Tracing the development of graduate students’ peer feedback literacy: A longitudinal multiple-case study

Abstract

Recent research has highlighted the importance of peer feedback literacy in academic writing, yet its longitudinal development among graduate students remains underexplored. This longitudinal multiple-case study traced the development of peer feedback literacy among four Chinese graduate students working in two fixed provider–receiver dyads across two peer feedback cycles. Drawing on drafts, peer comments, multimodal interaction records, and interviews, the analysis identified cross-case commonalities and role-related variation. The findings revealed a shared three-stage trajectory, moving from initial constraints on productive participation in peer feedback, through the recalibration of feedback orientations and practices, to more coordinated, strategic, and collaborative feedback practices. Within this trajectory, development took different forms across cases: one receiver showed growing confidence in evaluating feedback, whereas the other developed greater trust in the feedback relationship; among the providers, one produced increasingly explicit and actionable feedback, whereas the other adopted a more adaptive and relationally sensitive evaluative stance. The findings suggest that peer feedback literacy is a role-differentiated and socially co-constructed configuration of capacities, dispositions, and practices shaped by affective, relational, and interactional conditions. They offer pedagogical implications for creating emotionally safe peer-feedback environments, scaffolding feedback provision, and structuring opportunities for digitally mediated dialogue.