Feedback from peer and teacher assessments of introductory anatomy essays

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Research and Development in Higher Education Vol. 25: Quality Conversations

July, 2002, 794 pages
Published by
Tony Herrington
ISBN
0 908557 54 X
Abstract 

The study investigates the content and character of qualitative feedback given by peer and teacher assessors to students who submitted a general essay assignment in Introductory Anatomy. The analysis consisted of classification of peer and teacher comments on 102 students’ essays. The basis of classification was the identification of which criterion categories were alluded to in the general comments on each feedback sheet. With one exception, the content and character of peer assessment comments were very similar to those made by teachers. The exception was the incidence of failure to comment. Almost one-quarter of student assessments contained no written comment, whereas all teacher assessments contained written comment. A major finding from the study was the large variation between teachers in the criteria they focused their comments on, and the difficulty this poses for students in developing an understanding of what constitutes successful essay writing.

Keywords: teacher and peer assessment, essays, feedback.