Of all the prospective teachers, 90.91% stated that the use of peer assessment in teaching practice was beneficial. At the end of the teaching practice where peer assessment was made, the opinions of prospective teachers about peer assessment were taken via a semi-structured negotiation technique, and content analysis was carried out. In every teaching practice, prospective teachers observed their peers and filled out peer assessment forms which include teacher competences and the assessments were discussed in the theoretical part of the teaching practice, this takes 2 hours. Twenty two prospective teachers in the 4th year of the Primary School Class Teaching Program at Cumhuriyet University participated in the study. The present study was conducted in order to determine the opinions of prospective teachers about peer assessment in teaching practice. However, some claims made by advocates of alternative assessments are not quite so universally acceptable (Brown, 1998).

Huerta-Macias (Huerta-Macias, 1995: 10) one of the supporters of alternative forms of assessment claims that alternative assessment is valid and reliable due to: (a) the close relation between learning and teaching (b) the use of multiple methods of assessment (c) teachers and students’ training in using assessment criteria correctly and (d) the avoidance of comparing one student to another or with other forms of linguistic or cultural bias. by providing a peer with written or oral feedback (Topping, 1998). by providing a peer with scores or grades, and/or qualitatively, e.g. PA is an educational arrangement where students judge a peer’s performance quantitatively, e.g. Klenowski (1995) defines SA as “the evaluation or judgment of ‘the worth’ of one’s performance and the identification of one’s strengths and weaknesses with a view to improving one’s learning outcomes” (p. PoA is defined as the examination of a systematic collection of student work that documents a student’s endeavors, growth and achievements (Chang, 2008). Three prominent forms of alternative assessment are portfolio assessment (PoA), self-assessment (SA) and peer assessment (PA).

The failure of traditional testing to provide an accurate picture of learners’ developmental abilities has led educators to search for new, alternative ways of assessment to counterbalance such limitations (Cunningham, 1998, p.

Reliability of assessment in education