Is Peer Assessment an Effective Way to Learn?

Educational Research Review:

The Effectiveness of Peer Assessment for Student Learning

Though peer assessment is not a new concept to me, I was curious to what extent it complemented the actual learning process. I had begun to notice that within the Faculty of Education, we use peer assessment quite frequently, with mixed results- assessments are either sunshine and daisies, or they’re apathetic and generic. We are constantly told of its effectiveness, yet neither responses yield much “learning”, don’t you think? Through my experiences, peer assessments feel more like a representation of my likeability, not an honest review of my work. I began to apply this lense to my theoretical evaluation practices to determine if it was a practice I would use in my classroom- asking myself, is peer assessment really a useful evaluation technique? Let’s find out:

Purpose of the Article

I chose the article, “The Effect of Peer Assessment on the Evaluation Process of Students” to review because it is an empirical study, intended to determine if there was merit to the educational claim that peer assessment was an integral part of the learning process. I am going to assume this article was written for Faculty of Education students like myself seeking to do research on the topic, because the author included several descriptive statistics to further prove that peer assessments are indeed a beneficial contributor to enriched learning.

Summary of the Article

The article begins by introducing some theoretical benefits of peer assessment, saying it is an “important element of designing learning environments in order for the to become more participatory among students”. (Alzaid, 2017, p. 159) Participation can be a challenging feat for educators, and the author explains how “peer assessment is used to enhance learning as an effective way to increase motivation for students by involving them in the evaluation process.” (ibid, p. 159)

The author then introduces suggestions for curriculum designers to integrate peer assessment into the learning experience, and provides a review of literature surrounding the topic. (Another effective component of this article.)

The author then delves into the methodology of specific studies, including a purposeful sample of 50 psychology students at the “King Saud University” (Saudi Arabia) during their “second semester of the academic year 2015-2016.” (Alzaid, 2017, p. 163)

Following a rather extensive statistical analysis that demonstrated relationships between academic skill and peer assessment, the author concluded that peer assessment was in fact an “important part of the move towards more forms of participatory learning”. (Alzaid, 2017, p. 168)

Critique of the Article

I thought the article was exceptionally logical, and presented a seemingly ‘boring’ statistical analysis’ in a way that was easy to read. At the end of the document, the author provided the peer assessment template used in the study, which I also found useful and will likely refer to for inspiration when I have my own class. The peer assessment template includes a 4 point rubric for evaluating things like leadership, listening, feedback, cooperation, and time management.

I felt more optimistic about the usefulness of peer evaluations and realized that maybe as an educator I should first teach my students about the effectiveness of authentic assessments (AKA constructive criticism) before I ask them to peer assess. It’s hard to be honest, but it's more beneficial over-all.

Conclusion of the Article

As previously stated, the author concluded that, based on the case study, peer assessment was an important component of collaborative learning. I had a feeling this would be the result, but I couldn’t help but have doubts because of my aforementioned experiences with peer evaluations.

The authors final statement is that “students must assume responsibility for their own learning to achieve a personal and professional development,” (Alzaid, 2017, p. 168) which really made me think twice about handing out perfect scores for the sake of preventing hurt feelings. I also will strive to instill an appreciation for the useful potential of authentic peer evaluations among my future students.

Related Resources

The first related article I engaged in was simply called ‘Peer Assessment in the Classroom’ by Dr. Jette G. Hansen Edwards and it quotes: “Peer assessment has been shown to be an effective, engaging, and learner-centered language task for both oral and written language activities. It can promote not only the development of language skills, but also higher-order thinking and social skills such as collaboration and negotiation. Students need to be involved in the assessment process not only as assessors, but also as constructors of the assessment task, in order to be motivated to get engaged and involved in the process. Finally, training the students and the teacher to be a participant, an assessor, and a facilitator of a peer assessment is perhaps the most important element in ensuring the success of this type of assessment task.” (Edwards, 2013, p. 749)

The second related article I engaged in was called ‘Does Peer Assessment Promote Student Learning? A Meta-Analysis’ and was written by five contributing grad students from the United States. The meta-analysis concludes: “to summarise, there is considerable theoretical support for using peer assessment to promote student learning. Despite both the great potential and widespread use of peer assessment, empirical evidence in regard to its effect on learning and the factors that might influence such effect is insufficient and inconsistent. In this meta-analysis, we found that peer assessment in general has a nontrivial positive effect on students’ learning performance.” (Li, 2019, p. 210)

Both of these related articles support the conclusion of Alzaid’s analysis, using specific case studies, adding to the validity.

Sources:

Alzaid, J. M. (2017). The Effect of Peer Assessment on the Evaluation Process of Students. International Education Studies, 10(6), 159. doi: 10.5539/ies.v10n6p159

Edwards, J. G. H. (2013). Peer Assessment in the Classroom. The Companion to Language Assessment, 730–750.

Li, H., Xiong, Y., Hunter, C. V., Guo, X., & Tywoniw, R. (2019). Does peer assessment promote student learning? A meta-analysis. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 45(2), 193–211. doi: 10.1080/02602938.2019.1620679