What Is Peer Assessment?

What Is Peer Assessment?

Peer assessment is a structured learning process where students evaluate and provide feedback on each other's work. It's an arrangement where learners review a peer's assignment, often using a rubric or criteria provided by the instructor. This method helps students engage more deeply with course content, and it develops their ability to assess work, offer constructive feedback, and improve their own assignments.

Peer Assessment Strategies and Activities

Peer assessment involves a range of strategies and activities designed to structure how students provide feedback on each other's work. These methods often rely on clear success criteria to guide the review process and help students identify specific aspects of a peer's assignment.

Strategies can be adapted for different contexts, using either written or verbal feedback, and may involve reviewing work in stages or using visual cues. The level of scaffolding within these activities can be adjusted based on student age and experience.

Here are some peer assessment strategies and activities you can introduce in your classroom:

• Two Stars and a Wish: Students provide two positive comments ("stars") and one suggestion for improvement ("a wish").
• Feedback Bun: Feedback is structured with a positive comment, followed by an area for improvement, and concluded with another positive comment.
• Traffic Lights: Students use colors to indicate how well the work meets success criteria: green for meets criteria, amber for room for improvement, and red for not evident.
• Anonymous Feedback: Students review assignments without knowing the author's identity to encourage more objective comments.
• Ladder of Feedback: A four-step process that involves asking clarifying questions, identifying strengths, noting areas for improvement, and offering suggestions.
• PMI Charts: Students organize feedback into three columns: Plus (what meets the criteria), Minus (what is not evident), and Interesting (ideas for improvement).
• Thinking Hats: Students approach a piece of work from six different perspectives, such as facts (white hat), positives (yellow hat), and concerns (black hat).
• Peer Quizzes: Students create short quizzes for their peers based on the lesson's success criteria, requiring them to find evidence in the work.
• Assignment Staging: A larger assignment is broken into smaller parts, with peer assessment occurring at each stage, such as the outline and first draft.
• Joint Feedback: Two pairs of students swap work and discuss the feedback together before presenting it to the original authors.

Peer Assessment Benefits

Peer assessment can be a valuable addition to your teaching toolkit, but it's important to understand its full scope. The process offers several learning opportunities for students while also presenting certain challenges for both learners and instructors.

On one hand, it can give students more ownership over their learning and help them develop skills in giving and receiving feedback. On the other hand, it can introduce issues like subjective grading, grade inflation, and a significant administrative workload for instructors.

Here are some of the benefits associated with peer assessment:

• Student Responsibility: Students are encouraged to take an active role in managing their own learning process.
• Feedback Skills: It provides a space for students to practice giving and receiving constructive feedback, a valuable lifelong skill.
• Deeper Engagement: Knowing peers will review their work can motivate students to connect more deeply with the course material.
• Knowledge Exchange: The process facilitates the sharing of different ideas and perspectives among students.
• Self-Assessment: By evaluating others' work, students often become better at assessing their own work and identifying areas for improvement.
• Understanding Criteria: Applying a rubric to a peer's assignment helps students better understand the assessment criteria for their own work.
• Content Reinforcement: Reviewing a peer's assignment exposes students to the course content again, which can help with retention.
• Identifying Blind Spots: Seeing how another student approached a task can help learners notice errors or areas for improvement in their own work they might have missed.

Peer Assessment Examples

Peer assessment can be applied through a variety of activities in the classroom. These methods range from structured, written reviews using rubrics to more informal, verbal feedback sessions between students.

Implementing peer assessment can help students develop skills in critical analysis and self-regulation. However, for these activities to be effective, they require clear guidelines and dedicated class time for students to learn and practice giving constructive feedback.

Here are some examples of peer assessment activities:

• Anonymous Feedback: Students review a classmate's work without knowing their identity to encourage more objective comments.
• Two Stars and a Wish: Students identify two things their partner did well and one area for improvement.
• Peer Quizzes: Students create a short quiz based on the lesson's success criteria, which they use to find evidence in their partner's work.
• Assignment Staging: A larger assignment is broken into smaller parts, with peer review happening at each stage, such as the outline and first draft.
• Using Assessment Tools: Teachers provide structured tools like checklists or rubrics to guide students in giving consistent and objective feedback.

Peer Assessment Best Practices

To get the most out of peer assessment, it helps to follow a set of established practices. These guidelines are designed to create a more structured and consistent process for students. Applying them successfully often comes down to thoughtful planning and clear communication from the start.

To put these practices into action, you can start by clearly explaining the goals and process to your students. Providing them with training and tools like rubrics helps them give more effective feedback. Integrating these activities throughout the curriculum allows for consistent practice.

Here are some peer assessment best practices:

• Set Clear Expectations: Inform students at the beginning of the course how peer assessment will work, including its frequency, weight, and the criteria for evaluation.
• Provide Training and Scaffolding: Teach students how to give and receive constructive feedback using models, examples, and practice opportunities.
• Involve Students in the Process: Allow students to have input on the assessment criteria, which can increase their understanding and investment in the activity.
• Use Formative Assessments: Conduct practice or ungraded peer review sessions to help students develop their feedback skills before any summative assessments.
• Integrate with Self-Assessment: Combine peer feedback activities with opportunities for students to reflect on and evaluate their own work.

Teach with TeachShare

Peer assessment is a powerful way to give students more responsibility for their learning and develop their skills in providing constructive feedback. It helps them engage more deeply with course material and learn to think critically about what makes work successful. Start creating resources with TeachShare now to build the differentiated activities that make peer assessment work.