Objectively assessing students can be more challenging than sometimes anticipated. Assessment bias can present in many ways, including the:
- Halo effect – supervisors make a positive (or negative) global judgement based on one or two incidents and continued to perceive future performance in the same manner.
- Anchor effect – students are compared with a superior student.
- Mum effect – if the student is meeting placement milestones, supervisors do not feel the need to provide any assessment/feedback.
- Contrast effect – supervisors measure the student’s performance against their own standard (rather than that of the standards provided by the university)
To optimise assessment consistency against a predefined standard, supervisors may use an assessment checklist
References:
Please Note: References remain valid until superseded by later research. The resources referenced here are regularly reviewed and are considered current and relevant to the topics presented.
- Ciancanelli, B (2022) Addressing Bias in Assessment: https://otl.du.edu/addressing-bias-in-assessment/
- Griffith University Clinical Education Resource Manual, (2012). School of Physiotherapy and Exercise Science, Griffith University.
- Henderson, B., Aitken, R., Lewis, L.K., Chipchase, L., 2021. Postgraduate nursing students’ perceptions of consensus marking with online oral vivas: a qualitative study. Nurse Educ. Today 101. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2021.104881.
- University British Colombia (nd) Access eTips for Practice Education Modules: Module 6: The evaluation process https://canvas.ubc.ca/courses/97719
