Search

Assessment is a central feature of teaching and learning. It is both complex and challenging in ordinary times, and these aspects are magnified in an online learning environment. Given its central role, it is crucial that its design and purpose is rigorous and robust. This paper presents justification for using interactive oral assessment as an online, innovative, authentic assessment approach that prepares students for professional life, combats plagiarism and promotes academic integrity. It shares findings through four brief case study examples of using interactive oral assessments in computing, education, French literature, and aviation. This study also demonstrates the value of a Community of Practice in developing expertise, confidence, and resources to support the effective application of interactive oral assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACTThe historical roots of what is now a modern Swedish school-age educare (SAEC) were formed from a social pedagogical starting point in which children’s social development, freedom and well-being were prioritized. SAEC has now become more focused on an educational pedagogical assignment and has been incorporated into the Swedish curriculum. SAECs could therefore be seen as institutions under reconstruction, in that their current work is formed in what can be regarded as a transition period. This transition could imply new points of departure concerning work practices and forms of documentation, both of that could challenge older traditions. Using policy enactment theory as a methodology, this case study discusses the work practices and forms of documentation that are in use now, with a specific focus on the latter. The main purpose of the article is to explore and develop SAEC staff’s points of departure for developing their documentation and assessments and how the new curriculum assignment is enacted in the context of SAEC’s pedagogical practices. The study’s findings show that the enactment process could be seen as an initiative based on local needs for clarity. The developed documentation and assessment practices are described as a cultural shift away from former practices.

Abstract This research is motivated by the author's findings on the structure of student editorial text opinion writing that has differences in the completeness of the content. It refers to the assessment of student achievement that is not the same assessment standard. As a series of continuous learning, this requires assessment and evaluation from the teacher. However, the unavailability of assessment instruments causes the assessment to be biased and subjective. This research was conducted on 30 class XII students at a private school in Manado. The purpose of this study is to describe the use of rubrics as a teacher's assessment instrument in writing editorial text activities for high school students. This study used the descriptive qualitative method. Based on the research results, it was found that rubrics can help teachers to see students' abilities in writing editorial texts, provide evaluations of students' writing results based on the criteria that have not been achieved, and assess students fairly and accurately based on the criteria contained in the rubric. The use of rubrics helps teachers realize God's love and justice in assessing and supporting students' potential in writing. In addition, the beauty and meaning of student writing can reveal the Creator to others. Therefore, the authors suggest determining skills that need to be assessed using rubrics, communicating achievement criteria to students, and providing evaluations based on rubrics criteria to support student growth. Bahasa Indonesia Abstrak Penelitian ini dilatarbelakangi oleh temuan penulis pada struktur tulisan opini teks editorial siswa yang memiliki perbedaan pada kelengkapan isi. Hal ini merujuk pada penilaian capaian siswa yang tidak berada pada standar penilaian yang sama. Sebagai suatu rangkaian pembelajaran yang berkelanjutan, hal ini membutuhkan penilaian dan evaluasi dari guru. Akan tetapi, tidak tersedianya instrumen penilaian menyebabkan penilaian menjadi bias dan subjektif. Penelitian ini dilakukan pada 30 siswa kelas XII di salah satu sekolah swasta di Manado. Tujuan dari penelitian ini untuk memaparkan penggunaan rubrik sebagai instrumen penilaian guru pada kegiatan menulis teks editorial siswa Sekolah Menengah Atas. Penelitian ini menggunakan metode deskriptif kualitatif. Berdasarkan hasil penelitian diperoleh bahwa rubrik dapat membantu guru melihat kemampuan siswa dalam menulis teks editorial, pemberian evaluasi pada hasil tulisan siswa berdasarkan kriteria yang masih belum tercapai, dan menilai siswa secara adil dan akurat berdasarkan kriteria yang dimuat di dalam rubrik. Penggunaan rubrik membantu guru mewujudkan kasih dan keadilan Allah dalam melakukan penilaian dan mendukung potensi siswa dalam menulis. Selain itu, keindahan dan makna tulisan siswa dapat menyatakan Pencipta kepada orang lain. Oleh sebab itu, penulis menyarankan untuk menentukan keterampilan yang perlu dinilai dari penggunaan rubrik, mengomunikasikan capaian kriteria kepada siswa, serta memberikan evaluasi berdasarkan kriteria rubrik untuk mendukung pertumbuhan siswa.

