Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/182472 
Year of Publication: 
2018
Citation: 
[Journal:] International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research [ISSN:] 1694-2116 [Volume:] 17 [Issue:] 7 [Publisher:] Society for Research and Knowledge Management [Place:] Mauritius [Year:] 2018 [Pages:] 1-25
Publisher: 
Society for Research and Knowledge Management, Mauritius
Abstract: 
Subjective expected utility theory assumes that educational paths result from the interplay of primary effects – students’ cognitive skills – and secondary effects – academic decisions regarding their educational future. We argue that thus far, the assignment of marks has not been accounted for in the scope of Boudon’s model of primary and secondary effects. We propose an elaborated model in which psychological traits are included in the concept of primary effects and introduce a further component, tertiary effects, indicating teachers’ socially unequal assignment of marks. Empirically, we demonstrate that a specific psychological skill set has moderate influence on students’ marks, it does not, however, account for social inequalities in the assignment of marks. Nevertheless, our findings show that social differences in marks can almost entirely be explained by cognitive, psychological and resource-related tertiary effects. Furthermore, there is some evidence that the extent of tertiary effects is associated with the scholastic configuration of educational institutions. Lastly, we observe that teachers unknowingly overvalue children from higher social classes because they deem them more talented, more willing to achieve and better equipped with parental resources than children from lower social classes. A key question for future research is to find reasons for this biased perception.
Subjects: 
social inequality
school mark
primary, secondary and tertiary effects
teacher bias
Germany
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Creative Commons License: 
cc-by-nc-nd Logo
Document Type: 
Article
Document Version: 
Published Version

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