ABSTRACT
Traditional craft education, although teaching learners the techniques, often fails to teach them how to apply those techniques, especially in the case of lacquer crafts, which involve complex materials and diverse techniques. Based on traditional teaching methods, students simply learn what the teacher teaches them, and thus, they rely on the teacher's instructions to complete their work step by step. This study attempts to apply peer assessment in the teaching of traditional lacquer crafts, where students engage in mutual commenting, suggesting, discussing, thinking, and inspiring one another, allowing learners to express their own opinions and provide constructive feedback on their peers’ works. The study targets learners in the lacquer painting class at a community college in Nantou County, Taiwan, with their works as the primary focus. The study has two objectives: (1) to explore the expansion and transfer of lacquer learners’ commenting focus in peer assessment; (2) to analyze the motivating effects of peer assessment on lacquer learners. First, learners engage in lacquer painting creation with the theme of “hometown.” Second, in monthly discussions, learners provide suggestions and discuss the themes, compositions, techniques, and colors of their own and their peers’ works. The researcher records the opinions provided in each discussion. Third, in-depth interviews are conducted with the learners to document their learning status. Finally, coding analysis is carried out using grounded theory. The results show that: (1) commenting on works and sharing life experiences are equally important: the learners in this study are middle-aged and elderly, and while they have many concerns when evaluating their peers’ works, they are also able to provide personal life experiences to expand effective concepts for creation; (2) self-reflection on one's own creations through peer assessment: traditional craft education often involves teachers demonstrating techniques and learners imitating them, which means that even senior learners may lack the confidence to express their own work styles clearly; (3) peer motivation effects: during the course, learners not only focus on their own works but also provide various opinions to others during discussions, resulting in mutual motivation and drive.
