Simulated grading decisions of allied health educators. Part II: Variations in causal attributions

The present study investigated the causal attributions of allied health faculty to hypothetical student achievement data. Faculty rated linear and nonlinear (ascending or descending) grade profiles along ten causal dimensions. As predicted, student ability and effort attributions were prominent for ascending and uniformly high performance while external factors were more prevalent for descending and uniformly low performance. Faculty also used a diverse set of attributions in rating the performance profiles. Faculty age and length of clinical experience appeared to have mediating effects on perceptions of causality for declining student performance. Overall, these results suggest that allied health faculty demonstrate predictable patterns of causal attributions, yet differ in several important aspects from that expected from previous research.