The University system in the United States has been criticized for depersonalizing education (Tae 2009). The depersonalization of learning shows a lack of engagement on the part of the educator and the student and consequently the university. We ask the question: Can incorporating self and peer assessment into tertiary studies help to reengage students in their education? Innovative assessment practices have the capacity to significantly change the perceptions of students with regard to their tertiary studies. Assessment drives learning (Boud, 1990); however, the wrong type of assessment drives the wrong type of learning. Traditional tests, meaningless essays, research projects that do not have value outside of the classroom reinforce surface learning and memorization (Gardner, 1997). What is needed is a reinvigoration of authentic assessment practices that foster useful metacognitive skills and are focused on deep, sustainable, authentic learning. While initiating innovative assessment practices might not solve the problem of overcrowded lecture theatres, it may be able to guide learning and encourage students to be more engaged. In a recent study conducted at a small private university in Australia, we found that by incorporating the ASPAL Model (Authentic Self & Peer Assessment for Learning) (Kearney & Perkins, 2010), students were more engaged, had increased efficacy and felt that they were a part of the educative process, rather than being subjected to it. This paper will present initial, qualitative findings, from research conducted in the School of Education at the University of Notre Dame, Australia where 280 undergraduate primary education students were surveyed prior to undertaking ASPAL and after undertaking ASPAL. While the quantitative results are still being analysed, the students' perceptions of the process in the post survey will be reported and discussed in this paper and some broad conclusions drawn with regard to the use of self and peer assessment in engaging students in their studies.
The purpose of this paper is to provide a proof of concept of a collaborative peer-, self-and lecturer assessment processes. The research presented here is part of an ongoing study on self-and peer assessments in higher education. The authentic assessment for sustainable learning (AASL) model is evaluated in terms of the correlations between sets of marks. The article provides an explanation of the assessment process, and analyses sets of marks as a means of justifying the validity of the process. The results suggest that students, even those with no prior experience in peer-or self-evaluation, in their first year of tertiary study, under the right conditions, are able to accurately judge their own work and make reasonably accurate judgements of the work of their peers. While previous studies have expounded the benefits of self-and peer assessments in tertiary study, undertaking a prescribed process, such as AASL, has a further implication in allowing others to replicate the process with reasonable assuredness of the validity of the process across various fields of study.
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