This study aimed at exploring the impact of utilizing rubric based feedback on developing the EFL writing skills of Saudi high school students. This study recruited 65 students of the second semester of high school students during the academic year 2019. The experimental group consisted of 31 students, who utilized the rubric based feedback during their writing instruction, while the control group comprised 34 students, who were taught in a traditional way in the classroom. Paired t-test revealed that there was a significant difference between mean scores of both the experimental and control group participants favoring the experimental group participants; confirming the positive impact of utilizing rubric based feedback on developing Saudi high school students' writing skills. These findings have provided evidence that the rubric based feedback has effectiveness in developing the writing skills of Saudi high school students

Rubrics were traditionally a perfect choice for assessing performance. Yet, most rubrics and previous research only focused on its traditional summative aspect, limiting its functions, or even leading to some inappropriate usage or misconception of using rubrics. As formative assessment was found to favor low-achieving students, it has become increasingly popular that rubrics can also be used for formative use and help reduce learning diversity. In this study, different types of rubrics in a Hong Kong Secondary School were investigated, which has been a popular tool that has been widely used among various subjects as an assessment tool. The classification of the rubrics based on different learning areas unveiled that distinct learning areas tended to use heterogeneous rubrics, so the implementation and learning outcomes were then reviewed. It was also noted that a rubric was used for formative assessment in a newly developed STEM curriculum, hence the effectiveness was examined.

Governments and institutions such as UNESCO believe that Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are required to achieve high-quality education. Many initiatives to create digital resources have arisen from Covid lockdowns and isolation periods to support the teaching and learning process. Some websites, most of them of low quality, allow students and teachers to share tools. Therefore, minimum quality standards must be established and assessment tools created, so teachers can make their own resources and evaluate those of third parties. The eDocente Innovation Laboratory of Arts and Humanities (LIDAH) research project aims to establish procedures to create and evaluate digital learning resources. The methodology is based on the evaluation of the educational tools through user experience (UX), checking whether the tools meet teachers' and students' needs and expectations as main users. Action guides and rubrics will then be established based on different evaluation techniques to generate and filter educationally efficient resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rubrics have been suggested as a means to foster students' evaluative judgement, the capacity to appraise their own work and that of others; however, empirical evidence of rubrics' effectiveness is still emerging. This paper contributes findings from a randomised controlled experiment on the effect of rubrics on evaluative judgement. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two groups: a control group which evaluated peer-authored learning resources without the use of a rubric and an experiment group which carried out the evaluation using a three-item rubric based on (1) alignment with course content, (2) accuracy and (3) clarity. Both groups were asked to rate their confidence and provide comments to justify their scoring. The results showed a small effect size in increasing average agreement on the quality of learning resources in the experiment group. Analysis of comments reveals that criteria in and beyond the rubric guided participants' ratings of quality. The study provides evidence of the impact of rubrics on students' evaluative judgement and an example of how data-driven approaches and learning analytics can inform actionable design choices for embedding pedagogically supported strategies derived from the literature into actively operating educational technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rubrics have been developed to evaluate the level of compliance of curriculum elements with the recommendations of the CDIO-FCDI-FFCD Standards in the process of modernizing engineering programs for undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate studies. As an example, the author presents the results of the evaluation of engineering undergraduate program courses for compliance with the recommendations of the CDIO Standards in the form of total and differentiated ratings of the modules of the humanities and social sciences, natural sciences and mathematics, basic engineering and specialized professional courses. Based on the ratings, the initial (before modernization) and planned (after modernization) levels of compliance of the program modules with the recommendations of each of the 12 CDIO Standards are determined. Using the rubrics enables to involve all the instructors in the process of engineering program modernization.

