Pen colour affects teacher-student relations Seeing red Red pens
are making students feel blue, according to a US study that
recommends teachers refrain from using the colour when marking.
In a paper published in The Social Science Journal, sociology
professor Richard Dukes and associate professor Heather
Albanesi, at the University of Colorado, show the use of a red
pen in marking has a negative impact on student relations with
their teacher. Dukes says while the findings are of moderate
strength, they are statistically significant. "They are like a
gentle rain - not life-changing, but it is raining," he says.
For the study, the researchers randomly gave 199 participating
undergraduate students one of four versions of an essay answer
and mark by a hypothetical student named Pat. The four versions
included a high-quality response and a lesser-quality answer
with comments from the teacher in either red or aqua. The
students were asked to rate whether they agreed with the
teacher's grading, what grading they wo