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This raised several questions about peer as-
sessment, which build on an arrangement in
which individuals consider the amount, level,
value, worth, quality, or success of the product
or outcomes of learning of peers of similar status
(Definition by Topping, K, 1998). Could peer as-
sessment procedures be a good strategy to reduce
this risk for instrumental and reductive learning?
Or could it even have the opposite effect? After
all, the teacher can be assumed to have more
experiences of the subject and the course content
than the students, as well as of the community of
practice from which criteria and standards derive.
Thus teachers could be expected to have the ability
to prevent instrumental learning by challenging
students to engage further with the course con-
tent through their assessment comments, besides
more general feedback on disposition and other
formalities. These less complex criteria, such
as disposition and general structure and other
formalities, are fairly easy to make explicit and
could therefore be what the students have gained
most understanding of, and perhaps therefore are
more likely to apply when peer assessing each
other. This makes it important to ensure that peer
assessment truly supports the intended enhance-
ment of the students' learning rather than becoming
a support for the instrumental learning that it is
intended to prevent.
Several research studies on (formative) peer
assessment, most of them carried out in on-campus
settings indicate that this element contributes to the
students' learning and development of critical ap-
praisal skills. Macpherson (1999) found growth in
the students' reflective and critical thinking skills
after participating in a peer/tutor arrangement in
which the students were to give oral feedback on
each other's literature reviews. Anderson et al
(1999) found evidence that students participating
in peer assessment developed their skill of making
reasoned justification of arguments.
According to Macdonald (2002) viewing other
students' strategies to approach the assessment task
seems to support an awareness of weaknesses in
their own approaches. It could also be possible
that the students gain a deeper understanding of
the standards and criteria used by being exposed
to a variety of strategies to solve the task than
if they were only to receive feedback from the
teacher on their own product.
The overall conclusion, drawn from many
research studies on peer assessment in both face
to face environments as well in an online con-
text,, (e.g. Stefani, 1998, Boud, 2002; Higgins et
al, 2002; Bloxham & West, 2004; McLuckie, &
Topping, 2004, Sainsbury & Walker, 2007, Prince
& Dominique, 2007) is that engaging students in
deep collaboration, as in-depth collaboration rich
enough to develop a collective understanding or
'shared meaning' (e.g. Head, 2003), through peer
assessment indeed seems a promising method to
try if one wants to support the idea of students as
autonomous, independent and self-directed learn-
ers who take responsibility for their own personal
and professional development.
Peer Assessment PrePArAtion
A key issue in previous research on formative
peer assessment is the need to prepare the students
before they take part in peer assessment. If this is
going to serve as a tool for learning it is important
that the students develop an understanding of the
inscribed meaning of standards and criteria in use,
and how to apply them in practice. They must also
gain awareness of how to use peer assessment as
guidance for directing and supporting their learn-
ing during the learning process, rather than seeing
it primarily as a tool for judging the total quality
of the examination product, as this is the teachers'
responsibility and area of knowledge.
Creating a common understanding of criteria
between students and tutors seems a challenging
task because of the tacit dimension. Previous
research indicates that even if the criteria were
presented in both written and verbal form, the
understanding of some criteria differs among
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