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Student Assessments: Are They Fair For International Students? Connie Eudy & Li Jin Program for Instructional Excellence The Florida State University 1 Slide 2 Commonly Used Student Assessments Multiple choice Short essay Group project Class presentation Case study Final paper Field experience (intern, etc.) 2 Slide 3 Barriers for International Students Language barriers: reading, writing, speaking Life experience: contextual knowledge, confidence, cultural difference Time: will longer time be helpful Grader bias 3 Slide 4 Fairness Issue in Student Assessments How these barriers may affect the fairness of the student assessments-- Q1: What types of tests are fair for international students? Q2: What types of tests are unfair for international students? Q3: What factors may have contributed to the unfairness? (why is it unfair?) 4 Slide 5 Research Method Instrument: A survey consisted of 12 questions Participants: 63 Graduate students at a south-eastern public university Data: International students responses (15) vs. domestic students responses (48) 5 Slide 6 Definitions of Fair and Unfair Three questions to collect opinions on fairness 1. Do you think it is fair to compare the scores of international students to the scores of domestic students in the following types of tests? 2. An international student can perform as well as an domestic student in the following types of tests when they have the same level of knowledge on the subject. 3. An international student may perform as well as a domestic student in the following types of tests when they have the same level of critical-thinking skills. When more than of the responses are strongly agree & agree, the test is reported as fair. Otherwise, it is reported as unfair (as less fair). This criteria is arbitrary. 50% cutting off threshold was used to identify contributing factors. 6 Slide 7 Types of tests reported as fair/unfair for international students All ResponsesInternational Student Responses Domestic Student Responses FairMultiple Choice Short Essay Group Project Case Study Multiple Choice Short Essay Multiple Choice Short Essay Group Project Case Study Field Experience Final Paper UnfairClass Presentation Field Experience Final Paper Class Presentation Field Experience Final Paper Case Study Group Project Class Presentation 7 Slide 8 Factors contributing to the unfairness for each test type Test TypeAll ResponsesInternational Student Responses Domestic Student Responses Multiple ChoiceEnglish-reading skillsnoneEnglish-reading skills Short EssayTime English-writing skills English-reading skills English-writing skills Time English-writing skills English-reading skills Group ProjectEnglish-speaking skills Contextual knowledge English-speaking Contextual knowledge English-reading Confidence Cultural difference English-speaking skills Contextual knowledge Class PresentationEnglish-speaking skills Confidence Contextual knowledge English-speaking skills Confidence English-speaking skills Confidence Contextual knowledge 8 Slide 9 Factors contributing to the unfairness for each test types (continued) Test TypeAll ResponsesInternational Student Responses Domestic Student Responses Case StudyEnglish-writing skills English-reading skills Contextual knowledge English-writing skills English-reading skills Contextual knowledge Cultural difference English-writing skills English-reading skills Contextual knowledge Final PaperEnglish-writing skills English-reading skills English-writing skills Time English-writing skills English-reading skills Field ExperienceEnglish-speaking skills Contextual knowledge English-speaking Contextual knowledge Time Confidence Cultural difference English-speaking Contextual knowledge 9 Slide 10 Comparison of factors contributing to the unfairness All ResponsesInternational Student ResponsesDomestic Student Responses English-reading skills; Contextual knowledge English-writing skills; English speaking skills; Contextual knowledge; Confidence; Cultural difference English-reading skills; Contextual knowledge English writing skills; English speaking skills Time English-reading skills English-writing skills English-speaking skills Confidence ; Time Confidence; Time 10 Slide 11 Conclusions and Discussions International students reported that 5 out of the 7 types of tests were unfair. Domestic students reported that only one out of 7 types of tests were unfair. 11 Slide 12 Conclusions and Discussions The factors contributing to the unfairness of the tests reported by international students did not match with those factors reported by domestic students for any of the tests. 12