MEANING OF PEER ASSESSMENT:



MEANING OF PEER ASSESSMENT:Introduction:P.A is a powerful metacognitive tool. It engages students in the learning process and develops their capacity to reflect on and critically evaluate their own learning and skill. Peer assessment grounded in theories of?active learning?(Piaget, ’71), adult learning (Cross, ’81) and social constructionism (Vygotsky, ’62). Peer assessment allows instructors to share the evaluation of assignments with their students. Meaning of Peer assessment:Peer Assessment is an assessment which allows students to assess each other's performance. It can be extremely valuable in helping students to learn from each other by listening, analyzing and problem solving. It gives students the opportunity to encounter diversity in different ways, critique and judge and ultimately, students learn how to be responsible for their own learning.Students individually assess each other's contribution using a predetermined list of criteria. Grading is based on a predetermined process, but most commonly it is an average of the marks awarded by members of the group. Definitions:Falchikov(2007), “Peer assessment requires students to provide either feedback or grades (or both) to their peers on a product or a performance, based on the criteria of excellence for that product or event which students may have been involved in determining” Wenger?s suggests that “learning involves active participation in a community of practice in which members of the community determine and structure their own practices, and construct identities in relation to these communities.” Boud, Cohen & Sampson (1999) observe that “if students are expected to put more effort into a course through their engagement in peer learning activities, then it may be necessary to have this effort recognized through a commensurate shift in assessment focusin the form of peer assessment.” Kvale(2006), “Peer learning draws on the “cognitive apprenticeship model”. Students can help each other to make sense of the gaps in their learning and understanding and to get a more sophisticated grasp of the learning process.” Wenger(1999), “Peer assessment aligns with the notion that an important part of the learning process is gradually understanding and articulating the values and standards of a community of practice”.2. NEED OF PEER ASSESSMENT:Falchikov (2007) describe the need of peer assessment as following:1. Peer learning is a model of cognitive apprenticeship:It is a model which is builds on a process that is part of our development from the earliest years of life (it is the practice of formal education and the centrality of the teacher that makes us lose sight of this). 2. Base of Collaborative Learning:Peer feedback can encourage collaborative learning through interchange about what constitutes good work. If the course wants to promote peer learning and collaboration in other ways, then the assessment tasks need to align with this also important to recognize the extra work that peer learning activities may require from students through the assessment. 3. To Develop Writing Skills:Research evidence indicates that peer feedback can be used very effectively in the development of students? writing skills. Students engaged in commentary on the work of others can heighten their own capacity for judgment and making intellectual choices. 4. Provide Wider Ideas:Students receiving feedback from their peers can get a wider range of ideas about their work to promote development and improvement. Enhance students' learning through knowledge diffusion and exchange of ideas.5. To reduce the Teacher student Gap:Peer evaluation helps to lessen the power imbalance between teachers and students and can enhance the students? status in the learning process.6. To Empower Students to take Responsibility:It empowers’ students to take responsibility for, and manage, their own learning. Enable students to learn to assess and to develop life-long assessment skills. 7. To Motivate Students for learning and self-review:Motivate students to engage with course material more deeply. The focus of peer feedback can be on process, encouraging students to clarify, review and edit their ideas. 8. To give immediate Feedback:It is possible to give immediate feedback, so formative learning can be enhanced. Peer assessment processes can help students learn how to receive and give feedback which is an important part of most work contexts. 3. COMPONENTS PROCEDURAL DESIGN OF PEER ASSESSMENT:The most important design features supporting effective peer assessment in teaching. These are summarized here. Important design features are: 1. Product: The size of the writing is five to eight pages. The reason is that students will not be willing to invest enough time in assessing larger products. 2. Relation to staff assessment: There must be sufficient time between the peer assessment and teacher assessment, so that students scan first, revise their paper on the basis of peer feedback, and then hand it in to the teacher.3. Directionality: Two-way feedback is easier to organize for teacher and students, as it is clear that the assessor will in turn be the assesse, which make it easier to exchange products. Oral feedback during class will not take much time, because the feedback groups can discuss simultaneously. 