Connecting students’ descriptions of classroom assessment in higher education with wellness

Abstract

Typically, students view classroom assessments like tests, exams, reports, and essays as a major stressor in higher education. However, it is also plausible that students have experienced instances in which the purposes, format, and design of classroom assessment actually supports their well-being. We used a qualitative descriptive design to explore students’ experiences of assessment and wellness. Based on thematic analysis, three low-inference themes emerged all of which showed how any given assessment practice can be experienced differently in terms of student well-being. First, students described how tangible assessment practices including types, grading methods, and assessment design were associated with wellness. Second, participants explained how factors related to their professor such as skills and sensitivity to student stress impacted well-being. Third, students described a wide range of systemic factors associated with assessment that nearly unanimously hindered their wellness. Our results imply that well-being in assessment is a psychological experience that depends on the students’ perceptions more so than the exact assessment practice. Based on our results, we recommend that instructors apply psychological principles known to support well-being to high-quality assessment practices to more predictably influence wellness.