Identifying the Source of Benefit from Student Self- and Peer-Assessment.

Faculty have long used peer review and student self-assessment and tried things like distributing paper rubrics in advance to help students learn to match their own performance to instructor expectations. By and large, most users agree that it works, and that it is even usually worth the time and effort it takes. But what part of the feedback cycle improves students’ performance? Students might learn from applying the rubric themselves to others’ work, or they could learn not from *doing* the assessments but from receiving others’ feedback on their work. This paper uses an innovative in-class experiment in which students practice self assessment and peer assessment over multiple papers. Each student self-assesses on four papers, and over the course of the 4 assignments s/he will evaluate 6 peer papers. With random distribution into groups over the first three papers, the experiment varies the number of peer evaluations done and the number of peer evaluations received to allow us to separate the two effects. Comparing average deviations of instructor evaluations from student self-assessments, peer assessments given, and peer assessments received over four assignments will give important insights into the student learning process. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]