The Effects of Grading and Teaching Practices on Students’ Perceptions of Grading Fairness

Abstract

To examine the antecedents of perceptions of grading fairness, approximately 600 college students were surveyed about the prevalence and desirability of 1) teaching practices that assisted students to prepare for examinations, and 2) common test scoring manipulations used to transform poor scores into acceptable ones (e.g., curving low scores upward). Students also described the fairness of the grading they had experienced. Regression analysis revealed that grading fairness was predicted best by exposure to the teaching practices rather than the scoring practices. Results are discussed in terms of the possible effects of these teaching and grading practices on grade inflation.

Keywords:

• grading practices
• grade inflation
• grading fairness

Notes

¹Interested readers may request the pattern matrix resulting from this analysis by writing to the first author.