The influence of peer feedback on self- and peer-assessment of oral skills

This article investigates the agreement amongst teacher-, self- and peer-assessments of students in the presence of peer feedback. This is done in the context of oral presentation skills of first year undergraduate students of ethnic Chinese background. The research instrument consisted of a self- and peer-assessment questionnaire containing 14 items related to the organization of the presentation content, use of language and interaction with the audience. The participants had taken part in a training and practice session on self- and peer-assessment before engaging in the assessment tasks. The findings show that, when assessment criteria are firmly set, peer-feedback enables students to judge the performance of their peers in a manner comparable to those of the teachers. However, the same is not found to be true with self-assessment.