Students' Perceptions Toward Peer Evaluation

This research-in-progress employs expectancy theory to evaluate key factors that may motivate students to participate in the peer evaluation process of group projects. The preliminary results indicate that students generally perceived peer evaluation being taken into consideration in determining peers’ grades to be the most attractive outcome of a peer evaluation system. The second attractive outcome was using peer evaluation to reduce conflict and uneven workload distribution among group members. Peer evaluation being provided to peers in improving their performance and behavior and using peer evaluation to enhance productivity and collaboration of the group in meeting its goal were less important from the students’ standpoint. The results of this pilot study provide a starting point for understanding the behavioral intention (motivation) of students’ participation in the peer evaluation process.