Preservice Elementary Teachers’ Perspectives Around the Peer Assessment Process During an Academic Poster Session

Abstract

The use of peer assessment activities is increasing; however, students might not always be willing or feel comfortable to implement these activities. The main goal of this qualitative study was the exploration of preservice elementary teachers’ perspectives around the implementation of peer assessment process during an academic poster session. For this purpose, a questionnaire consisting of open-ended questions, semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions were utilized for data gathering purposes with 87 preservice elementary teachers in Turkey. The preservice elementary teachers’ concerns regarding their peers’ reactions, symbiotic agreements and any previous personal relationships between the participants were the main factors that led to their subjectivity while evaluating their peers. They defined instructors as more experienced and objective and expressed their trust towards teacher rating. The preservice elementary teachers’ performance during the peer assessment process, and their perspective towards subjectivity highlighted the risk of using peer assessment process as a summative assessment tool.