مرکز منطقه ای اطلاع رساني علوم و فناوري - View of Social Sciences Student Teachers on Peer Assessment

Abstract :

The main purpose of this research is to investigate the opinions of social studies teacher candidates about peer review which is one of the alternative assessment and evaluation method. 47 senior teacher candidates who studied in the Karadeniz Technical University, Social Science and Department of Turkish Education, Social Studies Education Department participated the study. 24 teacher candidates out of 47 indicated that they have done peer review in the special teaching methods course, on the other hand, 23 of them stated that they were informed theoretically about the peer review but have not done. Opinions of the teacher candidates were taken with open ended survey questions and the data gathered from surveys were interpreted by using content analysis. It is emerged that most of the teacher candidates gave positive opinions about peer review. Teacher candidates think that peer review increases the awareness about strengths and weaknesses of themselves; supports the learning from their friends’ strengths and weaknesses; enhances to be open to criticism; upskills of evaluation and develops critical thinking. However, as a negative side of peer review, it is seen that teacher candidates discourses on being nonobjective while doing review. Findings suggested that teacher candidates who have done peer review have more positive opinions about peer review than the teacher candidates who have not done peer review. In addition to this, category that have the highest frequencies for both group is same. Results reveal that, although peer review is an effective method for construction of the process, performing peer review have some difficulty. In accordance with these results, it is suggested that informed educating the teacher candidates about how to review their peers and determining the criteries in peer assessment by asking student’s opinions.