Fostering Peer Learning & Assessment Skill

This project will create and evaluate the tools/support-materials needed for including a pedagogically valid and reliable peer assessment component in PSYC 101&102. Peer assessment -- the assessment of student work by other students -- is a method for achieving several desirable outcomes, including increased student engagement in the learning process and enhanced proficiency in the broad range of skills required for the critical analysis and evaluation of the work of others. In addition, the amount and range of feedback about an assignment are increased when multiple peers assess a student’s work. To achieve such benefits, we propose to (a) create a workshop for training peer-assessment skills, (b) investigate the effectiveness of this workshop in enhancing students’ critical evaluation skills, and (c) examine whether training in peer assessment boosts students’ perception and acceptance of the peer evaluation process and of the critical evaluative feedback provided by peers.