Comparative assessment of rubrics as a tool for formative evaluation in laboratory practice reports and team work

Resumen

The use of rubrics may be useful for teachers and students. Rubrics can be applied in the teaching-learning process helping students to identify what is requested by teachers during assignment preparation and to review their work after grading, or to identify areas of strength or weakness. Furthermore, careful instruction around rubrics can substantially decrease the inequities in the assessment of practices and final student performance. In this sense, rubrics are being applied as a tool in the implementation of EHEA. The aim of this study was to compare the use of rubrics in two different learning activities: a laboratory practice report and a team work, as activities developed in two different courses: Biology and Food Biotechnology, from first and sixth semester of the same degree: Food Science and Technology. This study was carried out during 2013/14 academic year and the student impressions about the rubric's usefulness were collected through surveys. A total of 96 students were asked about different aspect of the rubrics applied, either to their laboratory practice reports or their team works. The students described the rubric as a useful tool and were satisfied with both formative activities, laboratory practices (with a score of 3.4 over 5) and team works (3.5 over 5). Among the items included in the surveys, the usefulness of the rubric was highly correlated with the rate of global satisfaction with the evaluation criteria in both semesters and formative activities. Moreover, there were significant differences between the students' perception of the definition of objectives and working methodology, higher for the reports of laboratory practice than for the team work activity, as well as in their perception on the suitability of the documentation provided by the teachers and the degree of global satisfaction. These differences in the three items were due to a higher score given to the formative action "laboratory practices". The mentioned three items were also positively correlated when both formative activities were compared and, also when comparing first and sixth semester. These results indicate the usefulness of rubrics in two different formative activities, the correlation between this usefulness and the degree of satisfaction with the activities and with the evaluation criteria, but also these results suggest the differences of suitability of rubrics depending on the formative activity and academic level of the students.