Use Of Peer Assessment Research Articles

Enhancing Students’ Ability in Composing a Well-Developed Paragraph through Social Constructive Learning Facilitated by Peer-Assessment

A social constructive learning refers to a context used to build a collaborative learning atmosphere to have in-depth learning by empowering students’ performances and progress cooperatively. It is needed to upgrade students’ proficiency in delivering an idea through a written expression. Therefore, the students can build up their writing ability constructively. This is a descriptive qualitative study that is used to explore a meaningful learning experience in a paragraph writing class using peer-assessment. This research involved 23 students at the second semester of the English department of State Islamic Study of Ponorogo. The data were gathered from a performance test of all the participants, supported by the data derived from interviews, and documentation was also conducted to support the data of the students’ ability in writing. The data were analyzed interactively through (1) data reduction; (2) data display; and (3) conclusion. The results of the study showed that the students were triggered to rearrange their writing confidently because their peers showed their weaknesses and gave suggestions on their mistakes. It boosted the students to write better, so that, the students could produce the expected paragraph writing outcome after they were actively upgrading performances in writing through ongoing learning. Hence, the students were directed to elaborate their writing ability through interactive, constructive, and reflective activities. This paper was aimed at describing the implementation of social constructive learning in a paragraph writing class mediated by the use of peer-assessment. The implication of this study is to promote the students to learn paragraph writing faster since this learning triggered the students have experiences in learning together by checking, sharing, solving, and formulating a solution.

Use of Peer-Assessment in ESL Writing Classes: Learners’ Perception

Although peer-assessment tends to offer various benefits, and teachers and learners hold positive perception about peer-assessment, conventional paper-based assessment remains dominant in most of the educational programmes, including university English as a Second Language (ESL) courses. Hence, more studies are needed to make teachers, course designers and material designers aware of the potential benefits of peer-assessment. Most importantly, it is useful to examine what learners think about peer-assessment. Therefore, the present study, involving eighty three (N=83) first-year students following a compulsory English as a second language (ESL) course and forty-two (N-42) second year students pursuing English as a major at a state university in Sri Lanka, investigated the learners’ perception of peer-assessment. The study adopted the mixed methods approach in research. After the participants gained hands on experience in peer-assessment in an ESL writing class, they shared their views regarding their experience through a questionnaire, focus group discussion and reflective essay. The qualitative data were analyzed using deductive content analysis method while the quantitative data were analyzed using Microsoft Excel that produced descriptive statistics. The findings revealed that the ESL undergraduates generally hold positive perception about peer-assessment. However, limited language proficiency of the learners and friendship biases remain as challenges to implement peer-assessment practices effectively. The generalizability of the findings of the present study is subject to certain limitations as the sample was drawn from one particular state university. Further studies with a larger sample representing several universities are recommended in order to shed light on the potential of peer-assessment.

Changes in engineering students’ surface and deep approaches to learning in first- and second-year university courses

The aim of this study is to investigate how students’ approaches to learning change during early years of university studies in classes where assessments have been designed to increase students’ engagement and ownership. The revised two-factor Study Process Questionnaire (R-SPQ-2F), a self-reporting survey, was used to measure students’ deep and surface approaches. Two first-year and one second-year cohorts of engineering students completed the questionnaire at the beginning and at the end of their modules. The majority of the assessment questions activated the first three levels of Bloom’s revised taxonomy, possibly encouraging a more surface approach to learning. However, the learning environment made use of peer assessment and online quizzes to provide prompt feedback to students and opportunities for self-reflection, thus possibly inducing a deeper level of engagement with the material. Data analysis of the R-SPQ-2F questionnaire scores showed that the deep approach score did not change while the surface approach score increased. The findings align with those of previous studies: the relationship between assessment and learning is complex, and surface approaches might have to be expected and accepted in the early years at university, in preparation for deeper approaches to learning which should be developed in later university years, when the more cognitive demanding levels of Bloom’s taxonomy, such as evaluating and creating, are required.

