Oral Assessments and Neurodivergent Students
By Dr. Marie Saddlemire
Associate Director of Professional Development, LCIRT
Have you heard the buzz lately about the resurgence of oral assessments in the classroom? Have you or your colleagues considered or experimented with them? Recent media articles weigh the pros and cons and highlight the controversy brewing among faculty. Those who adopt this assessment format see benefits: increased interaction with students, deeper learning, and a way to assess their own teaching effectiveness. Others are less amenable, often citing the time and staffing required to administer oral exams as making it untenable. This article explores the elements of oral assessment and whether they align with neurodivergent student learning profiles.
What spurred the recent interest in oral exams?
Faculty are increasingly concerned about exam integrity. The sudden switch to online learning during COVID left no time to rethink curricula or how students demonstrated mastery. Educators saw evidence of, or at least suspected, cheating when students were not proctored. Today, the rapid rise in generative AI use in academe makes it difficult to know whether exams and papers reflect students’ own work. Assessments that require oral responses make cheating almost impossible, ensuring fairness for all students.
In what disciplines are oral exams used?
The research and anecdotes primarily come from STEM; not altogether surprising, given the material’s complexity. And the idea has taken root at all grade levels. Restani & Abdelrahim (2026) asked their students to record themselves while solving math problems and found that “When students record their thinking both visually and verbally, teachers can gain deeper insight into students’ mathematical understanding than from written work alone.” Students also benefit from combining oral and kinesthetic learning because it can increase retention and recall.
At the college level, STEM faculty used and researched oral exams in Human Anatomy & Physiology (Akkaraju, 2023), Engineering (Qi, et al., 2023) and Chemistry (Gaines & Burrows, 2024). Findings showed that, for the most part, oral assessments positively impacted student learning. They wrote about the connectedness that resulted from individualized, face-to-face interactions during assessment. Students reported feeling that instructors were invested in and cared about their learning, and they were more likely to seek instructor support outside of class. Faculty could more accurately determine students’ knowledge by asking follow-up questions. Finally, both professors and students experienced assessment as a continuous cycle of teaching and learning.
How might oral exams benefit neurodivergent students?
Although formal research is lacking, exam design strategies provide some clues. A carefully designed oral assessment reflects Universal Design principles. Examples include clear explanations of exam administration and rubrics that clarify expectations and increase assessor impartiality. Exam preparation is woven into the course curriculum through low-stakes practice with thinking aloud. This strengthens neurodivergent (and all) students’ metacognitive skills: students assess their performance and identify their strengths and challenges. Then they plan how to improve their performance before the next practice session.
Proponents also emphasize that learning to verbalize thoughts prepares students to work effectively with others. For neurodivergent students who often find social and collaborative environments challenging, preparing for oral exams builds communication skills and the confidence that results from being heard and understood. Ultimately, these skills will transfer into the workplace, where employees will collaborate with supervisors and colleagues.
For dyslexic students, who can feel bogged down by formatting and grammar, oral exams lessen their cognitive load. They may even choose to study by mind-mapping or visually illustrating concepts. Students with ADHD can find hands-on learning refreshing and freeing as they participate in individual and group practice sessions. Throughout this process, students actively learn with and from one another, experiencing community and a sense of belonging.
Start Small
Would you consider incorporating oral exams into your classroom or encouraging other educators to do so? Begin small by creating non-graded classroom activities that focus on thinking aloud. Administer a hybrid exam with written and oral components. Regardless of the format, you will introduce students to a new modality to exhibit their mastery of course content. And you may learn more about your own strengths as you try something new!
References
Akkaraju, Shylaja. (2023). Oral Exam: Learning for Mastery and Appreciating It. Journal of Effective Teaching in Higher Education. 6. 66-80. 10.36021/jethe.v6i1.354.
Gaines, T. & Burrows, N.L. (2024). Exploring alternative assessments during COVID: Instructor experiences using oral exams. Front. Educ. 9:1379886. doi: 10.3389/feduc.2024.1379886
Qi, H., & Kim, M., & Sandoval, C. L., & Wang, Z., & Schurgers, C., & Lubarda, M. V., & Baghdadchi, S., & Gedney, X. E., & Phan, A. M., & Delson, N., & Ghazinejad, M. (2023, June), Board 400: The impact of Oral Exams on Engineering Students’ Learning Paper presented at 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Baltimore, Maryland. 10.18260/1-2—43137
Restani, R.M. & Abdelrahim, S. (2026, May 21). Using technology to promote math talk. Edutopia.