Peer and self-assessment: some issues and problems

Several forms of peer and self-assessment, both formative and summative, were tried with Sussex sociology undergraduates working as individuals or groups. The results showed that evaluations were heavily influenced by sympathies and social relations within the group when those whose work was evaluated were known and present. This suggested that, although the activity might be structured to have formative value, it could be difficult to justify as a contribution to summative evaluation in normal teaching situations where practice was not specially planned for the purpose. As a contribution to the FDTL project 'Assessment Strategies in Sociology', staff at Sussex University used three different routine teaching activities as the basis for some research into peer or self-assessment. Most of the material relates to Sussex sociology students, in annual cohorts of 40-60 students. (Sussex students tend to come from the South East of England our standard offer level was BBB, and there was also a group of students from local Access courses). Some comparative data come from other institutions.