The Effect of Assessment Type (self vs. peer vs. teacher) on Iranian University EFL Students' Course Achievement

Abstract

This research investigated the effect of self-, peer-, and teacherassessment on Iranian undergraduate EFL students' course achievement. Four intact classes, including 82 students from Urmia, Tabriz, and Tabriz Islamic Azad universities were randomly assigned into one of the self-, peer-, teacher-assessment, or control groups. The students were pretested on their current Teaching Methods knowledge. After receiving relevant instruction and training, the first experimental group (N= 21) were involved in self-assessment activities, the second one (N= 23) were engaged with peer-assessment tasks, and the third one (N= 21) were subjected to teacher-assessment; however, the control group (N= 19) received no assessment-related treatment. The application of ANCOVA on the results of the achievement posttest indicated differences in the performances of peer-, self-, teacherassessment, and the control groups F (3, 77) = 23.15, p= .05, in favour of peer-assessment. A medium effect size was found between the independent and dependent variables (partial eta squared= .47); however, the covariate, albeit significant (.03), had a small effect size (partial eta squared= .05). Further findings and implications are discussed in the paper.

Promoting Students' Autonomous Learning Using Portfolio Assessment in EFL Writing Class

“…The result of observation checklist is in line with the result of students' interview, it was found that most of the students agree that 'clearly stated criteria' in judging their process and product writing can motivate them to complete portfolio assessment in order to get good score in essay writing class. This result support the result of some previous studies conducted by Khonbi and Sadeghi (2012); Romova and Andrew (2011), They found that the implementation of portfolio assessment can encourage the students to set goals in improving their writing competence and performance. In addition, this research result also showed that students can also be more aware of their weakness in writing by providing them scoring rubric used to assess their final draft.…”

“…In addition, by using Portfolio Assessment, students were motivated to be self-assessors of their own development in writing (Khonbi and Sadeghi, 2012). They also said that the learners not only focus on their previous ability or performance but also set goals to improve their writing competence.…”

One, Two, ... , Many : The Outcomes of Paired Peer Assessment, Group Peer Assessment, and Teacher Assessment in EFL Writing

“…The results of this study evidenced the positive impact of students' participation in one to one peer assessment in developing their writing abilities. Consistent with the literature (Berggren, 2015;Birjandi & Hadidi Tamjid, 2012;Khonbi & Sadeghi, 2012), it has provided statistical evidence of the effectiveness of peer assessment in EFL writing classes as the results have shown that, the students in peer assessment class demonstrated a higher degree of development in writing skill than the other two groups. Students' gains in terms of language skills, communication abilities, and autonomy and thoughtfulness can easily be justified by the benefits of employing peer assessment as a tool in enhancing student learning and educational success that has already been discussed.…”

“…Considering the significance of peer assessment in education, different studies were undertaken to investigate the use, influence and students' perception of this process. Studies on implementation of peer assessment and teacher feedback in EFL/ESL writing classes revealed mixed results: while some studies reported no significant difference between peer, self, and teacher assessment (e.g., Azarnoosh, 2013), other studies reported the beneficial effects of peer assessment (Khonbi & Sadeghi, 2012;Topping, 1998). The findings of the study by Tsui and Ng (2000) showed that students used more teacher feedback in comparison to peer feedback and perceived teacher feedback to be significantly more effective.…”

Incorporating Self and Peer Assessment in Reflective Teaching Practices

“…Knowing their attainment usually motivates the students to make a better endeavour to achieve more. The students' engagement in the learning process can make assessment more effective to affect the students' motivation and encourage their learning efficiency (Khonbi & Sadeghi, 2012) Therefore, assessment is an important tool that must be conducted in the learning process to evaluate the targeted learning objectives in order to increase both the students' achievement and motivation.…”