I have found both collaboration and peer review to be very effective forms of learning because they enable exchanging ideas and sharing experiences. I feel more comfortable about collaboration, as all the participants contribute equally and have similar responsibilities. The shift of roles in peer review, when one passes judgment on the work of others, is less comfortable to me as I would not like to hurt their feelings if I have to give criticism.
I enjoyed all the collaborations I did for school projects because working with my classmates gave me new insights and perspectives, so I have no bad collaborating experience. Once I participated in peer review for an online course and was to comment on the work of other students. It was easy as we did it online in writing, the task was small, and I reviewed only good works that did not require corrections.
While teamwork, collaboration, and peer review all deal with some common work and cooperation of several individuals, they have specific differences. In peer review, cooperation takes place at the latter stages, when participants discuss their projects, comment on each other’s work, and evaluate it. In teamwork, there is a leader who navigates responsibilities among the members and conducts conflicts to achieve positive results (Souza, Peduzzi, Silva, & Carvalho, 2016). In collaboration, all the individuals act like partners, contribute to the common goal equally, might have their own goals too, but need others to accomplish them.
In peer review collaboration, I would like to present my work to the best of my ability, evaluate other works objectively, and articulate my thoughts and criticism in a polite and precise manner. It would be an essential practice for my personal development because it would give me an opportunity to compare my level of expertise with that of others. Collaboration and discussion would also allow me to take a different look at my work.
Reference
Souza, G., Peduzzi, M., Silva, J., & Carvalho, B. (2016). Teamwork in nursing: Restricted to nursing professionals or an interprofessional collaboration?. Revista da Escola de Enfermagem da USP, 50(4), 642-649.