Product Comparisons and Process Benefits of Collaborative Peer Group and Self Assessments

ABSTRACT Any student assessment procedure should meet a number of criteria. It should be -valid, reliable, practicable and fair, and useful to students.(1) The prevailing authoritarian model of assessment in higher education is examined and its disadvantages elaborated. Results of some previous studies of self assessment are discussed. The present study attempts to meet Percival and Ellington's criteria, and addresses itself to a number of important questions concerning the comparability of self and peer group assessment with traditional methods; the extent of over‐ or undermarking by students, the relationships between accuracy of grading and age or overall ability, and the possible effects on learning or personal development of self and peer group assessment procedures. Details of the implementation of the scheme are recorded, and results presented and discussed. In terms of both product (the correspondences between self or peer and tutor assessment) and process (the evaluation by students of the effects of the scheme), the scheme appears to be successful. Implications and plans for future studies are elaborated.