Unveiling peer assessment in teacher continuous professional development: perceptions and lessons from an experience with in-service teachers

Abstract

This paper explores a peer assessment (PA) experience within teacher continuous professional development (CPD). The study investigates teachers’ perceptions of giving (GA) and receiving assessments (RA) on the learning challenges they designed. Teachers participated in a survey of closed and open questions, analysed quantitatively and qualitatively. Results indicate that teachers found PA to be a valuable learning experience. Most reported learning from both GA and RA. Nevertheless, they perceived GA as more beneficial than RA. GA allowed teachers to reflect on their challenges, compare them with those of peers, understand different instructional strategies, and identify the positives and negatives of both peers’ work and their own. RA helped teachers identify strengths and weaknesses in their challenges and offered improvement perspectives. Teachers also acknowledged peers’ ability to give both quantitative scores and qualitative comments. This study contributes insights into PA within teacher CPD, highlighting its potential benefits and suggesting implementation directions.