Results of a Peer Review Activity in an Organic Chemistry Laboratory Course for Undergraduates

This paper presents preliminary results of the incorporation of the peer review process into the laboratory component of an organic chemistry course for second year undergraduate students in the biological sciences in Italy. The study was conducted on a class of 64 students and incorporated a training session, a double-blind peer revision of laboratory reports, and a final debriefing phase with evaluation of the activity both by the instructor and by the students. Improvement of students’ writing skills was monitored together with their ability to provide a feedback review and to critically analyze the feedback comments received. The results indicate that the participants made moderate improvements in their ability to write a laboratory report and were able to evaluate the quality of their peers’ writing but also struggled with various aspects of the peer review process.