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(Biased) Grading of Students' Performance: Students' Names, Performance Level, and Implicit Attitudes
Meike Bonefeld1, Oliver Dickhäuser1
1Department of Psychology, University of Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany.
Frontiers in Psychology
|June 6, 2018
Summary
Pre-service teachers show bias against students with a migrant background, assigning lower grades. This bias is stronger with lower student performance and positive implicit attitudes toward migrants.
Area of Science:
- Educational Psychology
- Social Psychology
- Teacher Education
Background:
- Stereotypes can influence pre-service teachers' evaluations of student performance.
- Assumptions about lower potential in students with a migrant background may lead to biased grading.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the impact of migrant background, performance level, and implicit attitudes on pre-service teachers' assessments.
- To analyze biases in grading and error counting for a dictation assignment.
Main Methods:
- 203 pre-service teachers evaluated a student's dictation performance.
- Independent variables included student's apparent migrant background, performance level, and teachers' implicit attitudes.
- Dependent variables were assigned grades and counted errors.
Main Results:
- Students with a migrant background received statistically significantly lower grades.
- This grading bias was more pronounced for lower-performing students and teachers with positive implicit attitudes toward migrants.
- Only performance level affected the number of counted errors, not migrant background or implicit attitudes.
Conclusions:
- Pre-service teachers exhibit bias in grading students with a migrant background.
- Implicit attitudes and performance level interact to influence biased evaluation.
- Findings highlight the need for interventions to mitigate bias in teacher assessments.