Occasional Paper Series
The Melbourne CSHE periodically publishes research through the CSHE Occasional Papers series. Each peer reviewed paper presents new research and analysis on topics significant for Australian and international higher education.
RECONSIDERING THE ROLE OF HIGH-STAKES EXAMINATIONS IN HIGHER EDUCATION
High-stakes final examinations enjoy widespread use as summative assessments in higher education. In this occasional paper, we review arguments for and against the use of high stakes examinations and evaluate the evidence underpinning these arguments.
High-stakes summative examinations have known pedagogical drawbacks. These include concerns about their reliability and validity, their lack of real-world authenticity and relevance, their limited capacity to assess deep learning, their contribution to elevated psychological distress, and their potential to generate academic inequity as a result of gender- or ethnicity-based differences in performance. There is a substantial literature supporting many of these concerns.
On balance, there is much stronger support in the literature for the pedagogical drawbacks of high stakes examinations than for their perceived benefits. Moreover, examinations are poorly suited to assessing diverse learning outcomes and generic skills, and reliance on high-stakes examinations limits the opportunity to diversify the assessment regime.
We conclude that the use of high-stakes examinations in university curricula should be carefully reviewed and provide some options to retain, redesign, reweight or replace the high-stakes examination as an assessment item.
