Peer assessment in mathematics lessons : an action research in an eighth grade class in Macau

Abstract

The examination-oriented assessment methods have been widely employed in Macau but the over-dependence on such methods may hinder students’ balanced development of mathematical proficiency (Morrison & Tang, 2002; Schoenfeld, 2007). Peer assessment may compensate the limitation of those methods by engaging students actively to assess. However, little research has focused on the implementation of peer assessment in Macau secondary school. This dissertation reports a study which implemented a five-step peer assessment in an eighth grade mathematics lesson in Macau based on Ploegh at al.’s (2009) and Tillema et al.’s (2011) frameworks, in which the quality criteria are taken into account for revising the procedures. 16 students participated in three action cycles and the action plan was modified to explore how the changes to the peer assessment may influence students’ learning and students’ views towards the implementation of peer assessment.

The results show that it is effective to establish a formative peer assessment to promote students’ mathematical learning in Macau by adopting the frameworks. The students in general held positive attitude towards the implementation of the peer assessment. They regarded it as a fair assessment, appreciated the extra opportunity to discuss mathematics, and treated it as a way to collect more feedback on their strength and weakness. Peer assessment also served as a learning activity which helped them gain deeper understanding of mathematics.

It was found that students’ involvement in the setting of the assessment criteria, making judgment and writing narrative feedback improved students’ use of mathematical language to express their ideas. Providing more opportunities to judge and discuss mathematical problems also fostered the development of their mathematical proficiency. This study also reveals that asking peers for feedback and discussion about the feedback is an efficient way to develop students’ adaptive reasoning. The students’ change of performance in the action cycles also suggests that peer assessment has the potential to help the students access higher level of development in their zone of proximal development (ZPD) and balance the role of authority in mathematics classroom.