Developing science activities through a networked peer assessment system

This paper described the use of a networked peer assessment system to facilitate the development of inquiry-oriented activities for secondary science education. Twenty-four preservice teachers in Taiwan participated in this study and experienced a three-round peer assessment for developing science activities. The findings suggested that teachers tended to develop more creative, theoretically relevant, and practical science activities as a result of the networked peer assessment. However, the peers' evaluations were not highly consistent with experts' (e.g., university professors) grades. This study also revealed that students who offered detailed and constructive comments on reviewing and criticizing other peers' work might help them improve their own work, especially in the beginning stage of revising their original work. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.