Abstract:

Studies have shown positive effects of student involvement in assessment, still doubts are raised, not only by students and their teachers, about the quality of assessment in which students participate. Specifying standards and criteria together with explicit training of students have been recommended to raise quality of assessments. In this study forty-nine students in higher secondary education were trained to be peer assessors. Students in the experimental condition were involved by setting the assessment criteria, which were to be used during the assessment, while the control group only was trained to use the criteria. The quality of peer assessment was evaluated with help of the Evaluation Instrument for Peer Assessment (Eipa). Students in both conditions felt comfortable to assess each other and performed high quality scoring. The intervention affected especially the quality in the scoring stage. It was concluded that active student involvement in respective stages of the assessment cycle is beneficial

Keywords:

Peer assessment, student involvement, quality assurance, feeling of competence.