College students’ views of ethical issues in classroom assessment in Chinese higher education

Abstract

ABSTRACT Classroom assessment is an effective way to collect evidence about student learning, and a teacher’s professional responsibility in assessment is to use high quality, fair, and ethical assessment information to make decisions about students’ learning and teachers’ instruction. This study used a scenario-based survey and investigated college students’ perceptions about the ethicality of classroom assessment practices in Chinese higher education. Participants included 2711 college students from 177 universities located in 23 provinces and 4 municipalities in China. The results revealed that students reported very different levels of agreement with experts on the scenarios, and it appeared to be more challenging for them to recognize unethical assessment practices in comparison with ethical assessment practices. Students valued using multiple assessment methods but reported inconsistent views with experts regarding grading effort. Confidentiality and communication about grading were found to be the key assessment issues to be addressed in Chinese educational context.