Article: Teachers’ grading decision making: Multiple influencing factors and methods

The study by Cheng and Sun (2015) explores what factors teachers considered and the which type of
assessment they employ when making decision for grading. Specifically, the study is interested in
answer the three following research question

1. To what extent do the Chinese secondary school English language teachers consider various
factors and use various types of assessment for grading?
2. How are the different aspects of these teachers’ grading deision making affected by
variables such as grade level, assessment training and class size?
3. What are the relationships between the factors that teachers consider and the assessment
types that they use for grading?

In order to obtain descriptive data, 350 secondary school ESL teachers in Chinese have been
invited to complete a questionnaire. Results from the questionnaire confirm that achievement
factors are more highly valued by teachers than non-achievement factors such as effort and
learning habit. Results from MANOVA suggest that teachers’ decision making is influenced by
both internal and external factors. Multiple regression is carried out to determine the
relationship between varibles suggest a meaningful relationship between the above mentioned
factors and types of assessment. Such results yield implications for teacher education by helping
readers to gain more insight in the process of making grading decisions among teachers

Word count: 210

Reflection:
I have not had much experience grading students’ paper and exams as a teacher. Most of the
tests I have graded are on receptive skills for which a fixed answer key for marking is provided so
I do not really pay attention to different factors that can influence decision making in grading.
However, as the article suggest, knowing more about this behaviour can yield certain
implications to teacher education.

Word count: 69