Formative evaluation between peers in initial teacher training:an experience of change in relation to conceptions about explanations

This study explored the extent to which formative peer assessment might enhance changes on the student teachers’ thoughts about scientific concepts. An intervention was conducted with 38 participants from three universities in Chile. Their conceptions about the quality of instructional explanations for the classroom were gathered through questionnaires, feedback sessions and focus groups. The results showed there was a transformation of the focus of their thinking for identifying the quality of their peers’ explanations, from pedagogical knowledge to pedagogical content knowledge. This study suggests that peer assessment can play a significant role in teacher education, modifying student teachers’ deeply rooted conceptions. The factors that promoted the changes are discussed, as well as practical and political implicances for teacher education from an integrative perspective of teachers’ tinking process and subjectivities. Keywords: formative peer assessment, teacher education