Visual peer feedback using a digital space: a study of sixth-grade students in the visual arts classroom

Abstract This article focuses on visual peer feedback and the idea process in visual arts education and how this process was shared digitally. In the study, sixth-grade students gave each other visual feedback on their sketches in an assignment in pictorial composition. Visual feedback is understood here as direct interaction with copies of the original composition, given by adding and/or revising elements, which differs from traditional peer feedback that is mainly textual. The aim of the study was to investigate how students can develop their idea process by giving and receiving visual peer feedback, and how students can share their ideas and the feedback digitally. Thematic analysis was used to identify different techniques of visual communication given in the feedback, and a survey was used to map how the students perceived the feedback process. Most students engaged in the feedback process by reusing the objects or the shapes of the objects in the original sketch in new compositions using various techniques like cutting, sketching, and coloring. The interactive and visual feedback dialogues created a playful learning environment. Most students found the peer feedback activity useful and appreciated studying and developing the work of their peers.