Educational service

Four things that can bias how teachers assess student work The way that teachers assess students has been under scrutiny since the UK government announced that this would be one element of a range of evidence used to replace GCSE and A Level exams this year. Teacher assessment is a key part of university study, too. University educators play a pivotal role in judging and grading written and non-written tasks in both academic and workplace settings. Although teachers are the ones who spend most of the time with students during their learning journey, the reliability of teachers’ judgements has sparked heated discussions. There are fears that teacher bias regarding students’ cultural and linguistic backgrounds could affect student results. Teachers have to fight against their own subjectivity when giving grades, and being aware of their potential biases is important. My research has identified four factors that can contribute to biases in teachers’ judgements. 1. Their beliefs about asse...