Exercise: Introduction to Implementing Peer Assessment 
 (This exercise is incomplete on its own. It should be followed by Implementing Peer Assessment 2)

Cordelia Bryan
Central School of Speech and Drama
c.bryan@cssd.ac.uk 		 Tom Maguire
University of Ulster
tj.maguire@ulster.ac.uk

 

Rationale:

This introductory session to a whole or half day event is vital to set the context for both self and peer assessment by emphasising the pedagogical value. Once this has been achieved (by a brief PPT presentation attached) participants are encouraged to share potential problems and challenges to using PA in their specific contexts. 

Suitable for:

Staff and students with maximum numbers dictated by size of room.

Timings:

90 minutes total
45 minutes Introduction and purpose of workshop using PPT including a slide setting up a 20 minute pairs exercise.
15 mins. Individual (or Pairs) task using post-it stickers plus Q & A
15 mins. To display and read post-it stickers
15 mins. Facilitator-led discussion to draw out and summarise the most commonly perceived problems and to lead into PA workshop 2 which will address ways around the challenges and problems. 

Facilitators:

One facilitator should be able to manage up to 50 people. If the group is much larger, it is helpful to have two facilitators, especially for the post-it stickers and chairing the final discussion.

Resources needed:

Chairs 
Packs of post-it stickers (sufficient for 3 or 4 post-its per person)
Wall or white board to display post-it stickers

Materials provided here:

PPT presentation: Implementing Peer and Self Assessment (R2)
Notes for implementing peer assessment (R22)

Running the workshop:

Stage 1: PPT Presentation Introduction to Implementing Peer and Self Assessment (30 mins.)

The PPT presentation is pretty self explanatory raising fundamental questions such as: 
· What is the purpose of assessment? 
· Who is assessment for? What do we mean by peer assessment? 
· Where and how might peer assessment be applied? 

Examples of where self and peer assessment work most effectively are included, as are some potential problems and benefits for students and staff. 

Stop the presentation at the Pairs Activity slide 

Stage 2: Post-it stickers to identify the challenges (15 + 15 minutes)

Invite participants to think about their own context and to note (one per post-it) specific hurdles to introducing Peer Assessment they have encountered or perceive as being problematic. It is helpful here to ask them to think of three categories which might be problematic: students; staff; and institutional (regulations; QAA etc..)

After about 15 minutes, ask them to display their post-its on a wall or board which you will have headed with the 3 categories above, so that they can immediately group their post-its appropriately. (This saves the facilitator time having to go through all the post-its and categorise them in the break!!) Allow sufficient time for participants to read each other's notes. 

Stage 3: Summing up discussion (15 minutes)

The facilitator can give a brief summary of the most commonly perceived problems and, if time permits, allow for a brief discussion. S/he should conclude by flagging that session 2, after the break, will illustrate how self and peer assessment can work very successfully in different contexts, despite all the challenges that they will have identified.

Guidance notes and recommendations: 

Note comment above about PPT presentation. The first part only should be used for this introductory session. The remainder of the presentation gives examples of successful practice. This is intended for the second session by which time participants will have identified some of their own solutions. More examples may, of course, be added, but these and the conclusion should obviously not be given before the end of session 2.

Bibliography:

A collection of useful resources has been compiled by PALATINE and is available at: 
http://www.lancaster.ac.uk/palatine/key_themes_assessment.html

Comments from participants:

Staff comments
"Although this was a highly interactive and practical workshop which I enjoyed immensely, I particularly appreciated that it was contextualised within sound pedagogical theory." 

"This workshop should become a regular staff development session for all institutions!"

Student comments: 
"I have always thought that assessment is something our tutors do. I rather welcome the idea of grappling with problems of defining our own assessment criteria. It would at least mean we can't complain about them!"

"I still have doubts about assessing my friends, but at least I now understand why we should attempt it [Peer assessment]."

Cordelia Bryan
Tom Maguire
FDTL - Assessing Group Practice
Central School of Speech and Drama
1 December 2002
c.bryan@cssd.ac.uk