Teachers influenced by children's PERSONALITIES when awarding grades

Teachers can be influenced by children’s PERSONALITIES when awarding grades: Kids who are more agreeable score better – regardless of their academic ability, study finds

  • The study involved almost 1,200 Russian students aged 14 to 18 
  • Students perceived to be agreeable or conscientious treated more favourably
  • Another finding of the research suggested that students identified as being narcissistic were less likely to exhibit behavioural problems

Teachers may tend to award higher grades to pupils with positive personality traits, new research has suggested.

Academics from Queen’s University in Belfast and Goldsmiths University of London were involved in the international project that found evidence that some teachers base grading decisions on more than actual academic ability.

The research indicated that students perceived to be agreeable or conscientious were more likely to be treated favourably when it came to the allocation of grades.

Teachers may tend to award higher grades to pupils with positive personality traits, new research has suggested (stock image)

RELATIVE AGE EFFECT AND ITS IMPACT ON PUPILS 

Many school systems around the world have a minimum age and cut-off date for school entry and youth sport.

This means there is an age difference up to 12 months between pupils within one school class or team.

This can lead to cognitive, social and physical differences between children born just prior to the cut-off date and those born right after. 

This phenomenon is called relative age and its consequences are known as the Relative Age Effect (RAE).

Previous research on RAE has found negative consequences for relatively younger pupils compared to their older peers in education and sports.

Relatively younger pupils were found to have lower test scores in math, science and in reading- and writing skills and higher chances of being evaluated and diagnosed with learning disabilities than their older peers.

Relatively younger pupils are also overrepresented in lower school tracks, less often enrolled in college, and more likely to repeat a grade. 

A second strand of research focused on the presence of RAE in sports and showed substantial disadvantages for relatively younger sports players.

Finding they were overrepresented in sports teams at the lowest level in many sports compared to older peers.

The findings were based on a study of Russian students.

Researchers looked at almost 1,200 students aged 14 to 18 who were participating in an educational programme for young people who excel in science, arts, sports and literature based at the Sirius University of Science and Technology in Sochi.

Over 2019 to 2020, the study compared Russian and maths grades assigned to students by teachers with grades awarded anonymously in state exams the following year.

Queen’s and Goldsmiths experts collaborated with academics from the Sirius University of Science and Technology.

Their findings have been published in a special issue of The Journal Of Personality And Individual Differences.

One of the lead researchers, Dr Kostas Papageorgiou from Queen’s said in a small, but significant, number of cases examined what differentiated student grades was not only actual ability but perceived personality characteristics.

Dr Papageorgiou, from Queen’s School of Psychology, said the study was the first of its kind to explore the connection between students’ academic ability and their personality and behavioural strengths and difficulties.

‘It was interesting although perhaps not surprising that some teachers seem to award higher grades to students with more ‘desirable’ personality traits such as high agreeableness,’ he said.

‘These results suggest that teacher ratings might reflect some conscious or unconscious biases, such as judging more leniently the students that they perceive as more focused on school tasks, who are well behaved in interpersonal contexts and who are more emotionally fragile.

‘It is worth considering that in a small number of cases what differentiates student grades is not only actual ability but perceived personality characteristics.

‘However, the results of the study are not marked enough to say that this bias is making a huge difference to outcomes.

‘Marking exams blindly and having a moderation system in place will definitely reduce the negative impact of this bias.’

Another finding of the research suggested that students identified as being narcissistic were less likely to exhibit behavioural problems.

The research indicated that students perceived to be agreeable or conscientious were more likely to be treated favourably when it came to the allocation of grades (stock image)

The study also found that overly dominant personality traits, whether negative or positive, can have an adverse impact on academic achievement.

Professor Yulia Kovas from the Department of Psychology at Goldsmiths University of London said: ‘Investigating personality, behaviour and achievement in gifted adolescents is a powerful tool for understanding complex networks of associations among these characteristics.

‘Our study shows that personality and behaviour contribute to achievement via multiple causal, evocative and mediating processes.’

Secondary schools should consider starting the day 70 minutes LATER to synchronise better with the body clocks of teenagers, scientists claim 

To be better synchronised with the body clocks of teenagers, secondary schools should consider starting the day 70 minutes later, a study has concluded.

Experts from the US studied the impact of shifting back the school day by different amounts by age group on around 28,000 students between the ages of 5–18.

They found that students at the US high school level (ages 14–18) benefitted most from their delated start at 8.20 am— getting 3.8 hours of extra sleep per week.

For children and teenagers, sleep is essential to health, social development and academic achievement — yet many are clinically sleep deprived.

The main reason for this is that sleep cycles are affected by puberty in such a way that makes it difficult for adolescents to fall asleep early.

When this is combined with typically early school start times, students end up effectively burning the candle at both ends — and end up getting insufficient sleep.

 

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