Back to Search
Start Over
Does Relative Grading Help Male Students? Evidence from a Field Experiment in the Classroom
- Source :
- Czibor, E, Onderstal, S, Sloof, R & van Praag, C M 2020, ' Does relative grading help male students? Evidence from a field experiment in the classroom ', Economics of Education Review, vol. 75, 101953, pp. 1-28 . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econedurev.2019.101953, Economics of Education Review, 75:101953, 1-28. Elsevier Limited
- Publication Year :
- 2014
- Publisher :
- Elsevier BV, 2014.
-
Abstract
- To read the most recent version of the discussion paper click here . The provision of non-pecuniary incentives in education is a topic that has received much scholarly attention lately. Our paper contributes to this discussion by investigating the effectiveness of grade incentives in increasing student performance. We perform a direct comparison of the two most commonly used grading practices: the absolute (i.e., criterion-referenced) and the relative (i.e., norm-referenced) grading schemes in a large-scale field experiment at a university. We hypothesize that relative grading, by creating a rank-order tournament in the classroom, provides stronger incentives for male students than absolute grading. In the full sample, we find weak support for our hypothesis. Among the more motivated students we find evidence that men indeed score significantly higher on the test when graded on a curve. Female students, irrespective of their motivation, do not increase their scores under relative grading. Since women slightly outperform men under absolute grading, grading on a curve actually narrows the gender gap in performance.
- Subjects :
- Economics and Econometrics
gender, competition, grade incentives, test performance, education, field experiment
jel:A22
education
jel:I21
jel:D03
Education
jel:I23
0502 economics and business
Mathematics education
050207 economics
Grading (education)
Female students
jel:C93
Competition
Grading on a curve
Grade incentives
05 social sciences
050301 education
Gender
Full sample
Field experiment
Education, Test performance, Grade incentives, Competition, Gender, Field experiment
Incentive
Test performance
Gender gap
Psychology
0503 education
Social psychology
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 15565068 and 02727757
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- SSRN Electronic Journal
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....2d9737d3d7fc064ce88a81f32089c8f8