The impact of peer review on creative self-efficacy and learning performance in Web 2.0 learning activities

Introduction Creativity is considered as one of the core competences in contemporary education (U.S. Department of Education, 2010). Learning to be creative is thus infused into formal educational contexts to foster the of students to address this requirement. It is considered important to develop effective practices and pedagogies for encouraging and enhancing students' in schools (Lassig, 2009). Recently, more and more Web 2.0 technologies, referred to as Internet-based applications, have been developed to empower users to and collaborate with each other as creators of user-generated content in an online community (O'Reilly, 2005). Web 2.0 technologies, such as blogs, wikis and social networking platforms, have been increasingly applied to promote open and creative learning experiences in various educational settings. For instance, the studies by Aragon, Poon, Monroy-Hernandez and Aragon (2009) and Liu, Liu, Chen, Lin and Chen (2011b) have demonstrated the effects of such Web 2.0 platforms on augmenting creative activities, as they can afford a platform for students to create and share their creative works. Therefore, it is believed that the Web 2.0 technologies can enhance learner participation and in educational settings (Greenhow, Robelia. & Hughes, 2009; McLoughlin & Lee, 2010; Ravenscroft, 2009). However, many studies have pointed out the significant contrast between the creative nature of Web 2.0 learning activities and the structured learning that takes place in schools (Bennett, Bishop, Dalgarno, Waycott, & Kennedy, 2012; Mao, 2014). Formal education is restricted by the pre-defined curriculum in which students have to attain certain knowledge (Jimoyiannis, Tsiotakis, Roussinos, & Siorenta, 2013). However, the acquisition of the knowledge and assessment required in formal education may restrict the creative process. On the one hand, although the open and creative features of Web 2.0 learning activities may support active learning, previous studies have found that students' work in such activities may be perfunctory and may lack critical construction of knowledge (Tess, 2013). On the other hand, the assessment of students' performance, which is often conducted within a certain framework, may also be inconsistent with and interfere with the open and creative features of Web 2.0 learning activities (Hemmi, Bayne, & Land, 2009). Such assessment may also impact significantly students' motivation to participate in Web 2.0 learning activities. It is widely believed that a critical pathway for developing students' is to model creative practices for students (Sternberg & Williams, 1996). This study thus attempted to propose an approach to leveraging Web 2.0 learning activities and classroom teaching to help students develop both specific knowledge and creativity. This approach is mainly based on Csikzentmihalyi's system model of (1999) which asserts that creativity is a process that can be observed only at the intersection where individuals, domains, and field interact (Csikzentmihalyi, 1999, p. 314). From Csikzentmihalyi's perspective, individuals create new elements while knowing and operating old elements in a domain. However, not all elements are accepted as new elements; rather, new elements are sanctioned by some group entitled to make decisions as to what should or should not be included in the domain (Csikzentmihalyi, 1999, p. 315). On the one hand, these groups, i.e. the field, determine the value and originality of the new elements. On the other hand, individuals receive critical feedback to improve the elements they have created. From the perspective of Csikzentmihalyi's system model, the review process is a central component of the creative practice that students need to experience in order to understand the creative process. This study thus proposes integrating peer review activities with Web 2. …