PERCEPTIONS OF STUDENTS TOWARDS THE INFLUENCE OF PEER ASSESSMENT ON THEIR COMMUNICATION AND CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS

The study aimed to investigate students’ perception towards the use of peer assessment to improve their employability skills, especially communication and critical thinking skills. To achieve this objective, a survey was conducted with the participation of 226 students at a university in Hanoi, Vietnam. They were taking the course named “Skills for University Success”, in which it was required that students made presentations and gave feedback to other groups’ performances. The analyzed data showed that students highly valued the benefits of giving and receiving peer assessment. In terms of communication skills, the majority of students agreed that through this activity, they could learn and improve their ability to convey the ideas, listen to others, and create a friendly atmosphere while giving comments. Regarding critical thinking skills, peer assessment helped students identify strengths and weaknesses of peers’ performances more quickly and correctly. The study suggested that lecturers or curriculum organizers should consider making this activity compulsory in their courses so that students can boost their employability skills.

Students’ perceptions towards the application of peer assessment in a virtual English writing class

Writing skills are not easy to develop in English language learning, especially when online learning is being implemented amid the COVID-19 pandemic. In order to improve students’ writing skills, as well as increase students’ autonomy, peer assessment is often adopted. The article presents findings of the research conducted in late 2021 on students’ perceptions towards the use of peer assessment in an online English writing class in Vietnam. The research applied a mixed method model with a questionnaire and an interview as the instruments. The questionnaire has 18 items divided into 4 parts: students’ personal information, students’ attitudes towards peer assessment, advantages of peer assessment, and disadvantages of peer assessment. The participants were 97 English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students who experienced one semester studying “Advanced Writing Skills” in online classes. The findings of the research revealed that students had negative attitudes towards the application of peer assessment to improve writing skills and they shared ideas of advantages and disadvantages of peer assessment. It is recommended that specific guidelines on how to do peer assessment with samples should be provided before teachers implement this teaching technique in class. In addition, in online classes, teachers need to be aware of making students familiar with peer assessment, as well as in the virtual environment.

Analyzing Factors Affecting the Effectiveness of Peer Assessment in EFL Teaching

The use of peer assessment in EFL teaching is increasing due to the focus shift from teacher-centered to student-centered approach. However, factors such as attitudes, motivation, language proficiency and relationship bias are believed to contribute to the effectiveness of peer assessment. This paper aims to analyze how the factors affect the effectiveness of peer assessment implementation in EFL teaching. The method used to analyze is a literature review by examining fifteen prior studies of peer assessment use in EFL context. It is found that there are three factors that affect the effectiveness of peer assessment implementation in EFL setting, which are students’ attitude and motivation, students’ English proficiency, and students’ relationship-bias. All these three factors can be interfered with teacher supports such as by describing the benefits of peer assessment to students, pairing the students with same-level of English proficiency, and applying anonymous evaluation. It is suggested that these three factors need to be carefully considered by teachers in EFL context in order to achieve the success of peer assessment implementation.

Exploring EFL Teachers’ Perceptions of the Use of Peer Assessment in External Exam-Dominated Writing Classes

Several studies on peer assessment (PA) have highlighted significant benefits for the learning process such as increased student motivation, enhanced collaborative learning (especially in terms of EFL writing) and improved reflection skills. Research on secondary school teachers’ perceptions of PA is lacking, particularly in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) external-examination-dominated contexts. The current study presents an in-depth exploration of 40 EFL Greek Cypriot teachers’ perceptions of the use of PA in secondary education to address adolescent learners’ poor writing performance, low motivation, and exam failure. Teachers used PA of writing for one whole school year with more than 400 students after receiving training in PA methods and continuous support throughout this implementation. The researcher used semi-structured interviews to explore EFL teachers’ attitudes towards PA after implementing it in their classes. Findings indicated that teachers were initially reluctant to use PA with their students but changed their minds during its implementation and reported that PA facilitated learning by making the educational process easier for learners. Given teachers’ favourable attitudes towards PA after experimenting with it for a whole year and the benefits that they believe students (especially low-achieving) may gain from the implementation of PA of EFL writing in their classes, this study suggests that PA is a promising inclusive assessment method that caters to diverse learners’ needs and fosters autonomy.

