2012 Podcast: 2-Minute Teaching: Research
Grading Rubrics and Academic Performance |
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| Podcast Text: |  Over the last 20 years, higher education pedagogy has slowly and inexorably moved from a teacher-centered, objectively assessed framework toward a more learner-centered, evidence-based assessed framework. This move to learner-centered instruction necessitated a more flexible and authentic assessment approach – welcome to the rubric. This shift toward using rubrics to assess student learning raises a question: What is the impact of using rubrics on academic performance?
A researcher from the University of Alabama examined the effects of 80 college students completing a real-world application task (applying a delinquency theory to a specific act of delinquency) with or without an accompanying descriptive rubric. According to the researchers, students who completed the assignment with the rubric significantly outperformed students who completed the assignment without the rubric. In the words of the authors, “Providing students with an assignment-embedded grad¬ing rubric played a substantive role in positively impacting assignment performance, regardless of students’ year in college, major program of study, baseline course-specific knowledge, and gender.” The study was published in the Journal on Excellence in College Teaching in 2011. The researchers indicate that using rubrics as part of an assignment significantly increases student performance on that assignment. |
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| Reference(s): | Howell, R. (2011). Exploring the impact of grading rubrics on academic performance: Findings from a quasi-experimental, pre-post evaluation. Journal of Excellence in College Teaching, 22(2), 31-49. (download) |
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| Bibliography: | Allen, D., & Tanner, K. (2006). Rubrics: Tools for making learning goals and evaluation criteria explicit for both teachers and learners. Life Sciences Education, 5, 197-203.
Hafner, J. C., & Hafner, P. M. (2003). Quantitative analysis of the rubric as an assessment tool: An empirical study of student peer-group rating. International Journal of Science Education, 25, 1509-1528. Jonsson, A., & Svingby, G. (2007). The use of scoring rubrics: Reliability, validity and educational consequences. Educational Research Review, 2, 130-144. Schafer, W. D., Swanson, G., Bene, N., & Newberry, G. (2001). Effects of teacher knowledge of rubrics on student achievement in four content areas. Applied Measurement in Education, 14, 151-170. Thaler, N., Kazemi, E., & Huscher, C. (2009). Developing a rubric to assess student learning outcomes using a class assignment. Teaching of Psychology, 36 (2), 113-116. |
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