Final published version
Licence: CC BY-NC-ND: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
<mark>Journal publication date</mark> | 30/04/2023 |
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<mark>Journal</mark> | Higher Education Quarterly |
Issue number | 2 |
Volume | 77 |
Number of pages | 14 |
Pages (from-to) | 201-214 |
Publication Status | Published |
Early online date | 4/03/22 |
<mark>Original language</mark> | English |
Many forms of bias have been identified in higher education research, and in educational and social research in general. This article identifies a further form of bias, positivity bias, and places it in this broader context. Positivity bias is the tendency, in some forms of published higher education research, to only or chiefly report examples of initiatives or innovations that worked and received positive evaluations. Empirical evidence of positivity bias, in the form of an analysis of a sample of published articles from selected higher education journals, is presented and discussed. Suggestions as to the causes of positivity bias and how it might be handled are presented.