Compatibility of Peer Assessment and Teacher Assessment in Observational Situations: An Emerging Assessment Tool in Higher Education

This study involved students enrolled in the 3rd semester of a Master of Educational Research and Assessment program at a teacher training institute during their teaching practice. The purpose was to explore the potential of peer assessment as a dependable alternative to teacher assessment in higher education. The student in the sample observed their class fellows during their teaching practice. Each student was observed by twenty two class fellows and supervising teacher at least once during teaching practice. This paper reports about eleven students selected on the basis of performance in course work (five students with highest and six with the lowest grades). An observation schedule developed by researchers was used for recording observational information. Mann-Whitney U test was used to find compatibility in peer and teacher assessment on each of the ten aspects addressed in observation. Academically high performing student’s observation of peers was relatively similar to the observation made by the supervising teacher. A greater degree of agreement in assessment on traits involving tangible (directly measurable) characteristics was observed while more variation existed on measurement of abstract traits.