Accuracy of self-evaluation in a peer-learning environment: an analysis of a group learning model

Abstract

There is a global competitive demand for graduates with soft skills, and higher education institutions are tasked to reduce the employee skill gap. Thus, we investigated the students' perceptions of peer assessment in facilitating engagement in soft-skill development through group work activities. Using group work to measure the effectiveness of students' feedback on their assessment, we posit that students perceive self-assessment in group work as a tool that represents fairness. By focusing on learning in a peer-assisted learning environment, the study is a two-period different observation on the effectiveness and validity of peer assessment practice. We applied a group learning model over two academic sessions to investigate if students can self-evaluate accurately in a peer-learning environment. The employed methods included both qualitative and quantitative analysis. The findings of the study differ from previous findings that students cannot self-assess accurately. Empirically, there was no significant difference between the peer marks and tutor marks. The study also found that peer learning improves students' quality of assessment as they reflect on their work better.

Data-Driven Support Infrastructure for Iterative Team-Based Learning

“…The evaluation methods can be broadly categorized as summative and formative assessments [63]. Though the original TBL paradigm put peer evaluation as a summative step in the workflow [3], formative assessment has been proven to be highly beneficial for stimulating reflection and immediate corrections [64], [65]. Thus, in data-rich environments, adopting instant feedback [21] and enriched group awareness information [22] is prevalent to support the group learning process.…”

“…In peer evaluation, students provide ratings and feedback on each other's work, which is formative and can enhance their performance in subsequent tasks [38]. However, peer evaluation reliability is a significant concern, as the quality of peer evaluation remains promising [65]. Recent studies have introduced strategies to enhance the reliability of peer assessment.…”

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“…Collaborative skill, is one of the critical soft skills in current times [33]. With increasing online lectures under the global pandemic, collaborative learning in small groups as group work gets prevalent for cultivating interpersonal skills [34].…”