Online peer assessment in an inservice science and mathematics teacher education course

Abstract

Online or web-based peer assessment is a valuable and effective way to help the learner to examine his or her learning progress, and teachers need to be familiar with the practice before they use it in their classrooms. Therefore, the purpose of our study was to design an online peer assessment activity for 37 inservice science and mathematics teachers. The teachers were divided into 12 groups, and each group was required to present a master's thesis proposal at the end of a research methods course. Each participant gave feedback and ratings to several group projects during a three-round online peer assessment activity. Two instructors’ scores and peers’ scores were in low to medium correlation. The quality of group projects and participants’ feedback improved, but a decrease in attitudes toward peer assessment was found. The results of the study are discussed and implications are provided.