The Impact of Peer Assessment on Students’ Motivation for Cooperative Learning

Abstract

Nowadays, peer assessment is becoming a more important criterion in modern education for evaluating students’ team-based learning activities. The purpose of this research is to investigate how peer assessment affects students’ motivation to learn in collaborative learning settings. The results show that the impact of peer assessment is strongly influenced by the context and design of its implementation. On the one hand, by meeting students’ core psychological needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness, well-designed peer assessments can effectively increase students’ intrinsic motivation. However, because of unjust grading, unclear criteria, and poor feedback, poorly planned peer assessments can lead students to anxiety and frustration, which lowers their motivation. Therefore, important variables like transparent standards, anonymous procedures, and methodical training are potentially necessary for the successful application of peer assessment. This study provides theoretical perspective to analyse the impact of peer assessment on students’ motivation and practical implications for educators to optimize the design of peer assessment to stimulate students’ motivation.