Innovative Teaching Showcase: 2015 Idea Rubric Development Resource
Idea 10: Inquiry-based Learning (IBL) Rubric Development Guide
Rubrics help students recognize learning goals and guide them in reaching for those goals. Particularly useful in student-directed teaching approaches, like inquiry-based learning, rubrics can be used to assess content mastery, skill development, or even attitude toward a topic.
Developing a rubric involves clearly identifying and articulating specific outcomes of learning and structuring those criteria in an easy-to-use format that serves as a reference tool in guiding learning and an assessment tool for evaluating success. In inquiry-based instruction, faculty can work collaboratively with students to develop the rubric, or integrate the rubric by distributing it as part of the assignment description and/or for students to use in peer- or self-assessment.
- Reflect on Expectations:1,2,3 Why did you create the assignment? Define what you hope students will learn and how you expect students to show mastery.
- Identify Distinct Criteria: List specific details or dimensions of the assignment you will target in your assessment. Look for categories or groups and label them.
- Determine Levels: Set your range and scoring scales, usually between 3 and 6 levels. Your levels can be qualitative (descriptive only) or quantitative (point values). Some quantitative rubrics use a range of numbers for each level; others use a set value for each level.
- Clearly describe each level of achievement for each criteria: It is helpful to start at the bottom and top (What does mastery look like? What is unacceptable?) and work your way toward the middle.2
Example
References
- Developing Rubrics (Assessment Criteria). Committee on Assessment of Student
- Mullinix, B. B. (2014). Rubrics. The TLT Group: Teaching, Learning and
Technology. Availble online.
- Kasper, B. (no date). CTE Tip: What is a Rubric? Center for Teaching Excellence,
- Stevens, D. (2009) Rubrics: An assessment tool to save grading time, to engage
- Teaching Tips: Rubrics (no date) Center for Instructional Innovation & Assessment