Mitigating the Halo Effect: Managing the Wow Factor in Music Performance Assessments

Abstract

This paper describes an ongoing project undertaken to assist assessors with recognising and ameliorating the influence of the halo effect when multiple criteria are applied in a rubric to score music performance assessments. The assessment context described in this chapter is set within the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE), and specifically the VCE Music Investigation study. This VCE study provides a flexible pathway for students to perform, compose and research diverse traditional, contemporary, classical and popular music styles using instruments ranging from voice, tabla, recorder and ud to orchestral and wind-band instruments, instruments typically found in rock bands and digital instruments in solo and ensemble performances. This diversity poses issues of equity and rigour that must be addressed in practice through valid assessment tasks and the reliable application of assessment criteria. To meet this end, these tasks and criteria must be coupled with appropriate assessor training, guidance and documentation.