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Researchers find lower grades given to students with surnames that come later in alphabetical order (phys.org)

submitted 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) by Aatube@kbin.melroy.org to c/mildlyinteresting@lemmy.world

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As graders go on grading, their comments become more frustrated and their good-will becomes much sloppier. At least that's the hypothesis to explain this. Researchers found the reverse effect on graders who sorted in reverse-alphabetical order.

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[–] vk6flab@lemmy.radio 15 points 7 months ago (13 children)

So ... graders are fallable humans?

[–] moon@lemmy.ml 16 points 7 months ago (12 children)

Yea, but this kind of work is needed to encourage blind marking as the default, and not just when standardised testing is involved

[–] Aatube@kbin.melroy.org 3 points 7 months ago (11 children)

I think just randomized order would be enough. It is plausible for teachers to keep track of students' individual progress.

[–] liv 10 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I think blind marking is important. I have literally heard people objecting to proposed grades with phrases like "but he's a bad student" or "but she's really bright."

[–] intensely_human@lemm.ee 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Unless the assignment is a multiple choice quiz, you can’t really blind it because the thing being evaluated is output from that person.

A million tiny clues will indicate to your subconscious which student’s work you’re grading.

[–] liv 3 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

I can't imagine how, unless you only had 20 of them or something?

Back when I was a TA, I had an average of 120 students per semester and we didn't necessarily grade our own students' work (it was usually divided by topic).

So if I'm grading 120 assignments - or worse, 480 pieces of exam assessment- and only 25% of them are from students I regularly interact with, I don't think my subconscious has any idea 99% of the time.

Even with smaller classes... you're just seeing too many people with similar thoughts and styles over the course of a year for any of it to imprint on your mind that deeply. Occasionally it's going to be obvious, but I still think removing a level of bias through anonymizing is best practice.

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