Grant recipients:
Gregory Andres, Department of Philosophy
Chao Yang, Writing Centre
Emiko Yoshida, Social Development Studies
(Project timeline: January 2016 - December 2017)
Project Summary
In the current literature, there is no empirical evidence suggesting that student-centered rubrics – that is, rubrics designed and used by students – contribute to student deep learning. The purposes of this project are 1) to investigate the impact of student-centered rubrics on students’ deep learning and 2) to help other instructors and staff use student-centered rubrics effectively through workshops. In the winter term of 2016, a study on four sections of PHIL215/ARBUS202 will be conducted to examine the effectiveness of student-centered rubrics. We hypothesize that the process of designing rubrics will enhance students’ deep learning and performance by providing them with opportunities to reflect on their learning process. If student-centered rubrics prove to be more effective than traditional rubrics, we will offer workshops to assist instructors and staff across disciplines to plan and implement student-centered rubrics.
Research Questions Investigated
Our project investigates the effectiveness of student-centered rubrics. Specifically, whether student-centered rubrics have greater impacts on students’ deep learning above and beyond traditional rubrics and self-assessment. We expect that student-centered rubrics will enhance students’ deep learning perceptions and motivation. Because rubrics are non-domain specific, the success of student-centered rubrics will be implementable across campus. By offering teaching tools through workshops to assist instructors and staff to use student-centered rubrics, we expect students from other disciplines will show improvement.
Findings
The study looked at various aspects of the effectiveness of rubrics as a learning tool. The evidence failed to support the hypotheses of the study. Here is a brief summary.
Effect of rubrics on student motivation
The evidence fails to support the hypothesis that student-centred rubrics enhance students’ motivation as evidenced by effort, time spent on assignments, enjoyment, task value, and expectancy. However, motivation, task value, and expectancy increased from pretest to second posttest. For effort (motivation), both Student-Centred and Self-Assessment groups increased from pretest to posttest. For task value, both Student-Centred and Traditional Rubric groups increased from pretest to posttest. For expectancy, all groups increased from pretest to posttest. Moreover, there was no association between time spent on assignment and grade received on that assignment.
Effect of Rubrics on attitudes and perceptions towards rubrics
The evidence fails to support the hypothesis that student-centred rubrics enhance students’ attitudes and perceptions towards rubric as evidenced by perceived: fairness of grade, usefulness of rubrics, test anxiety, confidence in writing papers, and ownership of learning (self and teacher). However, the Traditional Rubric group demonstrated an increase in self-ownership at first posttest relative to pretest and second posttest.
Effects of rubrics on awareness of learning
The evidence fails to support the hypothesis that student-centred rubrics enhance students’ awareness of learning as evidenced by students’ understanding of their grade and students’ agreement with TA comments on their assignment.
Multivariate ANOVA for effects of section on deep learning
After the initial analysis of the data, a multivariate ANOVA analysis was done for effects of section on deep learning. The evidence suggest that the variance in Essay 1, Essay 2, and the Final Grade cannot be attributed to simply being in a different section and that it is likely that any differences in grades are due to the treatment.
References
Project Reference List (PDF)