Abstract Background Process skills such as critical thinking and information processing are commonly stated outcomes for STEM undergraduate degree programs, but instructors often do not explicitly assess these skills in their courses. Students are more likely to develop these crucial skills if there is constructive alignment between an instructor’s intended learning outcomes, the tasks that the instructor and students perform, and the assessment tools that the instructor uses. Rubrics for each process skill can enhance this alignment by creating a shared understanding of process skills between instructors and students. Rubrics can also enable instructors to reflect on their teaching practices with regard to developing their students’ process skills and facilitating feedback to students to identify areas for improvement. Results Here, we provide rubrics that can be used to assess critical thinking and information processing in STEM undergraduate classrooms and to provide students with formative feedback. As part of the Enhancing Learning by Improving Process Skills in STEM (ELIPSS) Project, rubrics were developed to assess these two skills in STEM undergraduate students’ written work. The rubrics were implemented in multiple STEM disciplines, class sizes, course levels, and institution types to ensure they were practical for everyday classroom use. Instructors reported via surveys that the rubrics supported assessment of students’ written work in multiple STEM learning environments. Graduate teaching assistants also indicated that they could effectively use the rubrics to assess student work and that the rubrics clarified the instructor’s expectations for how they should assess students. Students reported that they understood the content of the rubrics and could use the feedback provided by the rubric to change their future performance. Conclusion The ELIPSS rubrics allowed instructors to explicitly assess the critical thinking and information processing skills that they wanted their students to develop in their courses. The instructors were able to clarify their expectations for both their teaching assistants and students and provide consistent feedback to students about their performance. Supporting the adoption of active-learning pedagogies should also include changes to assessment strategies to measure the skills that are developed as students engage in more meaningful learning experiences. Tools such as the ELIPSS rubrics provide a resource for instructors to better align assessments with intended learning outcomes.

L’élaboration d’une grille d’évaluation est une tâche complexe qui exige une bonne connaissance de l’objet d’évaluation et du niveau d’apprentissage des apprenants pour lesquels elle est destinée. Parmi les différents types de grilles d’évaluation qui sont utilisées en milieu scolaire, la grille descriptive critériée ainsi que la grille descriptive analytique s’avèrent des choix particulièrement appropriés pour guider le jugement des évaluateurs. En suivant la méthodologie de la recherche-développement, les concepteurs se sont engagés dans un processus réflexif qui, après de nombreux aller-retour dans la formulation des critères, des échelons et des descripteurs, a mené à l’élaboration, à la validation et à la mise à l’essai de trois versions d’une grille descriptive analytique. Les résultats permettent d’identifier les éléments à considérer dans la construction de cet outil pour des élèves du premier cycle du secondaire présentant un trouble du spectre de l’autisme (TSA) et une grande diversité de profils cognitifs.

The development of rubrics is a complex task that requires a good knowledge of the object of evaluation and the learning level of the students for whom it is intended. From the several types of rubrics used in school environments, the analytic rubrics and developmental rubrics prove to be especially appropriate choices to guide the judgment of the evaluators. By following the research and development methodology, the designers engaged in a reflective process which, after many round trips in the formulation of criteria, scale and descriptors, led to the development, validation and implementation testing of three prototypes of analytic rubrics. The results make it possible to identify the elements to be considered in the construction of this tool for pupils with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in the first cycle of secondary school who present a great diversity of cognitive profiles.

Contribution: A technical course in a multidisciplinary university program has to provide high-level skills, with limited lecturing hours and student background. This article investigates the principles for its design and reports about a study case. Background: The overall course organization needs to address specific learning targets and teaching techniques, different from those used in traditional courses on the topic. Research Question: A stepwise strategy assists a principled design that allows dynamic, long-term improvements. Methodology: The evaluation of its applicability requires a years-long record of historical data. The article studies the evolution of a course over six years using simple monitoring techniques: surveys and rubric-based examinations. Findings: Monitoring emerges as an essential feature for course evolution: a focused examination provides the best results, while institutional, wide-spectrum surveys appear to be of little help. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As our world has continued to become more dependent on digital communication and collaboration, online learning environments have become more sophisticated. Demand for online and/or hybrid learning materials has increased, not only in higher education arenas, but in elementary and secondary schools, as well. This study describes the development and implementation of an evaluative rubric for high school digital curricula created for a United States regional consortium of school districts, charged with expanding quality digital learning environments for their students. Digital instructional units for ten high school courses were created by collaborative teacher design teams, with each team consisting of 4-7 teachers. With the goal of creating 1/3 of a year’s curriculum, teams developed 2-4 units per course in the first year. A total of 30 units were developed and evaluated. In collaboration with project partners, developed the NWOi3 Evaluation Rubric for Digital Curriculum that was used to assess curriculum units and consisted of 36 criteria organized by eight areas: 1) Overview, 2) Learning Targets, 3) Instructor Support, 4) Accessibility, 5) Instructional Materials, 6) Learner Interaction and Engagement, 7) Technology, and 8) Assessment. A variety of sources contributed to rubric development: Quality Matters K-12 Secondary Rubric (Quality Matters, 2017), Blended Course Peer Review Form (Blended Learning Toolkit, 2014), and the National Standards for Quality Online Programs (International Association for K-12 Online Learning [iNACOL], 2011). The evaluation process utilized a team of reviewers: five content experts, and three curriculum/ technology experts. A third evaluator then summarized the two reviews for every unit, providing a score for each criterion along with detailed comments and feedback. The process of how rubric results were analyzed and reported is described along with the challenges encountered.

