Involving Students in Teacher Education Assessment? A Case Study of a Peer Evaluation Experience

This study covered the grading of partial exams as a learning strategy closely linked to a range of professional competencies and the development of better learning processes. It took place in three teacher education programs. After students undertook partial exams, these were marked in-situ by peers (using an ad-hoc marking scheme) and, later on, by the tutor. Furthermore, students responded to a questionnaire in which they gave their opinions regarding that peer-grading assessment experience. The purposes of the study were: (a) to compare the grades given by the students with those given by the tutors; and (b) to gather the students’ opinions on the experience. The results indicate that (a) the correlations between the grades given by the students and tutors ranged from .66 to .90, although the average grades of the student group were lower than those of the tutors; and (b) the students valued positively the experience of peer-grading as a learning activity.