Differences Between Students’ and Teachers' Fairness Perceptions: Exploring the Potential of a Self-Administered Questionnaire to Improve Teachers' Assessment Practices

in Frontiers in Education (2020), 5(17),

The ability to assess learning outcomes is vital to effective teaching. Without understanding what students have learned, it is impossible to tailor information, tasks or feedback adequately to their ... [more ▼]

The ability to assess learning outcomes is vital to effective teaching. Without understanding what students have learned, it is impossible to tailor information, tasks or feedback adequately to their individual needs. Thus, assessment literacy has been increasingly recognized as a core teacher competency in educational research, with many empirical studies investigating teachers’ abilities, knowledge and subjective views in relation to classroom assessment. In contrast, relatively few studies have focused on students’ perspectives of assessment. This is surprising, since gathering students’ feedback on their teachers’ assessment practices seems a logical step toward improving those practices. To help fill this gap, we present an explorative study using the recently developed Fairness Barometer as a tool to help identify specific strengths and weaknesses in individual teachers’ assessment methods. Viewing assessment through the lens of classroom justice theory, the Fairness Barometer asks students and teachers to rate aspects of procedural and informational justice in their own (teachers’) assessment practices. We examined the resulting fairness discrepancy profiles for 10 Austrian secondary school classes (177 students). Results showed wide variation in profile pattern, evidence that both students and teachers can differentiate between different aspects of assessment fairness. Further exploration of the resulting discrepancy-profiles revealed certain problem types, with some teachers differing from their students’ perception in almost every rated aspect, some showing specific assessment-related behaviors that require improvement (e.g., explaining grading criteria of oral exams), and others demonstrating almost identical responses as their students to the addressed fairness aspects. Results clearly indicate the potential of the Fairness Barometer to be used for teacher training and teacher self-development within the domain of teacher assessment literacy. [less ▲]

How fairly am I assessing my students? Equipping teachers with a tool to learn about their own assessment practices: Theory and development of the Fairness Barometer.

Scientific Conference (2018, July)

It seems safe to say that the vital question of adequacy, precision, and fairness of grades is as old as the introduction of a grading system to schools and other educational institutions. In recent years ... [more ▼]

It seems safe to say that the vital question of adequacy, precision, and fairness of grades is as old as the introduction of a grading system to schools and other educational institutions. In recent years, however, this topic has attracted a lot of research interest. Particularly in the wake of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002, teacher accountability and how to measure it have become increasingly important to educational actors and researchers alike (Levy, Keller, Brunner, Fischbach, 2017). Consequently, multiple studies have examined teachers’ diagnostic abilities, especially their accuracy in assessing students’ competencies (e.g. Kaiser, Südkamp, Möller, 2017; Schrader, 2013; Südkamp, Kaiser, Möller, 2012; Tobisch & Dresel, 2017). The present paper complements this view by discussing a newly developed questionnaire that captures whether students themselves feel that they are being assessed in a fair and just way by their teachers: the Fairness Barometer. Capturing three different dimensions of fairness (informational fairness, interpersonal fairness, and procedural fairness), the questionnaire is intended to be administered by teachers who want to learn more about their own assessment practices through student feedback. By exclusively considering strategies and behaviors teachers can change, the Fairness Barometer provides clear guidance for improving current assessment practices; its questions were also carefully selected to avoid provoking unrealistic expectations in students. On the basis of two studies measuring perceived teacher fairness in the subjects Mathematics, English, and German among roughly 600 students, we will discuss the factorial structure of the Fairness Barometer and the relationship between fairness and self-reported grades. Results are promising and show that students of all competency levels are capable of judging their teachers’ assessment practices in a nuanced way. By developing the Fairness Barometer, we hope to equip teachers with a tool that is easy to administer and actually helps them to develop and improve their often criticized diagnostic competencies. [less ▲]