Abstract:

Background:
Research has shown that self-assessment and peer assessment are beneficial tools for learning. Self- and peer-assessment have become essential tools for student-centred assessment processes in higher education, as shown by their instructional effectiveness. By actively involving students in the assessment process and encouraging their self-reflection and engagement with peers, these methods foster a deeper understanding of the learning experience and enhance critical thinking skills. Therefore, this review aimed to identify measurement tools, practices, and recommendations that have been performed in peer assessment and self-assessment in healthcare students at the university level.

Methods:
The literature search was conducted through the electronic databases Medline via PubMed and ERIC using the following search strategy: ("Peer assessment" OR "Peer evaluation" OR "Peer observation" OR "Peer feedback" OR "Co-evaluation" OR "Self-assessment" OR "Self-evaluation") AND ("University" OR "Higher education" OR "College") AND ("Health" OR "Pharmacy" OR "Physiotherapy" OR "Nursing" OR "Medicine" OR "Nutrition" OR "Dietetics" OR "Psychology" OR "Occupational Therapy") in the title and abstract fields. The retrieved articles were included if they met the following criteria: 1) studies addressing peer-assessment and/or self-assessment actions as a learning strategy; 2) studies conducted in undergraduate students; 3) studies conducted within health science disciplines. Upon applying the search limits (i.e., English or Spanish language, articles published between 1st January 2017 and 31st December 2021, and journal article), 515 articles were identified from two databases. To ensure the accuracy of the search, all research members performed a blind peer screening of all titles and abstracts. A final sample of 50 publications was selected for full-text review.

Results:
The main findings suggested that the discipline with the most studies was nursing (n=13, 26%), followed by multidisciplinary studies (n=10, 10%), in face-to-face teaching (n=26, 52%). Studies focused on peer assessment (n=22, 44%) predominated over self-assessment (n=14, 28%) or both assessments (n=12, 24%). Regarding assessment tools used, questionnaires were mainly chosen for self-assessment (n=6, 23.1%) and rubrics for peer-assessment (n=9, 26.4%). Although the studies used validated assessment tools, 48% (n=12) and 52.9% (n=18) of tools were not validated for self-assessment and peer-assessment, respectively. Additional findings showed students received training before self-assessment (n=7, 26.9%) and peer-assessment (n=14, 42.4%). A formative assessment process was integrated into 23.1% (n=6, self-assessment) and 29.4% (n=10, peer-assessment) of the articles, while 15 studies (57.7%, self-assessment; 44.1%, peer-assessment) included a summative assessment as a part of the process. The anonymity of the evaluator was a feature of the process in only 35.3% (n=12) of the articles that dealt with peer-assessment as a learning approach.

Conclusion:
The results showed nursing was the discipline conducting the most research on peer-assessment or self-assessment. Questionnaires and rubrics were the most used assessment tools, although most part of studies utilised not validated tools to measure learning outcomes. These results emphasise the importance of validating assessment tools and providing training to ensure effective execution of these evaluation methods.

Keywords:

Peer assessment, self-assessment, undergraduate students, higher education, health care sciences.