Business Students' Ranking of Reasons for Assessment: Gender Differences

Abstract

Assessment forms an integral part of the teaching and learning strategies in higher education and much has been written on related issues. A significant element of the existing literature recognizes the multifaceted nature of purposes for assessment, however few works attempt to quantify the differences. This paper describes an explorative study to investigate the purposes of assessment as seen from the student perspective, and in so doing the research team hoped to generate a valid quantitative measure. The study involved focus group discussions, with staff and students, on the reasons for assessment. A list of reasons for assessment was generated and incorporated into a two-phase ranking measure. This was then administered to a sample of first-year business undergraduates from two higher education establishments. Previous research indicates that some differences between student groups are to be expected, particularly between gender and age groups. However, given inconsistencies between previous research findings, it was unclear how the differences between groups would manifest themselves and if other variations would be noticeable, for instance between cohorts from different educational establishments. The results of this study showed strong correlation in the ranked reasons for assessment across gender and between the two institutions involved. Some significant differences in gender were observed in the top ranked reasons, particularly in the prime reason for assessment. Males ranked 'obtaining a unit mark' as most important, while females ranked 'giving feedback on progress'as most important. This paper discusses possible extensions to the use of the ranking measure and issues for further research.