Title: Differentiation in the assessment between different groups of students: are experience and maturity more important than learning time?

Authors: Ana Paula Alturas, Braulio Alturas

Addresses: Lisbon Business School, Rua Vice-Almirante Augusto Castro Guedes 51, Lisboa 1800-341, Portugal. ' Department of Information Science and Technology, ISCTE – Lisbon University Institute, Av. Das Forcas Armadas, Lisboa 1649-026, Portugal

Abstract: In this paper, we examine the results when the same test is applied in the assessment of two different groups of students (a group of graduate students in a post-graduate programme and a group of non-graduate students in a post-secondary programme) who were taught exactly the same content. It is noted that none of the groups required prerequisites for the acquisition of the content in question, and they had the same relative weight in their courses. The results show that students had very different results, so we can conclude that the assessment should be differentiated in order to differentiate the instruments of assessment, as well as the objects of evaluation.

Keywords: student assessment; case study; differentiation; higher education; information; experience; maturity; learning time; assessment types.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIOME.2010.033549

International Journal of Information and Operations Management Education, 2010 Vol.3 No.3, pp.256 - 271

Published online: 04 Jun 2010 *

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