4. Contact: verbal explanation, analysis and suggestions for revision are necessary elements of the feedback process; these require face-to-face contact. 5. Constellation assessors/assesses: the size of feedback groups has to be three or four. In that situation, students have an opportunity to compare their fellow students? remarks, and to determine their relevance. A group of two students is too small, because of the risk that the partner might not perform properly. 6. Place: oral feedback must be organized during contact hours, because it is difficult to ascertain if students will organize this themselves when out of class. ICT-tools can be used to enable students to read the peer feedback before discussing it.4. TOOLS OF PEER ASSESSMENT: The following are tools which can be used for Peer assessment:1. Exchanging notes:A simple introduction to the concept of peer feedback is to invite students to exchange lecture notes in the final segment of a class and to discuss perceived gaps and differences in understanding. This can be done on a regular basis and has many potential benefits. It gets students used to discussing their work with their peers, it can help to build a collaborative environment and it helps students to improve and enhance their understanding. Falchikov(2007), “The evidence suggests that students become better at peer assessment with practice. Students need practice to gain confidence in peer assessment and to become more competent at it. Other classroom practices can also help to prepare students for peer assessment, such as exchange and discussion of lecture notes.”2. Writing- organizing and synthesizing information:The?Writing Across the Curriculum Clearinghouse at Colorado State University?encourages the use of written assignments as peer assessment tool across the campus because it teaches students to communicate information, to clarify thinking and to learn new concepts and information.i) Dyadic essays: Students prepare for the in-class portion of this exercise by developing an essay question and model answer based on assigned reading. In class, students exchange essay questions and write a spontaneous answer essay. Students then pair up, compare and contrast the model answer and the spontaneously generated answer. Subsequently, questions and answers can be shared with the larger class.3. Peer editing and feedback:i) Peer editing: As opposed to the editing process that often appears only at the final stage of a paper, peer editing pairs up students at the idea generation stage and peers provide feedback throughout the process. For example, the relationship begins as each student in the pair describes their topic ideas and outlines the structure of their work while their partner asks questions, and develops an outline based on what is described.ii) Peer Feedback:There are many different variants of this form of peer feedback. Essentially students prepare a draft of a section of an assessment and bring it to class. Students usually work in small groups and copies of the drafts are circulated to group members. Criteria for feedback have been discussed and negotiated beforehand or some key questions have been developed for students to use. Students take turns in providing oral feedback on their peers? drafts. It is helpful if group members write down some comments in relation to the criteria or questions and give these to the writer (prior to implementing peer editing, students should be given examples to practice with and be coached in the feedback process4. Probing reader and Collaborative reader:The probing and collaborative readers are trying to get the writer to articulate and clarify their intentions - these modes of interaction appear to be more productive for the improvement of the writing quality. This is worth bearing in mind when talking with students about the kind of questions that might be useful to ask in the peer feedback process.5. Authoritative reader: points out errors or shortcomings in the writing 6. Interpretative reader: “wants to discuss ideas emerging when reading the text” 7. JigsawThis is a Peer assessment learning approach where one member of the group is responsible for teaching something to one other member of the group. Each member is first given a part of the material to learn, and after it's learned, he is the designated expert on that part. When each expert Evaluate another student, they eventually all learn from each other.8. Discussion: "A good give-and-take discussion can produce unmatched learning experiences as students articulate their ideas, respond to their classmates' points, and develop skills in evaluating the evidence of their own and others' positions." (Davis, 1993, p. 63)i) Think-pair-share: As probably the best known learning exercise, the think-pair-share structure provides students with the opportunity to reflect on the question posed and then practice sharing and receiving potential solutions. Its