The effects of self and peer assessment from among alternative assessment approaches in cooperative learning environments on students? achievement, attitudes towards course and further retention levels

The purpose of the research is to argue the effects of self-assessment and peer assessment used in cooperative learning environments on academic achievements, attitudes towards the course and retention levels of students. In order to test the hypotheses, a pre-test and post-test model with control group was used. The research was carried out with tenth grade students taking English Course in the second term of 2006- 2007 academic year at Maltepe Military High School. There were 18 students in the experimental group and 18 students in the control group.An attitude scale, an achievement test and a language learning strategies inventory (SILL 7.0) on English course ?in the form of a pretest, a posttest, and a follow up test developed by the researcher- were implemented to the experimental and the control groups. The experimental group was given lessons with cooperative learning, self-assessment and peer assessment activities whereas the control group was instructed in traditional methods. In addition to the follow up test, a questionnaire with qualitative and quantitative questions was given to acquire the practice feedback of the experimental group.Two-way variance and contrast analysis in repeated measures were used in assessing data of students? attitudes towards the course, English course achievement and strategy inventory. SPSS 13 and ITEMAN statistical software were run to analyze the received data.Results obtained through the analysis of achievement test data demonstrated a significant difference between achievement test scores of the experimental and the control groups, between pre-test and post-test (p=0.00) and between the pre-test and the follow-up test (p=0.00). On the other hand, there was no significant difference between the post-test and the follow up test.Results obtained through the analysis of attitude scale data demonstrated a significant difference between attitude scale scores of the experimental and the control groups, between pre-test and follow up test (p=0.00) and between post-test and pre-test (p=0,02). However, there was no significant difference between the post-test and the follow up test scores.The results based on the analysis of the SILL 7.0 exposed a significant difference between strategy inventory scores of the experimental and the control groups, between post-test and pre-test (p=0,00) for all of the strategy elements. It was also clear that the participants utilized metacognitive strategies in a very high rate, whereas they used affective strategies in a very low rate. The analysis of the answers students gave to the quantitative questions revealed that students liked cooperative classrooms and the CIRC (Cooperative Integrated Reading And Composition) method. Besides, they liked being aware of language learning strategies in the process of language learning. On the other hand, it was obvious that alternative assessment activities were seriously challenging to the students and they had to be trained through all the steps of assessment.