This study is part of a teacher change and improvement project whose aim is to modify the traditional teaching system in the field of Production Management (Operations Management), focusing its learning on the acquisition of the competences required by the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), in such a way that the student participates actively and is involved in the solution of the problems of real companies raised in the classroom in a virtual collaborative environment, supported in social networks through the use of different mobile devices (m-learning). Innovative methodologies such as flipped class-room, where we propose that the student begins to play an active role through problem-based collaborative learning (PBCL), whose purpose will be to train students capable of analyzing and facing problems in the same way as they would during their professional activity. However, for this methodological change to be successful, it will have to be accompanied by well-designed rubrics that allow the correct evaluation of group work and participation in the classroom. In this way, the students will know the competences achieved and those that need strengthening.

The present paper outlines a research-training process carried out with a sample of primary and lower secondary school teachers aimed at assessing the key competence of citizenship learning to learn. For this purpose, an assessment model was developed called KC-ARCA Model (Key Competences - Assessment, Rubrics, Certification of Achievement Model) which was tested in an exploratory way within the schools involved in the research. The research-training group identified the competence of learning to learn as a sort of “core competence” able to develop learning and effective behaviours in several fields of action and study.

This article presents the results of an inter-institutional research study that assessed the impact of strategies instruction on students’ preparation for and performance in oral exams. Two teacher-researchers at different universities trained 26 students in their respective B1-English-level courses in using language learning strategies. The study included pre- and post-intervention tests and on-line questionnaires after each oral exam. After comparing the test scores and analyzing the questionnaire responses, we arrived at two main conclusions: First, that strategies instruction, especially in combination with evaluation rubrics, promotes students’ autonomy and enhances their oral test performance. Second, that students’ use of language learning strategies is influenced by instructional variations tied to the relative importance that teachers ascribe to specific aspects of oral communication.

In online learning, feedback to students is important in their progress. Assessments are often final or summative assessments that do not allow the student to adjust or improve their learning progress. Assessment, however, takes valuable time. This paper describes how using the tools available in a LMS can assist faculty in assessing student work and provide helpful feedback to students in an online course. The tools available for faculty to use can be set up to save time for the faculty during assessments. The assignments in this study were developed based on previous research indicating assessment can be an aid to student learning, and students who know how well they are doing can make needed adjustments. Students used the feedback from these LMS tools to decide whether or not to try again or move on. Students had the opportunity for multiple attempts at assignments and received feedback on each to help measure their learning. The rubric tool was used to not only grade student papers but also to provide appropriate feedback for student performance on the levels of achievement. Quizzes can be automatically graded. Any additional attempts are drawn from a bank of questions. Results from this pilot study show the benefits of multiple attempts at quizzes and assignments. Students who took advantage of multiple attempts did improve their scores. The paper also discusses further research that to help support this practice.

This article reports the experience of a study group in a public university in Colombia, formed mostly by academic coordinators who worked in the design of assessment rubrics. Its focus is on the experience of the academic coordinator of the English program for teenagers, who concentrated on implementing the rubric to assess the students’ oral performance. The data collection instruments used were the rubric and interviews with the teachers and students. The results are related to the impact of the assessment rubrics on the program’s teachers regarding practicality.

Introducing abstract concepts to students from applied fields can be challenging. Electromagnetics is one of those courses where abstract concepts are introduced. This work presents a conceptual model which defines learning objectives in three levels for Engineering Electromagnetics. Each level is aligned with its own assessment and evaluation methods. The advantage is that the three-level learning objectives can be extended as student self-assess and instructor assessment rubrics, and a detailed implementation is presented here. This model gives students more accessibility to the learning objectives and increases the transparency of the learning and grading processes. The main goal of this conceptual model is to make students learn with the end in mind.