An Investigation into Learners’ Perception Towards Peer Assessment in Tertiary EFL Writing Class

The current paper attempts to investigate learners’ perspectives towards the strengths and weaknesses of peer assessment in academic writing in the context of tertiary education at a private university. The study was conducted on 55 third-year university students who had finished the academic writing module that applied peer assessment in writing. The research adopted the mixed method of qualitative and quantitative approaches via the questionnaire with both close and open-ended questions. The results of the study reveal that the use of peer assessment was feasible for large-size classes at university to provide learners with the opportunities to reflect and enhance their language scope and social knowledge to improve their writing performance. However, certain limitations were acknowledged, such as the lack of assessment competence among learners and the time constraint in the classroom, especially the hesitation to violate the positive face of their peers.

Peer assessment in EFL teacher preparation: A longitudinal study of student perception

Peer assessment has been found to have many advantages in learning particularly when viewing it through a socio-cultural lens. This study explored peer assessment across language teacher education coursework, following 15 teacher candidates through three semesters of TEFL coursework. This longitudinal approach is rare with peer assessment research. Surveys and interviews were collected to understand the students’ perception of peer assessment, including how it contributed to their learning and its summative use. Results indicated that repeatedly practicing peer assessment in coursework led to increased positive perception about its usefulness in learning and enhanced trust in peers as qualified assessors, but with a complex interaction of various factors in students’ perception, such as perceived task difficulty, interpersonal relationships, mode of feedback, etc. The participants’ hesitant attitudes about summative use of peer assessment (PA) was interpreted as largely based on their socio-culturally shaped perspectives of authority and academic achievement. Implications for using peer assessment in language teacher education are offered.

Using peer-assessment to mitigate variability in graduate students’ phonetic transcription skills

ABSTRACT Phonetic transcription is a cornerstone skill in the practice of speech-language pathology. Several factors may impact transcription proficiency including when it was learned, how it was learned, and whether practice continued. Graduate student cohorts are often comprised of students from several different universities and vastly different experiences, resulting in differing levels of proficiency in phonetic transcription. Bringing students to the same proficiency level is time-consuming and often involves re-teaching this skill, which detracts from teaching advanced material. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to explore the use of peer-assessment of phonetic transcription to mitigate these differences in proficiency. Thirty-four graduate students participated in an experimental study investigating proficiency in phonetic transcription as a result of peer-assessment activities. The students also rated and described their opinions about the peer-assessment process. The results of pretest to posttest measures indicated that students who were not at ceiling at pretest improved their phonetic transcription skills significantly. Results of the survey indicated that not only did students enjoy the process, but they also stated that it promoted self-reflection and improvement of their skills, regardless of proficiency at pretest. These findings suggest that peer-assessment is a beneficial way for students to engage in improving their phonetic transcription skills.

Use of Peer Assessment and Self-Assessment in Class Discussions to Assess Concept Understanding Ability of Prospective Biology Educators

The ability of understanding important concepts held by educators and learners. This ability is fundamental in achieving one of the outcomes of learning. Their understanding of the concept of ownership is the ability of a person can use in solving a problem that is related to the concept in everyday life. This descriptive study aims to obtain a description of the conceptual understanding of prospective biology educator students through the use of peer and self-assessment in class discussions. The research subjects were 26 prospective Biology educator students of the 2019/2020 academic year who contracted the human body anatomy physiology course. The instruments used consisted of peer and self assessment sheets, lecturer observation sheets and conceptual understanding questions. Data analysis was carried out quantitatively and qualitatively. The results showed that the average peer assessment score was greater than the self assessment, where the peer assessment was in the moderate category (49%) and the self assessmet was in the poor category (34%). There were only 10 students (38.46%) who were in conformity between peer and self assessment with adequate and insufficient categories. The discrepancy was found in 16 students (61.54%) with the category enough, less and very less. The ability to understand the concept of students on each indicator shows different percentage mean. The highest percentage of concept understanding ability indicators is found in the indicators of explaining the concept with its own sentence structure about something that is read or heard clearly / concretely by 64% (Good), while the lowest percentage of indicators of concept comprehension ability is found in the indicators able to connect symbolic forms (pictures, tables, concept maps, diagrams, graphs, mathematical equations, and other formulas) in concepts with other concepts of 51% (Enough).

