Anonymity as an instructional scaffold in peer assessment: Its effects on peer feedback quality and evolution in students’ perceptions about peer assessment skills (original) (raw)
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Face-to-Face Peer Assessment in Secondary Education: Does Anonymity Matter?
Pupils involved in peer assessment often state that they do not feel entirely comfortable with publicly evaluating their peers. It is found that peer-pressure might cause stress and a lack of accuracy of the assessment (Falchikov, 2003). Based on social impact theories (e.g. Latané, 1981), anonymity within peer assessment can be considered as a solution. Yet, although the benefits of anonymity are previously investigated in the context of classroom voting and debating in higher education (Ainsworth et al., 2011), no research is found regarding anonymity in the context of peer assessment in a face-to-face secondary education setting. To fill this gap, the present study was set up to investigate whether anonymity of the assessors in peer assessment can counter undesirable social effects. It was hypothesized that anonymous modes of peer assessment will induce a reduced perception of peer pressure, a reduced fear of failure, and more positive attitudes towards peer assessment. Classroom response technology (CRT) was introduced as a tool that enables anonymity within face-to-face settings (Kay & Knaack, 2009). A quasi-experimental study was set up in four secondary classes in Belgium (n=69). In all classes, pupils had to assess each others’ group presentations on different criteria in a face-to-face classroom setting. In the control group (2 classes) a traditional peer assessment approach was used, i.e. raising score cards-, while in the experimental group (2 classes) CRT was used to give scores anonymously. In the latter, score distributions were presented on a screen in front of the class. Feelings of peer-pressure, fear of failure towards the other, and pupils’ general attitudes towards peer assessment were measured using a post-questionnaire. It was found that the pupils who used CRT as a tool to give scores anonymously, felt less peer pressure and fear of failure than those in the classic peer assessment condition. They also reported more positive attitudes towards this kind of evaluation. Implications of these results are discussed.
The Power of Giving Feedback and Receiving Feedback in Peer Assessment
2019
Despite well-documented promises of peer assessment, it is still unclear how peer assessment works and what contributes to students’ learning gains. In order to identify cognitive processes that lead to learning enhancement, this study examined 41 students’ responses to online surveys and also their online written interactions when they participated in a peer assessment activity. Data analysis revealed that students were engaged in various learning processes in the phases of giving and receiving feedback. While students acknowledged that both phases contributed to their learning, a greater number of students indicated that they perceived more learning benefits from giving feedback rather than receiving feedback. Interpretations and implications were discussed.
Students' Perspective on Peer Assessment Activities: An Investigation into the Challenges
Dialogics: A Research Journal of English Studies Volume 1, January 2021, 2021
Peer assessment entails the exchange of constructive comments and suggestions from one peer to another on a piece of work. The practice of peer assessment has been implemented at the undergraduate level in the department of English at one of the renowned public universities of Bangladesh. This study aimed to identify the major challenges students faced while conducting peerassessment in class and hypothesized that students remained more concerned about the subjective/personal challenges in peer assessment, such as personal bias, inhibition, rather than the objective/technical challenges such as having no rubric for evaluation, time-constraints etc. Quantitative data were collected from 55 undergraduate students from the first year, using a questionnaire consisting primarily of Likert Scale Statements. Data analysis was done by using Microsoft Office Excel 2013 software. The results found four major subjective and objective challenges with over 65% participants agreeing on their behalf and showed a total frequency of 61 in "strongly agree" on the influence of subjective challenges. On the other hand, the objective challenges received a lower frequency of 54 in "strongly agree", thus proving the major hypothesis to be true. In conclusion, it was suggested that a collaborative effort from teachers, students and policymakers can help in minimizing the challenges faced in peer assessment.
European Journal of Psychology of Education, 2017
This study explores the effects of peer assessment (PA) practice on peer feedback (PF) quality of 11th grade secondary education students (N = 36). The PA setting was synchronous: anonymous assessors gave immediate PF using mobile response technology during 10 feedback occasions. The design was quasi-experimental (experimental vs. control condition) in which students in one condition received a scaffold to filter out relevant information they received. It was expected that this filter-out scaffold would influence PF quality in subsequent tasks in which they were assessors. PF content analysis showed that offering multiple PF occasions improved PF quality: messages contained more negative verifications and informative and suggestive elaborations after the intervention. However, no effects were found of filtering out relevant information on PF quality. Moreover, students’ perceived peer feedback skills improved which was in correspondence with their actual quality improvement over time. Additionally, the perceived usefulness of the received feedback was rated high by all participants.