Peer marking

Dr John Mahoney
Assessment and Feedback
15
 m
UKPSF Dimensions

Assess and give feedback to learners

Appropriate methods for teaching, learning and assessing in the subject area in the subject area and at the level of the academic programme

What can I do?

Impact
3
Quality
4
  • Create a formative hurdle where students conduct peer marking in class
  • Replace group assessments with peer-marked individual assessments
  • Collaborate with students when developing peer-marking rubrics and train them to provide high-quality feedback

What is this about?

Peer marking is a form of assessment in which students are asked to evaluate the work of their peers. It can be used as either a formative or summative assessment tool in higher education, depending on the goals of the instructor.

As a formative assessment tool, peer marking can be used to help students identify their strengths and weaknesses and to receive feedback on their work. This can be particularly helpful for students who may be struggling with a particular concept or skill, as it allows them to receive feedback from their peers who may have a different perspective on the material. By reviewing the work of their peers, students can also learn from the successes and mistakes of others and apply this knowledge to their own work.

As a summative assessment tool, peer marking can be used to evaluate the final product of a student's work. This can be helpful for instructors who want to assess the ability of their students to apply their knowledge and skills to a particular task. By having students review and evaluate the work of their peers, instructors can get a sense of how well students are able to critically analyze and evaluate the quality of others' work.

What's the evidence say?

Peer assessment involves students evaluating their peers, as well as being evaluated by their peers on formative and/or summative tasks. Students who participate in peer assessment perform better than those who don't. Peer marking has a small, significant effect on student learning. Importantly, peers' and teachers' ratings of students are comparable and training students how to mark is central to the success of this approach.

There are a number of ways to structure peer marking to ensure it's successful

  • You train students in how to provide feedback
  • Students are further into their degrees
  • You use technologies to assist feedback
  • The subject area isn't medical/clinical
  • Allocation of peer markers is random
  • Individual work is assessed
  • Peer feedback is non-anonymous
  • Student participation is voluntary
  • Students are involved in developing criteria
  • Peers provide comments AND scores

What's the underlying theory?

Social learning theory proposes that people learn through observation and interaction with others, and that this learning is influenced by the expectations and values of the social group to which they belong. In peer marking, students are able to observe and learn from the work of their peers, which can help to deepen their understanding of the material and provide them with new perspectives on the subject matter. By interacting with their peers and receiving feedback, students can also learn about the expectations and values of their social group with regard to the material they are studying, which can further enhance their learning.

Social constructivism suggests that people construct their own understanding of the world through their interactions with others and their participation in social activities. In peer marking, students are actively engaged in the learning process and are able to construct their own understanding of the material by reviewing and evaluating the work of their peers. By interacting with their peers and receiving feedback, students can also learn about the expectations and values of their social group with regard to the material they are studying, which can further enhance their learning.

Social-cognitive theory proposes that people learn through observation and interaction with others, and that this learning is influenced by cognitive factors such as attention, perception, and memory. In peer marking, students are able to observe and learn from the work of their peers, which can help to deepen their understanding of the material and provide them with new perspectives on the subject matter. By interacting with their peers and receiving feedback, students can also improve their attention, perception, and memory of the material, which can further enhance their learning.

Where does the evidence come from?

We have mixed confidence about some of the findings, but there is 'good' quality evidence on this topic. Three meta-analyses inform this evidence summary. The two by Li and colleagues (2016; 2020) are not high quality. Both fail to report the risk of bias, the publication bias, and the reliability of the findings. However, the Double et al. (2020) meta-analysis is very well constructed. The only concern around quality for this paper is the high heterogeneity score, suggesting that other, as yet unexplored variables might be contributing to the main effect.

References

Double, K. S., McGrane, J. A., & Hopfenbeck, T. N. (2020). The impact of peer assessment on academic performance: a meta-analysis of control group studies. Educational Psychology Review, 32, 481-509. doi: 10.1007/s10648-019-09510-3.

Li, H., Xiong, Y., Hunter, C. V., Guo, X., & Tywoniw, R. (2020). Does peer assessment promote student learning? A meta-analysis. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 45(2), 193-211. doi: 10.1080/02602938.2019.1620679

Li, H., Xiong, Y., Zang, X., L. Kornhaber, M., Lyu, Y., Chung, K. S., & K. Suen, H. (2016). Peer assessment in the digital age: a meta-analysis comparing peer and teacher ratings. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 41(2), 245-264. doi: 10.1080/02602938.2014.999746.

Additional Resources

https://www.teaching.unsw.edu.au/peer-assessment

https://isit.arts.ubc.ca/ideas-and-strategies-for-peer-assessments/

Dr John Mahoney

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