Implementation of Peer Assessment Peer Assessment
Over the last decade, formative assessment has gained increasing attention and recognition as a better assessment strategy than summative assessment. Most educators and teachers believe that formative assessment is beneficial to both assessors and assessed because it encourages and guides students to understand subject matter more deeply in a non-threatening atmosphere and allows them to continuously monitor their learning progress. Peer assessment is indeed one of the best ways to operationalize the principles of formative assessment (Noonan & Randy Duncan, 2005). According to Wilson (2002), peer assessment is defined as "the assessment of the work of others with equal status and usually has an element of mutuality". Peer assessment has also been described as a strategy involving students' decisions about others' work that would typically occur when students work together on collaborative projects or learning activities (Noonan & Randy Duncan, 2005).
Underpinning a peer-assessment process is giving and receiving feedback which aims to empower the learners and improve the learning quality.
Throughout the assessment reform movement, some educators and teachers (Cheng & Warren, 2005; Noonan & Randy Duncan, 2005) in the newly emerging formative assessment field are urging that students should be engaged and involved in the assessment process. They listed numerous benefits of allowing students to gain autonomy in the assessment process, which includes:
• giving a sense of ownership of the assessment process, and improving motivation
• encouraging deep rather than surface learning
• encouraging students to take responsibility for their own learning
• enhancing higher order thinking skills, e.g. critical evaluation
• facilitating student-centred learning
• increasing social interaction between learners
