A peer evaluation form is an official document used to evaluate the performance of students, teachers, colleagues, and workers. It’s an effective tool for identifying the strengths and weaknesses of someone. Companies used this form to rate worker’s productivity. Furthermore, they also used it to determine how workers uphold the company’s standards.

Why peer evaluation forms are needed?

Peer evaluation form is an important document that assists in improving both professionals and non-professionals. The results are written in it shows that how a particular person is currently doing. Thus, it assists in maintaining quality standards. With the help of evaluation form, you can measure and monitor everyone’s productivity, skills, and performance.

Teachers in schools used it for the purpose of tenure and advancement. In companies, peer evaluation form helps the employees in receiving a certification. In addition, it is also used in different fields like accounting, medicine, engineering, and more.

Types of peer evaluation form:

The peer evaluation form usually categorize into two approaches;

Formative peer evaluation form:

In this evaluation form, you have to introduce the evaluator the task and the criteria for evaluation. Guide them on how to evaluate peers and give feedback.

Summative peer evaluation form:

Likewise formative peer evaluation form, here you also have to introduce the task and criteria for evaluation. Ask the evaluator to properly use the grading rubric and give feedback.

What are the objectives of peer evaluation?

Here are the objectives of the peer evaluation form;

  • It helps the students to increase their autonomy and sense of responsibility.
  • The status and role of students get elevated from passive learners to active learners and evaluators.
  • The students are involved in critical reflection.
  • A deeper comprehension of judgment and subjectivity develops in students.

The basic components of peer evaluation form:

Your peer evaluation form should consist of the following components;

Title:

Without a clear title, any document is nothing but just like a piece of paper. The document should be titled like ‘Peer Evaluation Form’. It serves as an introductory statement and indicates the purpose of form.

Evaluator’s name:

It is important to determine who is evaluating in the first place. But sometimes evaluator’s name is anonymous. When you put the evaluator’s name, it would be clear who is the evaluator or responsible for the comments written in the form.

Subject to evaluate:

Don’t forget to indicate the subject that who is being evaluated. Write the name of the peer to be evaluated. This is important because without it the comment may be directed to anybody. There is no need to provide address, contact number, or job position. You just have to clearly state the identification on who is being evaluated.

Criteria:

The next important part is the criteria. It acts as survey questionnaires where there are questions. It also contains a set of criteria on how to evaluate subjects.

Rating scale:

Without a rating scale, the criteria wouldn’t be complete. Here you have to provide the rating and answers to different categories of criteria. Likert scale is common scope to do so. However, you can also use other examples that are relevant to peer evaluations.

Notes:

Under the notes section, you can provide additional comments, feedback, and answers. This section makes the evaluation more effective.

What are some considerations for using a peer evaluation form?

Let us discuss below some considerations for using a peer evaluation form;

  • The students must know the reason for doing the evaluation. Tell them the benefits and expectations of a peer evaluation process.
  • Make the students able to assess assignments of anonymous students to get their feedback to be more objective.
  • Ask the students to provide feedback on each other feedbacks. Also, you can include examples of feedback on different qualities. After that, determine what type of feedback is most useful and describe why.
  • For peer evaluation sessions done in class, provide clear time limits and directions as well as state well-defined deadlines for peer evaluation assignments done at home.
  • Students are more likely to enhance their peer evaluation skills who have ownership and familiarity with criteria.

How to prepare students to use a peer evaluation form?

Students may don’t have the required judgments and skills to manage self and peer evaluations effectively as they have minimal exposure to the different forms of evaluation. The students may also think that by having them undertake peer evaluations, you are neglecting your responsibilities. In such a situation, you can remind your students of the Graduate School Attributes that explain the requirement to equip and prepare students for their own evaluation.

Additionally, during the first week of the class, you can introduce the students to the elements and concepts of evaluations against particular criteria. At the start of your class, you need a little time to discuss what is needed. You can also help the students in establishing criteria. Disseminate the information after setting up the evaluation criteria.

How to create a peer evaluation form?

Let us discuss step-by-step how to create a peer evaluation form;

Make the form according to its purpose:

There is no single format to a peer evaluation. So, you have to modify the content, criteria, and other details related to its purpose. Don’t use the similar form for job performance and a student essay assessment. While making the form, keep the purpose for making the form in mind, then you can easily tailor your form’s data.

Create the criteria:

The criteria, questions, and other factors are the meat of this form. Create relevant and smart criteria that work appropriately for your purpose. For example, consider the leadership skills, teamwork, visual presentation, delivery of the speech, and mastery of assignment for assessing a student’s reporting session. Moreover, include the rating scale right after it.

Keep a sample peer evaluation form:

Keep a sample of the peer evaluation form as a reference while making your own evaluation form. You can also modify these samples. Also, don’t forget to finalize the document.

The basic parts of the form:

After that, add the basic components of form one by one. We have discussed above that you have to start from the title and end to the notes section. If you want to make it detailed, you can also insert more categories. By missing some parts your evaluation can’t run effectively.

Easy-to-use structure:

The last thing you have to do is to check either the evaluation form is hard-to-follow or not. Ask your colleagues to find that the form is user-friendly or not. Thus, if some words are hard to understand make them more straightforward.

Advantages of using peer evaluation forms:

Peer evaluation forms provide a variety of benefits. Some of them are as follows;

  • It gives rise to continuous learning sessions. You acquire learning while giving scales and comments to peers. Then, you determine a person’s strengths, weaknesses, and so much more. Also, if you apply SWOT analysis, you will bring definitely an advantage.
  • This form informs you about your mistakes and errors and teaches you how to fix them. It makes you better at whatever you are doing.
  • It is the process of exchanging ideas. For instance, students always hesitate to respond to their teachers because of their level of superiority. But if students rate each other they feel more comfortable to talk and evaluate because they are the same level.
  • These forms offer constructive feedback. People have to become enough mature in accepting feedback and definitely you can’t receive good comments all the time.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, a peer evaluation form is an effective tool used to evaluate the students, teachers, workers, etc. This document provides an opportunity for peers to evaluate each other. In this way, they learn how a collaborative evaluation through group project works. You should include all the basic elements in your form so that your evaluation becomes effective.

Faqs (Frequently Asked Questions)

Is peer evaluation effective?

Peer evaluation if the managed right is definitely effective. Keep in mind that you can’t get success just because you can make a proper peer evaluation form. So, you have to set a proper plan to manage the evaluation.