Peer assessment.

Regarding the participants’ understanding of this method, most of the participants defined this method as students reviewing paper-based assessments of their classmates. Nadia, as the other participants, described what she thought were two examples of peer assessment. The first example was “when friends share answers with one another” and she equated this with group work. She described the second example as follows:

Excerpt 35: Sometimes I inform [students] that there is a quiz, and then at the end of the quiz I ask them to exchange papers, or I assign papers randomly to the students and answer the whole exam with them, and ask them to correct for themselves or for the students. (Nadia, II)

The majority of the participants believed in the effectiveness of peer assessment. Some reported that their practices included peer assessment, and others reported that they could not

implement this method because of various factors that will be discussed later. In terms of the use of peer assessment in GE and ESP courses, it is important to note that the participants often did not indicate that the assessment they use are limited to either GE or ESP courses. It just

appeared, perhaps coincidently, that teachers of ESP courses used peer assessment in their classes. However, peer assessment was not planned or conducted regularly perhaps because, as mentioned earlier, the participants did not feel students were ready to engage in this type of assessment. But some participants reported that they do engage their students in a form of pair work that they considered peer assessment.

Several participants such as Latifa, Mona and Leila, believed in the effectiveness of peer assessment, but did not think it could be used in their current context. They explained that students in their context are not trained to respond to such assessment because, as Mona

believed, her students could not engage in peer assessment because they are “passive learners,” and Latifa reported that most students are graduates from public schools, where English is typically taught through the traditional grammar translation method. Although the curriculum in public schools is moving from a traditional to a communicative approach, many teachers

believed in the difficulty of applying communicative approach in their classes. Latifa did not employ peer assessments in her classes, but she said that she would not mind implementing it in the future. Mona highlighted two benefits of peer assessment in the interviews: that peer

assessment promotes students’ learning as students can learn from each other, and reducing students’ stress, as opposed to sharing their answers with the teacher. And, peer assessment is important to switch the roles of the teacher and students. Mona did not grade peer assessment, she repeated that students were not used to it, she could not depend on their marking skills.

During my observation, only Mona and Dana used peer assessment in their classes. However, they both had conflicting views regarding implementing it. In the initial interview, Mona mentioned that students were not used to this type of assessment and that they did not prefer it. But in the post-observation interview, after I played back the recorded peer assessment segment, she stated that students preferred to have their answers checked by their peers because they might “feel threatened” when the teacher monitors them. It is possible that she was referring to students’ perceptions about peer assessment in the initial interview, while in the post-

observation interview she was speaking about the goal of peer assessment more generally, Excerpt 36: This is purely peer assessment. The purpose of that, number one, is to get [students’] self- confidence a little bit up, because once we do answers together, once the teacher checks the answers, some of them feel a bit threatened. And this is an easier way for their answers to get checked. They would rather be corrected by their friend rather than the teacher. As a student and as a learner of a foreign language, sometimes it’s a bit threatening to your self-confidence to always speak up the wrong answer. I would rather that one of my friends correct it and then we work up the correct answers together, and then later on when we’re both sure of the answers we can check with the teacher. This is also one of the main

assessments I’ve learned in CELTA. (Mona, PI)

Dana reported a different view of implementing peer assessment. In the initial interview, she reported that she planned to implement peer assessment in her course because it would be helpful in large classes in terms of grading and evaluating students. Later, in the post-observation interview, however, she expressed a different view. She stated that it was difficult to manage peer assessment tasks with so many students, and that it could be more manageable in smaller classes. She attributed the failure of implementing such assessments to it being the month of Ramadan when students tend to be less energetic because of fasting and to the large number of students.

Peer assessment did occur during Mona’s classes that I observed. Mona asked students to complete a worksheet. She first asked students to answer individually, then she asked them to switch papers and mark each other’s papers. Mona reported in the initial interview that this was what she usually does in her classes:

Excerpt 37: When I’m giving them worksheets about a lesson, first of all I ask them to try to test

themselves in answering the questions and if they finish they can consult their peers and once they’re done, they can either peer check, which is basically, marking their friends’ paper. Or I can put them also in a group and they can check in a group. I do believe in that because sometimes they learn better from each other, but you also need to make sure as an instructor that you’re there, because they can easily learn something wrong. So you have to supervise, so you have to go around and check. (Mona, II)

Mona’s approach to assessment was different from other participants. She preferred peer assessment to be performed under her supervision, because her students were still not ready for peer assessment. For example, in the session I observed while students were completing the worksheet individually, one student asked her friend a question about the worksheet exercise, but Mona asked the student to direct the question to her. Later in the post-observation interview, I asked Mona about this specific moment; she replied that this student usually felt too shy to ask the teacher directly. Mona said that, in this particular case, when students are not instructed to check their answers in pairs yet, she preferred that students ask her so they would get correct guidance rather than get incorrect information from their peers.

Excerpt 38: The teacher is always the correct main source of information. Peer assessment is when they correct each other’s exercises or practices that they have done, but the teacher should be the main source of information, because sometimes the students do not know how to explain well. That’s why I prefer if she wants to ask a question about something that she didn’t understand, she would ask me rather than other students. (Mona, PI)

Mona seems convinced that her students were not ready or able to do peer assessment. As a result, she preferred a structured form of peer assessment where students are not allowed to discuss in pairs until the teacher directs them to do so. This approach seems to contradict the goals of peer assessment as discussed in the literature and could decrease student confidence and autonomy and result in students being passive learners.