Enhancing Student-Teachers Assessment Skills: A Self-and Peer-Assessment Tool in Higher Education

Abstract

This study used a self-and peer-assessment activity in Moodle, a learning management system, to investigate the self-and peer-assessment abilities of student-teachers. To enhance self- and peer-assessment in some author-taught courses, students submitted online texts graded by their peers using a grading scale determined by course facilitators as a rubric or aspects approved by course facilitators. This study aimed to design and investigate self-, and peer-assessment activities among 18 students (10 boys and 8 girls) enrolled in one of Kathmandu University Schools of Education’s MPhil/Ph.D. program in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) in Nepal in 2021. The objective was to identify the most effective strategies for involving student-teachers in the learning and assessment processes using self- and peer-assessment as a learning and assessment tool using action research as a research methodology. This study followed the procedures of planning, intervening, evaluating effectiveness, and sharing learning processes within the action research framework. In order to achieve the research objectives, this article discussed some of the Workshop activity’s key strengths and applications within cognitive and constructivist theoretical frameworks, among others. The article concluded by outlining the key advantages of self-and peer assessment in increasing student engagement and improving higher-order skills. These are analytical, and evaluation skills developed through the process of grading self- and peer submissions on a variety of criteria (aspects). The findings show that students are responsible for learning, have metacognitive skills, and use a dialogical, shared teaching and learning model. For higher education, it is a useful tool for self-and peer- assessment.