Tay Boon Pei, Gong Cheng, Dr Chin Chee Kuen 

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Abstract

This study is conducted in a secondary one class (express stream) in a Singapore Government Secondary School for a period of two years. The objective was to study the effectiveness of peers' assessment on composition writing based on proximal development, input and output hypothesis, and the theory of peer assessment. The program also enhances students' composition writing skills by providing training in writing skills, peer assessment and the correction of their compositions. The research aims to answer following questions: (1) Is there any improvement in composition writing skills of students in the experimental class after they have gone through composition writing skills classes and peer assessment activities that ran for two years? (2) Is there any link between peer assessment activity and how well students score for their compositions? The research analyses results based on scoring marks from written compositions of both pre and post-test that have been carried out in the experimental class and the comparison class. This is to better understand changes in composition results. Additionally, researchers collate feedbacks from each student after every lesson, in order to better understand the link between changes in composition marks and feedbacks received from both teacher and students. According to the analysis, composition results of students from the experimental class showed significant improvement, and peers feedbacks have played an important role in improving their results.

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Keyword(s) : proximal development; input and output hypothesis; peer assessment; teaching of composition