Online Peer Assessment in Nurturing Students Writing Skill

This study aims to investigate the process of online peer assessment implementation in a writing activity and to find out the students’ responses toward the implementation of online peer assessment in learning writing skills. This research uses a qualitative approach and case study as the research design. The data were collected with the triangulation data by observation, interview, and documentation. Observation checklist, in-depth interview, and documentation used as data retrieval instruments. The subject of this study is an English teacher and students of class XI TKJ 1 at SMKN 1 Rawamerta. The result of this study shows that the implementation of peer assessment in writing skills is very effective to help the students in learning writing and evaluating learning process. Before the implementation of peer assessment, the students were not able to recognize their mistakes in detail, they could only find out about the numerical score, and did not know about how to assess. Based on the result obtained, it is concluded that teaching writing to the students’ responses toward the use of peer assessment was positive. It can be seen from the attitude and enthusiasm. Students agreed that peer assessment is a very effective technique used in writing activities. It can be concluded that online peer assessment can be applied both in writing and speaking as well as an important part of the move towards more forms of participatory learning. There is a need to apply it in the schools and universities since it is more adaptable to modern developments in the assessment of learning outcomes.

Peer assessment in MOOCs: Systematic literature review

ABSTRACT We report on a systematic review of the landscape of peer assessment in massive open online courses (MOOCs) with papers from 2014 to 2020 in 20 leading education technology publication venues across four databases containing education technology–related papers, addressing three research issues: the evolution of peer assessment in MOOCs during the period 2014 to 2020, the methods used in MOOCs to assess peers, and the challenges of and future directions in MOOC peer assessment. We provide summary statistics and a review of methods across the corpus and highlight three directions for improving the use of peer assessment in MOOCs: the need for focusing on scaling learning through peer evaluations, the need for scaling and optimizing team submissions in team peer assessments, and the need for embedding a social process for peer assessment.

Indonesian Novice EFL Teachers' Perceptions of the Use of Peer Assessment in Speaking Class

There is convincing evidence of the potential advantages of peer assessment; however, earlier studies on peer assessment in the learning process have largely focused on students’ views on it. Although much can be inferred from the students’ views about peer assessment in the learning process, there is a limited empirical study on the practical use of peer assessment by teachers and their responses. This study attempts to offer salient information for educational institutions, especially on the importance of peer assessment as a part of their instructional design for novice EFL teachers. This qualitative study aims to investigate Indonesian novice EFL teachers’ perceptions of the use of peer assessment in a speaking class as well as its’ benefits and challenges. The data was obtained from six Indonesian novice EFL teachers through a semi-structured interview. Findings revealed the two groups of teachers’ different perceptions, benefits, and challenges of peer assessment which were affected by their understanding of peer assessment and undergraduate study experiences. Hence, educational institutions for pre-service EFL teachers should take peer assessment into account to be integrated into their instructional designs to enable them to experience and perceive peer assessment as a valuable alternative way of language assessment.

Investigating Peer-Assessment in EFL Classes at University Level

Peer assessment (PA) is a kind of evaluation which allows the learners to assess their peers’ work with the instructions of the teachers and agreed upon criteria. The Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research (MHESR) has worked on reforming the higher education system since 2008. It tries to apply the student-centered approach of learning and prepare graduates to be lifelong learners and critical thinkers. One of the alternative methods of assessment in the Student-centered approach is PA. This paper aims to investigate the use of peer assessment in EFL classes at university level. Further, it tries to find out whether peer-assessment is used correctly! Finally, it discovers the challenges encountered by EFL students while implementing PA in the Essay Writing classes. In this study both qualitative and quantitative method are used. The study has conducted in the colleges of Education, Basic Education, and Languages at SUE with the third stage students. The study concludes that peer assessment is used in EFL classes, but it is not used as correct as it should be. The instructors who used it have to illustrate its procedures in the class before using it.

Peer Assessment in Physical Education: A Systematic Review of the Last Five Years

Purpose: A systematic review of the use of peer assessment in Physical Education in the last five years (2016–2020). Method: Four databases were used to select those articles that included information on peer assessment in Physical Education in the different educational stages. According to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, including the PICO (participants, intervention, comparators, and outcomes) strategy, after the exclusion criteria, 13 articles were fully assessed based on seven criteria: (1) year and author; (2) country; (3) educational stage; (4) type of paper; (5) purpose; (6) content; and (7) outcomes. Results: the results show that the research was geographically dispersed, although Spain and the USA had half of the articles reviewed. The research was carried out at all educational stages, although a greater focus was observed in higher education than in primary and secondary education. Quantitative, qualitative, and mixed research was almost equally represented, and dealt mainly with sports and games. Regarding the goals of the studies, a diversity of research so great that it produced a lack of continuity and coherence in the literature on the subject was found. The research results on the use of peer assessment showed an increase in the level of motivation, perceived teaching confidence and competence, and teaching self-efficacy. More research is needed on the benefits of the use of peer assessment on the self-regulation of learning and the critical thinking of students.

