Updated: Mar 2000 | Assessment - Classroom Approaches | Peer Assessment

Peer Assessment

Students are self-motivated and confident in their approach to learning and are able to work individually and collaboratively. Overarching Learning Outcome 12, Curriculum Framework, (1998), p.12

Peer assessment and peer feedback are commonly linked with self assessment and, in the right circumstances, can considerably enhance self assessment.

If peer assessment provides rich and detailed comments, individuals may be able to use these comments in conjunction with their own perceptions and other available information to assess the validity of their own judgement and that of their peers.

Open-ended Tasks

Open-ended tasks revolve around problems that invite multiple solutions and many different ways to arrive at the solutions. These tasks help students to develop their problem-solving skills and creative and divergent thinking, to move away from thinking there is only one right answer to a problem, and to apply their thinking to real-life situations (Berenson and Carter, (1994), p.183).

Open-ended tasks:

	should allow students to enter and exit at their own level.
	can be used to assess outcomes across a number of learning areas.
	can incorporate cross-curriculum competencies.

Written assessment forms, such as portfolios, can be used to collate student work, showing the ongoing process and end product.

Student-teacher Conferences

While these take significant time, they do allow students to enjoy a teacher's individual attention.

They involve:

	recognising the dual responsibility of teacher and student in the learning process. An awareness by students that their opinions are being taken into account should enhance their morale, involvement and thus their motivation.
	encouraging a positive self-concept. If students are encouraged to think positively about their learning and to see their progress in terms of their own previous achievement rather than that of others, they may come to have a better self-concept. When progress, however small, is made, this is recognised by both student and teacher.
	helping students to see a value in what they are doing and consequently to take more responsibility for their own learning.
	defining learning goals and action plans or strategies.