simplicity provides instructors with an easy entry into as evaluator of learning and it is readily adaptable to a wide range of course constructs. ii) Three-step interview: This structure can be used both as an ice-breaker which introduces students to one another and to provide students with a venue for soliciting opinions, positions, or ideas from their peers. Students are first paired and take turns interviewing each other using a series of questions provided by the instructor. Pairs then match up and students introduce their original partner. At the end of the exercise, all four students have had their position or viewpoints on an issue heard, digested, and described by their peers.9. Reciprocal teaching- explaining, providing feedback, understanding alternative perspectives: Slavin (1996), in a review of hundreds of studies, concluded that "students who give each other elaborated explanations (and less consistently, those who receive such explanations) are the students who learn most in cooperative/Peer learning."10. Note-taking pairs: Poor note-taking leads to poor performance. Designing an exercise which requires students to summarize their understanding of a concept based on notes taken (with directed questions such as what is the definition of a concept, how is it used, what are the three most important characteristics of a topic) and receiving reflective feedback from their partner provides students the opportunity to find critical gaps in their written records.11. Online Tools for Peer Assessment:Ar opa: is a web-based system that supports peer review activities in large classes. It was designed by John Hamer and Helen Purchase.Blackboard Self and Peer Assessment:?building black is a tool?designed to facilitate the objective,analytical, and learning comprehension skills of students.CASPAR:?was funded and developed by Bournemouth University as an online solution for self and peer assessment with a particular emphasis on the media practice discipline.iPeer:?is an open resource application for ?rubric-based peer evaluations. It is actively developed at the Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology (CTLT) at the University of British Columbia.Online Peer Assessment Software:?designed and developed by Dr Nathan Clarke & Dr Paul DowlandPeerWise:?is an online learning tool that supports students in the creation, sharing, evaluation and discussion of assessment questions.SPARKplus?is a web-based self and peer assessment kit. It enables students to confidentially rate their own and their peers’ contributions to a team task or individual submissions.STEAM?is an open source web-based peer evaluation tool.Turnitin PeerMark?is a tool for staff to conduct electronic peer review assessments.WebPA?is an open source online peer assessment tool that enables every team member to recognise individual contributions to group work.Workshop?is an interactive activity in Moodle where students can view, grade and assess their own and peers’ work.5. Procedure of Peer Assessment:i. Identify assignments or activities for which students might benefit from peer feedback.ii. Synthesize the assignment: Consider breaking a larger assignment into smaller pieces and incorporating peer assessment opportunities at each stage. For example, assignment outline, first draft, second draft, etc.iii. Decide about Criteria:Make sure the criteria for any piece of peer assessment are clear and fully discussed with students (negotiated with them if circumstances are appropriate). Student familiarity and ownership of criteria tend to enhance peer assessment validity; therefore, involve students in a discussion of the criteria used. Be aware that introducing marks creates a further set of complex issues, but if you do decide to get peers to award marks these marks should be only one of a number of different marks awarded to a specific product or process. iv. Design guidelines or?rubrics:Design guidelines or?rubrics?with clearly defined tasks for the reviewer. Introduce rubrics through learning exercises to ensure students have the ability to apply the rubric effectively. Help students learn to carry out peer assessment by modeling appropriate, constructive criticism and descriptive feedback through your own comments on student work and well-constructed rubrics.v. Place of Review:Determine whether peer review activities will be conducted as in-class or out-of-class assignments; for out-of-class assignments, peer assessments can be facilitated online by?Blackboard.vi. Small Feedback Groups:Incorporate small feedback groups where written comments on assignments can be explained and discussed with the receiver.vii. Create Environment:Spend time establishing an environment of trust in the classroom. Try to ensure that learning environment incorporates peer learning and collaboration in a range of ways. viii. Rationale of Peer Assessment should be made clear:Let students know the rationale for doing peer review; explain the expectations and benefits of engaging in a peer review process.ix. Evaluate anonymous assignments:Consider having students evaluate anonymous assignments for more objective