A scaffolded approach to developing students’ skills and confidence to participate in self and peer assessment

Despite the well known benefits for learners undertaking courses involving self and/or peer assessment, there are several challenges associated with the introduction of such alternative assessment approaches. These challenges relate to students’ lack of confidence in their ability to evaluate their work and the work of their peers, their doubts about their ability to be objective and their lack of adequate preparation to fulfil such a role. The suggested strategies for addressing these identified problems include providing training for students in self and peer assessment, ensuring they understand the benefits from active participation in the assessment process and providing the required scaffolding to support them in the process. This paper describes the use of a peer review instrument as a scaffold designed to provide both an educative and evaluative function. The instrument was initially developed as a peer review tool for online learning and teaching through the support of an Australian Learning and Teaching Council grant. This instrument has been further developed as a scaffold for students undertaking courses in which they are required to make evaluative judgements about their work and the work of their peers. Preliminary findings from the use of the instrument in a first-year media arts course are reported and the initial observations from the findings are discussed. The potential of the instrument as a scaffold for learners as well as its role in supporting teachers in the design of feedback and assessment is explored in the final section of the paper.