Assessing does not mean threatening: the purpose of assessment as a key determinant of girls' and boys' performance in a science class.

BACKGROUND: Is it possible to reach performance equality between boys and girls in a science class? Given the stereotypes targeting their groups in scientific domains, diagnostic contexts generally lower girls' performance and non-diagnostic contexts may harm boys' performance. AIM: The present study tested the effectiveness of a mastery-oriented assessment, allowing both boys and girls to perform at an optimal level in a science class. SAMPLE: Participants were 120 boys and 72 girls (all high-school students). METHODS: Participants attended a science lesson while expecting a performance-oriented assessment (i.e., an assessment designed to compare and select students), a mastery-oriented assessment (i.e., an assessment designed to help students in their learning), or no assessment of this lesson. RESULTS: In the mastery-oriented assessment condition, both boys and girls performed at a similarly high level, whereas the performance-oriented assessment condition reduced girls' performance and the no-assessment condition reduced boys' performance. CONCLUSIONS: One way to increase girls' performance on a science test without harming boys' performance is to present assessment as a tool for improving mastery rather than as a tool for comparing performances.

Reducing the socio-economic status achievement gap at University by promoting mastery-oriented assessment.

In spite of official intentions to reduce inequalities at University, students' socio-economic status (SES) is still a major determinant of academic success. The literature on the dual function of University suggests that University serves not only an educational function (i.e., to improve students' learning), but also a selection function (i.e., to compare people, and orient them towards different positions in society). Because current assessment practices focus on the selection more than on the educational function, their characteristics fit better with norms and values shared by dominant high-status groups and may favour high-SES students over low-SES students in terms of performances. A focus on the educational function (i.e., mastery goals), instead, may support low-SES students' achievement, but empirical evidence is currently lacking. The present research set out to provide such evidence and tested, in two field studies and a randomised field experiment, the hypothesis that focusing on University's educational function rather than on its selection function may reduce the SES achievement gap. Results showed that a focus on learning, mastery-oriented goals in the assessment process reduced the SES achievement gap at University. For the first time, empirical data support the idea that low-SES students can perform as well as high-SES students if they are led to understand assessment as part of the learning process, a way to reach mastery goals, rather than as a way to compare students to each other and select the best of them, resulting in performance goals. This research thus provides a theoretical framework to understand the differential effects of assessment on the achievement of high and low-SES students, and paves the way toward the implementation of novel, theory-driven interventions to reduce the SES-based achievement gap at University.