Judgment accuracy in experienced versus student teachers: Assessing essays in English as a foreign language

Teacher judgment accuracy (TJA) is a central part of diagnostic competence. Research has revealed heterogeneous results regarding teacher characteristics as determinants of TJA. In the present experi-mental study N = 36 experienced and N = 47 student teachers holistically and analytically assessed four student essays. We compared the judgments of teachers and student teachers to machine scores and expert ratings. Experienced teachers' judgments were more negative than student teachers', and both judgments were more negative than those made by experts, and the machine. The results remained stable, even after controlling for content knowledge. They are discussed in relation to the assumption of an expert-blind-spot. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

Teacher judgment accuracy (TJA) is essential for diagnostic competence, but research has shown that experienced teachers tend to be more critical in their assessments compared to student teachers and experts. This difference remains even when content knowledge is controlled for, indicating a potential blind spot among experts.