Teachers' and students' roles in formative assessment
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Assessment for Learning
How did teachers involve students in peer- and self-assessment?
The research literature showed that peer- and self-assessment help to raise students test performance, and that they are in fact essential if pupils are to be able to manage their own learning effectively. In response to this evidence, several teachers explored ways of involving pupils in self- and peer assessment processes, including:
- explaining part of the unit of work to other pupils;
- using 'traffic lights';
- marking their own and others' homework; and
- marking practical work.
One activity, which involved both self- and peer-assessment, required students to explain part of the work to a small group of their colleagues. The other students had to judge whether the explanation was better than, equal to or not as good as the explanation they could have themselves presented. Feedback from students indicated the value of this activity in encouraging them to analyse their own reasoning: 'Explaining to other people and listening to their explanations really helps me to understand it much faster than just reading it at home.'
Teachers reported favourably on the involvement of pupils in marking their own or others' work, 'We regularly do peer-marking - I find this very helpful indeed. A lot of misconceptions come to the fore and we discuss these...'
