As graders go on grading, their comments become more frustrated and their good-will becomes much sloppier. At least that’s the hypothesis to explain this. Researchers found the reverse effect on graders who sorted in reverse-alphabetical order.

  • liv@lemmy.nz
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    6 months ago

    I think blind marking is important. I have literally heard people objecting to proposed grades with phrases like “but he’s a bad student” or “but she’s really bright.”

    • intensely_human@lemm.ee
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      6 months ago

      Unless the assignment is a multiple choice quiz, you can’t really blind it because the thing being evaluated is output from that person.

      A million tiny clues will indicate to your subconscious which student’s work you’re grading.

      • liv@lemmy.nz
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        6 months ago

        I can’t imagine how, unless you only had 20 of them or something?

        Back when I was a TA, I had an average of 120 students per semester and we didn’t necessarily grade our own students’ work (it was usually divided by topic).

        So if I’m grading 120 assignments - or worse, 480 pieces of exam assessment- and only 25% of them are from students I regularly interact with, I don’t think my subconscious has any idea 99% of the time.

        Even with smaller classes… you’re just seeing too many people with similar thoughts and styles over the course of a year for any of it to imprint on your mind that deeply. Occasionally it’s going to be obvious, but I still think removing a level of bias through anonymizing is best practice.