Aims The aim of this study was to evaluate the reliability of using rubrics in dental education, specifically for undergraduate students’ assessment in orthodontic oral presentation. Methods A rubric-based case presentation assessment form was introduced to three contributing instructors. In each instructor’s group, the course director, along with the assigned instructor, assessed 8 randomly selected fourth year male dental students utilizing the same assessment form (total of 24 students). The two final scorings made by the assigned instructor and the course director were then gathered for each student. The data of this prospective comparative study then was analyzed using paired t -test to look for any significant differences in the scoring of the course director and each instructor in each group. Results No significant statistical differences were detected in grading variables between the instructors and the course director. Furthermore, the data showed no significant correlations between the students’ final course grade, and their case presentation grades scored by instructors’/course director. Conclusion Despite the elaborate nature of the routine orthodontic case presentation, the use of rubrics was found to be a promising reliable assessment element. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What are grades doing in a homiletics classroom? This article traces the function of grades through the broader history of the educational system in the United States and then makes suggestions for how grades can be used more effectively in teaching preaching. Beginning in the nineteenth century, teachers used grades to rank and motivate students, as well as communicate across institutions. With the more recent assessment movement, educators have conceptualized grading as the larger process of evaluating the success of learning objectives. The commission on accreditation for the Association of Theological Schools does not view grades as part of its assessment, but it evaluates theological schools on whether they achieve intended learning outcomes. Theological educators need to be able to evaluate whether their teaching fulfills their schools' mission and learning objectives. For homiletics, the author measures learning through pre- and post-preaching feedback and incorporates professor- and student-crafted rubrics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Observar is the property of Revista Observar and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

歐美國家近幾年皆已建立不同程度的品質保證體系，而國內工程及科技教育認證實施9年，偏向檢視整體教育的品質，缺乏對評估機制的深度檢視。本研究旨在探究工程及科技教育認證對學生核心能力的影響，並瞭解目前國內各工程系所評估學生核心能力的方式。以問卷調查和深度訪談蒐集院長、系主任與教師意見，有效回收問卷共471 份，受訪對象計20位，並以一般歸納法（a general inductive approach）分析質性資料。研究發現：工程系所教師對於學生核心能力的評估仍是陌生的，且大多數系所尚未發展適當的評估工具。本研究以其中1所學校為例，該校將評分規準（rubrics）與數位平臺運用於教學與評量中，一則減輕教師的負擔；二則充分落實學生學習成效品質保證機制，可作為國內成果導向認證提供最佳實務（best practice）。最後針對目前工程系所落實持續改善之困境與未來研究提出建議。 The purpose of this study is to illustrate the impact of engineering education accreditation on evaluations of students’ core competences in Taiwan. The data were collected using a questionnaire survey and in-depth interviews. 471 valid questionnaires were analyzed and twenty engineering faculties, program chairpersons, and deans were interviewed afterwards. The results indicated that engineering faculties are unfamiliar with methods of core-competence evaluation. Therefore, the outcomes-based teaching and assessment approach of one university was used to demonstrate how rubrics can be implemented to maintain continuous improvement in curriculum planning and to minimize the workloads of teachers while they prepared for the self-study report during the accreditation process. This study is the pioneer to explore a best practice for the outcome-based accreditation approach in Taiwan. Finally, the implications and future directions of this study are discussed.

Graduate studies go way beyond the simple acquisition of knowledge, aiming among other things at developing critical thinking as well as research and scientific writing skills. Evaluating the latter poses real challenges. Rubrics have long been used to assess writing skills but have not yet made their way into the evaluation practices in the context of graduate studies. This article presents a co-construction process conducted by a team of professors, students and educational counsellors from Université Laval (Quebec, Canada). It led to the development and testing of a rubrics-based evaluation tool to assess scientific writing skills among master’s and doctoral students. Following a literature review and the exploration of tools previously used in one university faculty, an inductive and iterative approach helped develop an evaluation grid including eight criteria divided into sub-criteria, each being accompanied by a qualitative descriptive scale. While the first experiments of the tool support its usefulness and relevance, the pitfalls that emerged from the process are discussed in light of the contributions and limits of such tools in the context of graduate studies. Beyond the creation of the tool itself, the innovative nature of the project was also related to the process of collective thinking that was used, going beyond the individual production method usually followed for the construction of such tools.

In this article I present some findings of an action research study intended to find out to what extent a teacher-student partnership in writing assessment could promote high school students’ autonomy. The study was conducted in a U.S. school. Two main action strategies in the assessment process were the use of symbols as the form of feedback and the design of a rubric containing criteria negotiated with the students as the scoring method. Results showed that the students developed some autonomy reflected in three dimensions: ownership of their learning process, metacognition, and critical thinking, which positively influenced an enhancement of their writing skills in both English and Spanish. Likewise, the role of the teacher was found to be paramount to set appropriate conditions for the students’ development of autonomy.

