EQUITABLE ASSESSMENT OF STUDENTS IN PHYSICS - IMPORTANCE OF GENDER AND LANGUAGE BACKGROUND

Research on student learning has shown that assessment is a key factor in determining students' approaches to learning. It plays an importan t role in their willingness and ability to pursue further studies in a field and to consider careers in a field. Some research suggests that in areas of science and technology, questions of the traditional shor t quantitative type, multiple choice structure or those lacking in con text may disadvantage female students in assessments. In this paper, w e report on a study of student assessment in first year physics at uni versity level. The results suggest that the question type and the cont ext within which the questions were set were likely to favour male stu dents. In performance, the group most at risk were female students of non-English speaking background. Strategies are discussed for changing assessments in the physical sciences to use more gender equitable app roaches.