self-, peer-, and teacher-assessments in writing improvement: a study of complexity, accuracy, and fluency

alternative assessment approaches and, among them, self-assessment and peer-assessment are becoming increasingly important in educational contexts. designed to compare self-assessment, peer-assessment, and teacher-assessment, this study included 90 efl students from 3 intact classes divided into 3 groups: self-assessment, peer-assessment, and teacher-assessment. after taking the toefl proficiency test (2004) and a writing pretest asking the participants to write a 150-word paragraph, the participants were trained upon the writing complexity, accuracy, and fluency (caf) scale of wolfe-quintero et al. (1998). before sitting the 2 posttests requiring the participants to write a 150-word paragraph, the self-assessment and peer-assessment groups assessed their own and peers’ writings, respectively, whereas the third group had their teacher assess their writings. results of one-way anova demonstrated that teacher-assessment was not as effective as self-assessment and peer-assessment in terms of enhancing their writing proficiency. results have important implications for educational organizations and curriculum designers who look for the most appropriate methods of teaching and testing.