Therese Granekull, PhD-student
therese.granekull@mah.se
Department Science, Environment, Society Malmö University, Sweden
Preliminary results about science in peer assessment
Students in this study ”talk science” during peer assessment in groups. They use different kinds of science, everyday-science, school-science and more scientific science in varying degrees. Students may use peer assessment and the
interaction in the group, as an opportunity to discuss science and internalize science into their vocabulary and mind. Peer assessment may also help students to construct essential meanings in their own words.
Peer-assessment in Science –
students’ discussions and experiences
Introduction and background
Schools of today have an increased focus on
assessment. In our country there is a need regarding research within this area, especially when it comes to assessment and students’ experiences. There is also a need to link research about assessment to different areas for example science education (Andrade, 2010; Forsberg & Lindberg, 2010).
Formative assessment can be used as a tool to
improve students’ learning and their metacognition (Black & Wiliam, 1998). Peer assessment is used
within formative assessment and aims at giving and getting feedback, in order to improve learning (Hattie & Timperley, 2007; Jönsson, 2012; Lundahl, 2011).
In a classroom there is communication and interaction of different kind. Whether it is oral, written or “silent”, it takes place between and within the participants.
“Learning science means learning to talk science” (Lemke, 1990) and being able to use it in different situations.
Research questions
o In what way is science expressed in peer assessment? o How do students experience peer assessment and what
are their experiences from it?
o How do students use scoring rubrics in peer assessment?
Methods and analysis
o Students’ written answers from tasks with science content
o Video recording of peer assessment in group, using tasks from DiNO, a tested material from National
Agency for Education
o Individual, semi structured interviews with students o Analysing students’ talk – discourse analysis
Example of task and
students’ answers
Explain what happens when a candle is burning. What happens with the stearin?
Melvin:
When the candle is burning the
stearin flows down on the candle and then it stuck on
the candlestick
Jack:
I think that the
stearin has melted and vaporized and then evaporated
like a gas, perhaps water and carbon dioxide.
Zoe:
At first the stearin is solid. When you light the candle, it gets
warm. The stearin that is close to the fire, melts and flows down on the candle. I think that when some thing solid becomes liquid, the material shrinks.
Example from peer assessment
S: You didn’t use that kind of words. L: What?
S: Such Scientific words.
L: Okay, wasn’t melting and all that? S: Melting was.
