Relational Peer Review Practices in the Honors Research Methods Classroom: Toward a Scaffolded and Multidisciplinary Model

Peer review exercises are an essential part of many educational pedagogy models and have been shown to successfully provide undergraduate students with requisite active learning and critical reflection skills. Teaching the peer review process in an interdisciplinary honors research methods course, however, presents its own set of challenges. As students are exposed to new processes of editorial review, they are also tasked with evaluating material across subjects and discipline areas, making subjective components of editing more difficult. Authors describe a scaffolded model of peer review piloted in an interdisciplinary, upper-level honors research methods and ethics course and provide qualitative analyses of student reflections and assignment attributes to demonstrate the model's potential for student success. By presenting the peer review exercises as a series of sections that build incrementally in complexity and subjectivity (scaffolding) and dedicating class time for implementing peer-directed edits, authors provide an adaptable model that further strengthens research editing practices in honors education.