Rasooli, Amirhossein

Inspired by the recent 21st century social and educational movements toward equity, diversity, and inclusion for disadvantaged groups, educational researchers have sought in conceptualizing fairness in classroom assessment contexts. These efforts have provoked promising key theoretical foundations and empirical investigations to examine fairness in assessment. This review study aims to critically review these theoretical foundations and associated empirical studies to examine their potential for addressing the complex and evolving notions of fairness in classroom assessment contexts. This study also builds on fairness and justice literature in social sciences and broader educational discourses to provide additional theoretical grounds to rethink fairness in classroom assessment. Overall, this study contributes theoretical grounds for future theory-driven empirical research to advance fair assessment practices in classrooms.

Teachers' conceptions of fairness influence their approaches to assessment. Perceptions of fairness underpin how teachers legitimate their values and provide reasons for teachers to defend assessment decisions and actions. This study therefore examined fairness conceptions at a critical stage in teachers' journey towards assessment capacity: their perceptions as teacher candidates. Specifically, we investigated 228 preservice teachers' conceptions of assessment fairness using the Classroom Assessment Fairness Inventory (CAFI). The results of an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) showed four factors: assessment communication acts, grading decisions, responses to cheating and firm assessment decisions. These factors highlighted the domains and underpinning principles of fairness that participating preservice teachers used to evaluate issues of fairness in assessment. The results provide initial empirical foundations to promote nuanced understandings of fairness in assessment education.

Groupwork is a crucial aspect of work contexts and a key twenty first century skill. Assessment of groupwork provides a persistent challenge for educators in university contexts with students reporting experiences of unfairness from their peers during groupwork. This study developed a novel Peer Assessment Fairness Instrument to explore factors driving students’ perceptions of fairness during groupwork processes. The results showed that students perceived fairness of groupwork in relation to (1) the grading outcomes they received (i.e. grade congruence), (2) the procedures based on which groups contributed to groupwork (i.e. performative group dynamics), and (3) the relationships based on which group members interacted (i.e. interpersonal treatment). The findings provide student-driven directions to promoting fairer peer assessments within groupwork contexts.