A comparison of the effectiveness of teacher evaluation and peer evaluation in a second grade creative writing program with respect to mechanics, maturity, and originality

This study was designed to investigate the effectiveness of two creative writing evaluative procedures. The traditional method of teacher evaluation was compared to the less-widely used method of peer evaluation.

The experimental study involved the two second grade classes at Lanier Elementary School in Maryville, Tennessee. The design was the nonequivalent control group. Both groups were taught by the same teacher for three thirty-minute sessions per week for ten weeks. During this time both groups were taught the same lessons and given the same subsequent assignments. The only difference was that Group A used the teacher evaluation method and Group B used the peer evaluation method.

The subjects in both groups were pretested and posttested by means of their actual writings. These writings were scored in three areas– mechanics, maturity, and originality. Because of the objectivity of the frequency counts involved in the mechanics and maturity scores, the researcher computed these. A panel of three professional educators acted as judges for the originality scores which were assessed according to the Alpren revision of The Carlson Analytical Originality Scale.

The post-writing test scores were adjusted by means of the pre-writing test scores to compensate for any initial differences using the analysis of covariance. The means of the adjusted post-writing test scores were then compared for significant differences at the .05 level of confidence.

An analysis of the data revealed that both Group A, the teacher evaluation group, and Group B, the peer evaluation group, showed progress in the three major areas of scoring as determined by the group means of the pretests and posttests. However, in two areas, mechanics and maturity. Group B made significantly more progress at the .05 level of confidence. In the area of originality, no significant difference appeared in progress rates.