British Psychology Students' Perceptions of Group-Work and Peer Assessment

Abstract

This paper reports on part of an Action Research project into students' perceptions of group-work and peer assessment which was carried out by the author to meet part of the requirements for her postgraduate teaching certificate in Higher Education. One-hundred-and-fifty-six first-year psychology students were asked to complete questionnaires regarding their attitudes towards participating in group-work and peer assessment both before and after participating in a small group project. By asking the students to provide written comments qualitative measures were also collected. The results regarding group-work showed that in general the students were favourably disposed towards participating in group-work. However, there were concerns expressed regarding inequalities in workload distribution and in whether students learned more by working independently. The results regarding peer assessment showed that following participation the students were much more positive although concerns existed regarding the possibility of bias and lack of training. The implications for group projects and peer assessment on Higher Education courses are discussed.