The Use of Peer-Assessment in Enhancing ESP Students’ Speaking Ability

The English for Specific Purpose students assumed that the speaking ability is the most challenging item to learn English because the English learning class and the environment are unsupportive to the students to speak in English. This research aimed to describe whether the peer assessment improves the ESP students' speaking ability or not. Thus, the researchers conducted experimental research by using a peer assessment method to check the improving speaking ability of ESP Students. This research involved 30 second-semester students of Teknik Laboratorium Medis at Universitas Megarezky. The data was analyzed from the assessment, interviews, observation, and field notes during the study. The result showed that the average of students' was 67.3 before applying peer assessment, while the percentage of students' score was 82 after using peer assessment. The speaking ability increased in the post-test after using peer assessment. The peer assessment can improve the speaking ability of ESP students' performances. This study concludes that the implementation of peer-assessment improves the speaking ability performance of ESP students. Although this research proves that peer assessment significantly increases speaking ability, but the next study is urgently needed, especially for ESP students. The researchers suggest tor further analysis to have more peer assessment techniques and apply peer assessment in different ways in ESP students.

Implementing Peer Assessment to Improve the Writing Ability of the Second Year Students of Smp Negeri 44 Muaro Jambi

This research report is written to promote the use of peer assessment in EFL classrooms at SMP level. On the basis of a preliminary study done at SMPN 44 Muaro Jambi and the growing interest of the use of alternative assessment strategies led to the idea to conduct a study to implement an applicable and appropriate strategy of peer assessment to improve the writing ability of the second year students of SMPN 44 Muaro Jambi. The researcher designed a classroom action research (CAR) study. It began with a try out. A plan was then made in order the procedures implemented could facilitate the second year students of SMPN 44 Muaro Jambi to handle peer assessment properly and improve their ability in writing a descriptive paragraph as well. It was continued by implementing the plan, observing and evaluating or reflecting. The findings showed that the appropriate strategy of peer assessment in writing instructions to improve the students’ ability in writing a descriptive paragraph requires teachers to follow procedures; telling the purpose of conducting peer assessment, encouraging collaborative work, encouraging impartial assessment, giving clear and detailed guidelines, building students’ self confidence to write and assess, encouraging students’ self confidence to write and assess, and ensuring follow up tasks.

The use of peer assessment at a time of massification: Lecturers' perceptions in a teacher education institution

The use of peer assessment at a time of massification: Lecturers' perceptions in a teacher education institution

The impact of peer assessment on mathematics students’ understanding of marking criteria and their ability to self-regulate learning

At the University of Nottingham peer-assessment was piloted with the objective of assisting students to gain greater understanding of marking criteria so that students may improve their comprehension of, and solutions to, future mathematical tasks. The study resulted in improvement in all four factors of observation, emulation, self-control and self-regulation thus providing evidence of a positive impact on student learning.The pilot involved a large first-year mathematics class who completed a formative piece of coursework prior to a problem class. At the problem class students were trained in the use of marking criteria before anonymously marking peer work. The pilot was evaluated using questionnaires (97 responses) at the beginning and end of the problem class. The questionnaires elicited students’ understanding of criteria before and after the task and students’ self-efficacy in relation to assessment self-control and self-regulation.The analysis of students’ descriptions of the criteria of assessment show that their understanding of the requirements for the task were expanded. After the class, explanation of the method and notation (consistent and correct) were much more present in students’ descriptions. Furthermore, 67 per cent of students stated they had specific ideas on how to improve their solutions to problems in the future. Students’ self-perceived abilities to self-assess and improve were positively impacted. The pilot gives strong evidence for the use of peer-assessment to develop students’ competencies as assessors, both in terms of their understanding of marking criteria and more broadly their ability to self-assess and regulate their learning.