Transcript Peer-Assessment

Peer-Assessment
Peer-Assessment
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students comment on and judge their
colleagues’ work
Advantages
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Helps students to become more autonomous,
responsible, & involved
Encourages students to analyze critically
work done by others, rather than simply
seeing a mark
Helps clarify assessment criteria
Gives students a wider range of feedback
Advantages
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More closely parallels possible career
situations where judgment is made by a
group
Reduces the marking load of the instructor
Several groups can be run at once as not all
groups require the presence of the instructor
Disadvantages
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Students may lack the ability to evaluate each other
Students may not take it seriously, allowing
friendships, entertainment value, etc., to influence
their marking
Students may not like peer marking because of the
possibility of being discriminated against, being
misunderstood, etc.
Without instructor intervention, students may
misinform each other
Research Findings
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Student ratings of colleagues are both
reliable & valid.
Orpen [1982] found no difference between
lecturer and student ratings of assignments in
terms of average ratings, variations in ratings,
agreement in ratings, or relationship between
ratings.
Research Findings
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Arnold et al [1981] reported that peer ratings
of medical students were internally
consistent, unbiased, and valid.
Other studies suggest there is variation
according to factors such as age of the
student [Falchikow, 1986].
Outcomes
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One of the desirable outcomes of education
should be an increased ability in the learner
to make independent judgments about their
own and others’ work.
Peer- and self-assessment exercises are
seen as a means by which these general
skills can be developed & practiced.
Value
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A peer rating format can encourage a greater
sense of involvement & responsibility,
establish a clearer framework & promote
excellence, direct attention to skills and
learning, and provide increased feedback
[Weaver & Cotrell, 1986].
Value of Feedback
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Feedback helps students to improve and
prevents them from making the same
mistakes again.
Feedback for these purposes needs to come
early in the course.
Value
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Keeping the students focusing on improvement
rather than judgment alone is crucial for personal
development. Students need constructive
feedback to help them assess and then build on
their own strengths. They need to identify ways of
addressing weaknesses and plan appropriate
action. The key benefit of peer assessment is the
opportunity it provides for students to provide each
other with multiple perspectives and lateral
constructive suggestions.
High Quality Feedback
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For students, high quality feedback consists
of the following three things:
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Clear criteria against which to judge the
comments.
Comments that are detailed and related to specific
aspects of their work.
Comments that are improvement focused.
Value of Peer-Assessment
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giving a sense of ownership of the assessment
process, improving motivation
encouraging students to take responsibility for their
own learning, developing them as autonomous
learners
treating assessment as part of learning, so that
mistakes are opportunities rather than failures
Value of Peer-Assessment
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practising the transferable skills needed for life-long
learning, especially evaluation skills
using external evaluation to provide a model for
internal self-assessment of a student's own learning
(metacognition), and
encouraging deep rather than surface learning.
Value
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Student assessment of other students' work, both
formative and summative, has many potential
benefits to learning for the assessor and the
assessed. It encourages student autonomy and
higher order thinking skills. Its weaknesses can be
avoided with anonymity, multiple assessors, and
tutor moderation. With large numbers of students
the management of peer assessment can be
assisted by Internet technology.
Value
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giving a sense of ownership of the assessment
process, improving motivation
encouraging students to take responsibility for their
own learning, developing them as autonomous
learners
treating assessment as part of learning, so that
mistakes are opportunities rather than failures
Value
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practising the transferable skills needed for life-long
learning, especially evaluation skills
using external evaluation to provide a model for
internal self-assessment of a student's own learning
(metacognition), and
encouraging deep rather than surface learning.
Want Assessment Systems that:
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concentrate on what is learned rather than what is
taught, with a student-centred rather than a tutorcentered focus.
let students in on the process, by allowing them all
know the rules of the game, particularly by the use
of transparent, available and meaningful criteria,
instead of making them play the "guess what's in
teacher's mind" game.
Want Assessment Systems that:
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are fit for purpose, relating closely to the specified
learning outcomes and assessing the right things, not
what is easy to assess.
promote lifelong learning, by helping students to
evaluate their own and their peers’ achievements
realistically, not just encouraging them always to rely
on (tutor) evaluation from on high.
encourage divergent outcomes rather than convergent
ones, so the students have the opportunity to
demonstrate their individuality rather than striving
towards a single, correct answer.