Peer assessment

Abstract

Peer assessment is the process whereby students provide formative or summative feedback to fellow students about their work. There have been many decades of research into the potential benefits of peer assessment and numerous studies have shown that peer assessment offers real educational, and sometimes social benefits for students. In addition, self assessment is often included alongside, but the benefits are sometimes disputed. This article will provide a brief summary of the research establishing the educational benefits of peer assessment and self assessment. There has also been a lot of work in recent years exploring the use of technology tosupport peer assessment. This work will be reviewed and recent examples of peer assessment in the physical sciences will be highlighted.