We are particularly concerned with the increasing dropout rates observable in higher education in Portugal and in other European countries. According to the report “Drop-out and Completion in Higher Education in Europe among students from under-represented groups”, compiled for the European Commission by the NESET (2013, p. 9), “students with dependents, women in particular, struggle to balance caring responsibilities with their studies. The same goes for part-time students, who are at greater risk as a result of caring responsibilities or working long hours in a job unrelated to their studies. Also at risk are students with disabilities who often drop-out due to problems of access and discrimination.”

This concern resonates with the motivations of a long-term participatory action-research project we are engaged in, where we have developed a pedagogical strategy called the “evaluation friend” to promote the participation of the students in their own learning and evaluation. Theoretically anchored on the concept of “empowerment evaluation” proposed by Fetterman, on Vygotsky’s social constructivist theory, Illich’s proposals on education, the socio-critical theories of Freire and Mezirow, and Knowles’ andragogical model, the “evaluation friend” strategy is being used in a blended learning environment supported by a learning management system based on Moodle. Organized in pairs or in groups, called the “evaluation friend teams”, the students follow the work of their colleagues and help each other in a shared process to raise the quality of learning and of their academic work.

The strategy is aimed at raising the participation of the students, engaging them in their own learning and evaluation, and giving them control over their own learning paths. Not surprisingly, some of the suggestions proposed in the above NESET report also emerge in our study: tracking students progress; fostering positive approaches to learning; improving formative assessment; improving students’ study skills; offering counseling and personal support; helping the students make friends and networks.

We have gradually improved this strategy throughout the project in successive participatory action-research cycles involving different courses, subjects, and students, in three academic years (2008-2011) at the Polytechnic College of Education where we teach. This study is part of a larger research project, involving 380 students of a population that ranges from young full-time students to mature students working full-time, some of them deaf, Erasmus students, and immigrant, and covers a diversity that illustrates the richness of new adult publics in European higher education institutions. We will focus here on the processes and results obtained in after-work courses because of the higher dropout risks of this population.

The structure will be presented and discussed according to the following five components:

1. Definition of the evaluation criteria and indicators registered in individual learning contracts and evaluation forms;
2. Students selection of their evaluation friends (in a first cycle); random organization of pairs or teams (in a second cycle);
3. Continuous monitoring of each others learning development and work, from the beginning to the end of the curricular unit, including qualitative feedback and suggestions for improvement;
4. Beyond formative continuous evaluation, specific planned moments for collaborative evaluation, with supervision of the teacher and qualitative data registered in the forms;
5. Reports, reflection and discussion about the processes and products/results of the evaluation, at three levels: self-evaluation, co-evaluation inside the pair/team, and with the class and the teacher, all integrated in a reflective portfolio. 

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