Although we all put a lot of effort into producing good feedback for students, we often find that they don’t engage with it seriously (or at all). In an attempt to encourage students to build the skills they need to make the most of the feedback they’re given, I have introduced peer assessment into several places in our Maths curriculum.
My hope is that by giving students hands-on experience of critiquing others’ work, we will encourage them to be more active participants in the feedback process, to look more critically at their own work, and that along the way they will start to develop their writing and presentation skills.
Over the last few years, our use of peer assessment has spread into three of the five core modules at Level 1, and both core modules at Level 2, for Maths honours students. I have started to encourage colleagues to include peer assessment at Level 3, by which time students will have the maturity and experience to really benefit from peer assessment, even with highly advanced mathematics.
In 2025-6 I am undertaking research into how students can benefit from writing summaries of key concepts, and then using comparative judgement to compare their peers’ submissions.
TALMO talk: Peer assessment in maths: Can it work?, TALMO, 18 June 2025.