-and back-translation. When the final Spanish version of the questionnaire was obtained, it was administered to 224 university students (58 men and 166 women) with a mean age of 23.23 years. The criterion of adjustment KMO=.813 and Bartlett: χ2=988.590, df= 45, p<.001; allowed the application of the factor analysis. The results of the exploratory factor analysis with Varimax rotation confirmed the same four-factor structure of the original BPFQ in our Spanish sample, explaining the 64.4% of variance. The obtained results point out that the BPFQ could be an appropriate measure to analyze the attitudes of university students towards the application of peer feedback methodologies in the teaching-learning process in the Spanish context. However, future studies should confirm, through confirmatory factor analysis, the construct validity of the questionnaire. The availability of questionnaires with adequate psychometric properties for the evaluation of beliefs about peer feedback in Spanish university students could entails an advance in the comprehension of the efficacy of the introduction of this methodology in the classroom dynamic. Moreover, would allow teachers to identify possible predictors of the efficacy of this methodology improving the teaching-learning process in higher education context.

Keywords:

Peer feedback, university, students, questionnaire.