Gender and mode of assessment at university: should we assume female students are better suited to coursework and males to unseen examinations?1

The research which is reported in this paper was supported financially by the Economic and Social Research Council (R000 22 3432), the British Academy, and the University of Sussex's Teaching and Learning Development Fund.

Abstract

This paper reports on research conducted at the University of Sussex and examines whether female students have a particular preference for coursework, and whether such a preference is a key factor in their current undergraduate success. The performances of 638 students on courses whose assessment modes comprised both coursework and examinations were analysed to determine what, if any, gender differences were evident in relation to performances on each elements. In order to supplement the quantitative findings, qualitative data elicited via two online surveys, and focusing on student perceptions of coursework and examinations and attitudes to undergraduate study, are also discussed. Our findings contribute to the debate about gender differences across modes of assessment, and in particular take issue with the claim that female students, by contrast with males, both favour and are favoured by the use of coursework as opposed to unseen examinations in mode of assessment arrays.

Notes

Corresponding author. E437, Department of Sociology, School of Social and Cultural Studies, University of Sussex, Falmer BN1 9SN, UK. Email: [email protected]

The research which is reported in this paper was supported financially by the Economic and Social Research Council (R000 22 3432), the British Academy, and the University of Sussex's Teaching and Learning Development Fund.

Although this success was only in absolute, rather than proportionate, terms: more female students received Firsts for the first time in history, but there were more of them undertaking degrees.

The focus of this paper is the attitude to, and performance of, male and female students in coursework and unseen examination assessments, and the contextualising of these attitudes in relation to their more general feelings about their academic work, and not whether women do indeed adopt a less assertive style of academic writing in general. For some recent discussion of this aspect of the debate, see Earl‐Novell, 2003; Read & Francis, 2001; Francis et al., 2001; Read et al., 2001.

First‐year courses did not count towards a student's final degree. However, students needed to pass the assessment exercises indicated here in order to gain the necessary credits and proceed to the second year of study.

The coursework element for this course comprised essays. The weighting given to each assessment element was as follows: unseen examination: 70%, coursework: 30%.

The coursework element for all courses considered here comprised essays, except in the case of one of the courses—Macroeconomics 1—where it comprised essay, exercise and [in‐class] multiple choice test. The weighting given to each assessment element was as follows: Development of Modern Britain: unseen examination: 60%, coursework: 40%; Foundations of the Social Sciences: unseen examination: 50%, coursework: 50%; Macroeconomics I: unseen examination: 70%, coursework: 30%.

Cramer's V is a measure of the effect size of the chi‐square tests, i.e. it assesses the strength of the relationship between row and column variables. Cramer's V ranges in value from 0 to 1, with values of .10, .30 and .50 representing small, medium and large effect sizes respectively (Green et al., 1997).

In the case of both the first‐ and third‐year sample, all of the online participants had experience of both unseen examinations and coursework at undergraduate level at the stage that they were asked for qualitative comment on the two modes of assessment.

Example prompt from email surveys: ‘You should now all be coming to the end of your first year, and in the middle of its final examination period. How are you coping? On balance, which mode of assessment do you prefer—coursework, unseen examinations, presentations, etc.—and why? Do you think different modes of assessment test different things and which, in your opinion, is the best way to test your particular capabilities?’

The findings from the surveys with final‐ and first‐year participants will be presented together here as no salient differences between the groups were detected during analysis.

Spelling and punctuation in quotations has been standardised and/or corrected for the purposes of this publication.

All students' communications were responded to during the surveys. The principal investigator on the surveys was also a welfare Sub‐Dean during the data collection period and any students who expressed concerning levels of anxiety were referred to appropriate support agencies.

It should be noted that women students secure these performances in a context where coursework is not blind‐marked; a factor which has been linked to examiner bias against female candidates (for a summary of this literature see Baird, 1998; see also Bradley, 1984).

In connection with this, it is noteworthy that levels of self‐reported cheating on coursework are higher from male students (Newstead et al., 1995; Aggarwal et al., 2002).