RUBRICS

      If we think in assessment in education, the first thing that comes to our minds are exams. Mathematics exams, History exams, Science exams, etc. And this is because Spanish education is based on them. But is it the best way to evaluate?

      Taking into account what Pere Marquès says, the traditional exams are leading us to school failure. A lot of students feel frustration when they are not able to learn by heart everything, and they leave school in early years. The rest, I mean, the more privilege students, memorize interminable units or books, "paste" this "knowledge" in exams and then, they forget everything without learning.

      Therefore, as future teachers, the use of an alternative way in assessment is required to combat the high percentage of school failure. And rubrics, which allow us to evaluate "authentic tasks", and not only memoristic skills, are the solution.

      First of all, rubrics allow students to know about what is expected of them. The criteria are clearly identified and communicated prior to completion of the task, thus, both teacher and students better understand the good or bad performance on a task. Secondly, rubrics give teachers the opportunity to be more objective and less biased in their students' evaluation. And not only that, they allow teachers to provide more detailed feedback to students. 

      

       Consequently, why won't we use as future teachers rubrics in our classes?

      

      In the following lines my group thinks, reconsiders and tries to add improvements to the analytic evaluation rubric we have used to evaluate class presentations in New Technologies subject. And, in particular, we revise the last two points of the assessment table: Oral language: Fluency and Delivery. The original rubric is shown below.

        We completely agree with our first criterion: Oral Language: Fluency. Firstly, because it includes very clear descriptors. And secondly, because they also include, not only oral speech hesitation, but also pronunciation and intonation (two really important features of English language). 

      However, we agree up to a point with the second one: Delivery. As far as we concerned, we would change the descriptor part referring to a “relax attitude”. One can have done a very good work and can be very prepared, although he/she can be a little bit nervous. Or what is more, one can be nervous but does not show it. Nervousness is something very subjective for us. Consequently, instead of that one, we would add a descriptor about the fitness between oral discourse and corporal movements and gestures.

      

      In addition, we consider that labels are appropriate (5,4,2,1) and that both criterion (our two ones) have also the same weight, the same point values.

      In the following table the yellow highlighted words are the two criterions we have to think about, the red highlighted words are the aspects we would avoid, and the blue highlighted words are the features we would add.