When you were a student yourself, have you ever received a grade for an assignment you painstakingly worked on, and in the end received a seemingly random grade? You then asked yourself, “Why did I get this grade?”, and more importantly “How did I get this grade?” What’s worse, sometimes someone else got a higher grade than you, and you’ll start asking yourself “Why and how did they get that grade?!”
This is a common concern for many students. A study by Andrade and Du found that students expressed frustration when, in the first place, they didn’t know what was expected of them. Conversely, the same study found that when rubrics were presented to them at the same time when the tasks were assigned to them, they experienced less frustration and appreciated the fact that they were informed of what was expected of them. More importantly, the same study found that students expressed appreciation for the rubrics since it was clear how they got the grade they received. So as we can see, rubrics help students in more ways than one. But what is a rubric in the first place?
What’s a Rubric?
Different authors have provided us with different definitions of what a rubric exactly is. Brookhart, for example, defined a rubric as a “coherent set of criteria for students’ work that includes descriptions of levels of performance quality on the criteria” (p. 4). A more comprehensive definition is that of Stevents and Levi, who defined a rubric as “a scoring tool that lays out the specific expectations for an assignment. Rubrics divide an assignment into its component parts and provide a detailed description of what constitutes acceptable or unacceptable levels of performance for each of those parts” (p. 3).
Now that we know what a rubric is, what are the benefits of using rubrics? There are many, and we’ve invited our faculty members to share their thoughts on the benefits of rubrics.
1. Rubrics promote transparency
Dr. Lim is absolutely correct in saying that rubrics help students self-evaluate their work. While students work on a paper/project, they can refer to the rubric to gauge if they are on track based on the required course output. Indeed, research has shown that rubrics improve students’ self-regulation, such as those of Panadero et al. This self-regulation allows students to be more aware of their own current knowledge and work, therefore allowing them to be more critical of their submissions.
3. Rubrics tell students what to focus on
Continuing with Dr. Krista Danielle Yu’s sharing regarding rubrics, she claims that “I want them (my students) to know what I’m looking for.” Going back to Andrade and Du’s study, they likewise found that since they had a rubric in hand, the students were able to pivot their attention to what their teacher was looking for. For example, if the teacher provided a rubric showing that a large part of the grade would rely on the quality of sources and references, then a student would likely focus their efforts there instead of formatting.
There are many other benefits of using rubrics, but we should also focus on one particular challenge of using them: making sure that the criterion and their descriptions aren’t vague. In developing her rubrics, Ms. Pamplona mentions that one of the most important things is to make your rubrics specific. However, to be truthful, this is easier said than done. Vagueness is one of the most challenging issues to overcome in rubric development; Li and Lindsey discuss this extensively in their article.
Vagueness is an especially difficult obstacle to overcome for non-technical fields. How can we determine something, such as an art assignment like a poem or a painting, to be “highly creative”? Or how can we say that a speech or an argumentative essay is “convincing” or “impactful”? It can be argued that these are fundamental aspects of such requirements, but on the other hand, it can also be argued that these criteria can be very subjective. One teacher might rate something as novel, but one might rate it as ordinary and repeated. Indeed, vagueness has long been an issue in the usage and discussion of rubrics, and unfortunately, no clear and generally accepted answer has yet been given.
But what about you, what can you say about this “vagueness” conundrum rubrics are facing? Or have you experienced other issues when using rubrics yourself? Share your thoughts and stories down in the comments section!
Related Links for AnimoSpace instructors:
Rubrics Overview
What are Rubrics?
How do I add a rubric to an assignment?
How do I add a rubric to a graded discussion?
How do I manage rubrics in a course?
Related Links for AnimoSpace students:
How do I view rubric results for my assignment?
How do I view the rubric for my graded discussion?
References:
Andrade, H., & Du, Y. (2005). Student perspectives on rubric-referenced assessment. Practical Assessment, Research, and Evaluation, 10(1), 3.
Brookhart, S. M. (2013). How to create and use rubrics for formative assessment and grading. ASCD.
Jonsson, A. (2014). Rubrics as a way of providing transparency in assessment. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 39(7), 840-852.
Li, J., & Lindsey, P. (2015). Understanding variations between student and teacher application of rubrics. Assessing Writing, 26, 67-79.
Panadero, E., Alonso-Tapia, J., & Reche, E. (2013). Rubrics vs. self-assessment scripts effect on self-regulation, performance and self-efficacy in pre-service teachers. Studies in Educational Evaluation, 39(3), 125-132.
Stevens, D. D., & Levi, A. J. (2013). Introduction to rubrics: An assessment tool to save grading time, convey effective feedback, and promote student learning (2nd ed.). Stylus Publishing, LLC.
Williamson, M. E. (2017). Global standards and outcomes of a legal education: how rubrics can help to deliver objectivity, transparency, verifiability and consistency. The Law Teacher, 51(3), 287-311.
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