Critical Discernment of Quality in Singing: An Approach to Encouraging Self-regulated Singers through Peer Assessment

Abstract

In 2008, as part of the ongoing development of a learning model for singing using sociocultural theories, peer assessment was introduced into the singing component of a tertiary level, undergraduate, creative arts performance course. The purpose of this exercise was to encourage students to become self-regulated learners capable of continuing with their learning after graduation. Falchikov (2007) has argued that peer involvement in assessment has the potential to encourage learning and develop assessment skills that will last a lifetime. The project investigated what effect changing the role of the actor/singer in an assessment has on the group and also the individual development of graduate qualities such as critical thinking and responsibility. It also looked at what process was involved in order to integrate peer assessment into the subject and what kind of support was needed to achieve this. The research found the main benefit that the students perceived from the exercise was that it helped them to reflect on their own practice by having to make the effort to interact with the criteria given in order to properly assess a peer. The added responsibility of having to assess other students encouraged them to interact more carefully with the descriptors of quality so that “discernment of quality becomes a key aspect of learning (Sadler, 2008, p.18).”