feedback. Be prepared to give feedback on students’ feedback to each other. Display some examples of feedback of varying quality and discuss which kind of feedback is useful and why.x. Clear Directions and Time Limit:Give clear directions and time limits for in-class peer review sessions and set defined deadlines for out-of-class peer review assignments.xi. Relative Experiential Base:Students have no more experience with academic tasks; therefore, be cautious about having them peer-assess professional tasks: choose tasks that lie within their relative experiential base. Encourage students to take more individual responsibility by not having multiple peers assess the same task.xii. Timely Guidance:Listen to group feedback discussions and provide guidance and input when necessary.6. Role of Teacher:Plan:Select:Decide:Design:Assist:Assess:Report:Record:7. Advantages of Peer AssessmentEncourages students to critically reflect each others’ workEncourages students to be involved in the assessment processHelps students develop their judgmental skills when they assess the work of other group membersMore feedback can be generated by students compared to one or two teachersReduces the time and workload of marking for teachersDiscourages the problem of ‘free rider’ because students tend to put extra effort to perform better in front of their peersMaintains the fairness of assessment because everyone has the chance to assess each otherStudents learn how to criticize, evaluate and apply other generic skills during the processStudents learn more from each others’ workP.A encourages deep learning.P.A has the potential to reduce the marking workload by handling over some responsibility to students.Help to alleviate the pressure of large class size and other constraints of time.Feedback is a hugely important part of P.A.Agreed marking criteria means there can be little confusion about assignment outcomes and expectations. Encourages student involvement and responsibility. Encourages students to reflect on their role and contribution to the process of the group work. Focuses on the development of student’s judgment skills. Students are involved in the process and are encouraged to take part ownership of this process. Provides more relevant feedback to students as it is generated by their peers. It is considered fair by some students, because each student is judged on their own contribution. When operating successfully can reduce a lecturer's marking load. Can help reduce the ‘free rider’ problem as students are aware that their contribution will be graded by their peers. 8. Disadvantages of Peer Assessment:Additional briefing time can increase a lecturer’s workload. The process has a degree of risk with respect to reliability of grades as peer pressure to apply elevated grades or friendships may influence the assessment, though this can be reduced if students can submit their assessments independent of the group. Students will have a tendency to award everyone the same mark. Students feel ill equipped to undertake the assessment. Students may be reluctant to make judgements regarding their peers. At the other extreme students may be discriminated against if students ‘gang up’ against one group member.Peer pressure and friendship can influence the reliability of grades given by studentsStudents may have a tendency to give everyone the same mark (for example, there may be collusion in return for good grades)Students are not experienced in assessing each otherStudents may cheat in collaboration for group assignmentsFairness may not be maintained because extroverted students can be usually be marked higher and quieter students got marked downReferences:Andrade, H. & Du, Y. (2007). Student responses to criteria-referenced self-Assessment. Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, 32 (2), 159- 181 Boud, D. (1995). Enhancing learning through selfassessment. London: Kogan Page Boud, D. & Falchikov, N. (2006) Aligning assessment with long-term learning. Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, 31(4), 399-413. Boud, D. & Falchikov, N. (2007). Rethinking assessment in higher education. London: Kogan Page. Boud, D., Cohen, R. & Sampson, J. (1999). Peer learning and assessment. Assessment and evaluation in higher education, 24 (4), 413-426. Brew, A. (1995). What is the scope of self assessment? In D.Boud , Enhancing learning through selfassessment (pp.48-63), London: Kogan Page. Kirby, N.F & Downs, C.T. (2007). Self-assessment and the disadvantaged student; Potential for encouraging self-regulated learning? Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, 32(4), 475- 494. Kvale, S. (2006). A workplace perspective on school assessment, Workplace Learning SIG American Educational Research Association, San Francisco, April. van den berg, I., Admiraal, W. & Pilot, A. (2006) Peer assessment in university teaching: evaluating seven course designs. Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, 31 (1), 19-36.Dorothy Spiller(2012) Assessment Matters: Self-Assessment and Peer Assessment Teaching Development. 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