PAIRR- Transforming writing education through peer review and AI literacy
To address equity gaps in writing skills and AI literacy, our intervention, Peer & AI Review + Reflection (PAIRR), leverages GenAI to increase writing support and boost AI literacy for both students and instructors. This intervention enhances metacognition and the human relationships that motivate students to learn. PAIRR has been recognized by a small competitive grant ($3,000) from the national Association for Writing Across the Curriculum Research Initiative, based on our successful pilot study at UC Davis in 2023-24, which reached 654 students across 10 composition, professional writing, and large writing-intensive STEM courses. Our project is led by writing faculty and a human-computer interaction expert at UC Davis, in collaboration with writing instructors at four CCs and three CSUs, and the educator-developer of MyEssayFeedback (a low-cost, teacher-led AI tool applying an OER library of instructor-authored prompts), used by 23 colleges and universities in 10 states and five countries in 2023-24. PAIRR is a five-part intervention: 1) Students discuss short readings on AI. 2) They complete peer review of draft writing assignments. 3) They prompt GenAI to review the same drafts. 4) They critically reflect on and assess both types of feedback, considering their goals and audience(s), and 5) They revise.