Effect of Teacher’s Guided Students Peer - Assessment on Teaching and Learning in a Large Class

Abstract

The study investigated the performance of students in large class in Mathematics and English. It compared the performance of the students using guided peer and teacher’s assessment strategies with a view to determine the impact of teacher’s guided students’ peer - assessment strategy on teaching and learning in a large class. The research design was experimental using control and study groups. The study population consisted of secondary school students in Osun State. One public secondary school was purposefully selected based on the size. Students in SSS2 were purposively chosen based on the fact that all the students offer Mathematics and English Language. The sample size for the study consisted of 119 students, 59 for the study group and 60 for the control groups. The instruments used for the study were Mathematics Achievement Test (MAT) and English Language Achievement Test (ELAT),designed by the subject teachers. The research was conducted giving treatment of peer – assessment for the study group while the control group was not giving treatment .The scores of the students both at post and pre-treatment were recorded and subjected to statistical analysis using F-test and t-test. The results revealed improvement in the performance of students when peer - assessment strategy was used (mean difference=+10.1 for study group and +0.5 for the control group) The scores of both teacher and students’ peer - assessment were not significantly different ( t=1.810, p =>0.05) The mean difference in the performance of students in English Language for the study group was ?3.9 and the control group was ?15.7. The reduction was much more at the control group but not significant with the study group (t = 0.973 , p > 0.05) but significant with the control group (t=5.411, p< 0.05). There was a significant difference in the performance of students in mathematics with peer - assessment,( t=4.233 ,p< 0.05) and English Language (t = 13.4, p<0.05) The study concluded that students performed better when peer assessment strategy was used and that it was possible for students to self- assessed themselves with accuracy even in a very large class where assessment could be too tedious for the teacher to carry out regularly and effectively.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n8p296