The study analyzed a national sample of 2.061 writing samples of 687 fourth grade Chilean students who participated in a national writing evaluation in 2008. Three genres--story, request letter and news story--were evaluated by disaggregated rubrics created for this purpose with five criteria: adaptation to the communicative situation, coherence, cohesion, text structure and punctuation, in addition to a global assessment. The results indicate that there are significant differences in performance according to the dimension and genre evaluated. The highest levels were found in coherence and text structure and the lowest levels in cohesion. Coherence was higher in the story, while text structure was higher in the request letter. The external punctuation is more frequent than the internal and the use of "and" replaces punctuation, especially in the story. These results suggest that an evaluation and education focused on specific aspects of writing could contribute to better overall performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rubrics have attained considerable importance in the authentic and sustainable assessment paradigm; nevertheless, few studies have examined their contribution to validity, especially outside the domain of educational studies. This empirical study used a quantitative approach to analyse the validity of a rubrics-based performance assessment. Raters evaluated the performance of 84 first-year university students producing service-learning projects for the Conservation–Restoration and Design degrees. The study data comprised the 9240 scores given by two teachers and three student tutors, who assessed the students’ projects on three occasions during the semester. Factor analyses confirmed that the students attained the expected learning outcomes and made significant learning progress. This learning progress was also corroborated by analyses of variance. The attainment of the learning goals and the evidence of learning progress demonstrated the validity of the inferences drawn from the assessment system. In addition, the results highlighted the need to consider rubrics as a first-order teaching resource and not only as a scoring tool. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract Introduction Dental education has historically focused on developing and enhancing technical skills. Interpersonal skills such as professionalism, communication, and organization are often not formally and objectively evaluated during dental school. The purpose of this project was to design and test a rubric to assess, quantify, and track the development of interpersonal skills in a population of first-year dental students enrolled in a preclinical technique course, with the belief that well-developed interpersonal skills are essential to the competent practice of dentistry. Methods The interpersonal rubric is a two-page document that measures nine skills on a four-point scale. These skills include professional behavior, preparedness and organization, communication, self-assessment, critical thinking, time-management, teamwork and rapport, response to feedback, and foundational knowledge and engagement in learning. This rubric was designed to be administered to students participating in a preclinical technique course at the University of the Pacific, Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry. This course consisted of 60 hours of lectures, seminars and online self-study, and 180 hours of laboratory study in clinically simulated conditions. Results The instrument was piloted on a small scale (students, N = 32; faculty N = 3) in the Preclinical Fixed Prosthodontics course in 2011-2012, on a larger scale in the same course in 2012-2013 (students, N = 141; faculty N = 12), and fully implemented in a redesigned multi-disciplinary first-year preclinical technique course in 2013-2014 (students, N = 143; faculty N = 12). An independent and collective review of student and faculty responses by the authors revealed consistent positive support for the use of the rubric for its intended purpose. Student participants appeared more positive than faculty and welcomed the detailed feedback, especially in areas needing improvement. Discussion We found this rubric to be very useful in measuring interpersonal skills in first-year dental students enrolled in a preclinical technique course. The rubric helps emphasize the importance of these skills and how they relate to the practice of dentistry. Students have reported that they appreciate being informed of their appropriate and inappropriate behaviors early in their careers and well in advance of the onset of patient care. Overall, feedback from students and faculty who participated in the implementation stage was positive.

Fourth-grade students (N=36) engaged in a twenty-hour computer-aided composition curriculum using the computer software Impromptu. Analysis of the compositions used Hickey's general assessment rubric for composition that specifically targets the composition's creativity, craftsmanship and aesthetic appeal. Compositions were evaluated on a scale of 1-4 (1 meaning 'Needs Work' and 4 meaning 'Terrific!'), and a repeated-measure analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to measure changes at the beginning, middle and end of the study. Findings indicate that students do not simply tinker with their composition but pay attention to how their song is put together over time, which is a trait seen in professional composers as well. However, this may be a result of the pedagogical approaches used during the curriculum. Limitations and implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To engage college students with electromagnetic waves and quantum physics, connecting course content to their everyday lives and to promote "photonics awareness," a 12-week group research project on a photonics-based Nobel prize was developed. The project uses an inquiry-based approach and is designed as a five-part activity, each with a specific scaffold helping guide students regulate their inquiry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]