Diane Ebert-May
Freshman in college - my favorites. Why? Freshman are excited, energetic, and a bit wary about the challenge before them. Perhaps the subliminal reason is that every year my freshmen are 18 years old, so that must mean I am staying the same age too, right??
Anyhow, when I began teaching a large introductory biology course (600 students) I knew that my multiple choice tests were not providing me the kinds of data I wanted about my students' thinking, because I also knew that freshman can/do think!! Second, I believed that my students needed to learn how to write and speak to explain themselves in the sciences as well as every other facet of their education, and it was my responsibility to assist all of them in this process. On the other hand, I needed a reality check. How would I find time to evaluate 600 writing samples, especially if I asked students to practice writing/speaking more than once throughout the semester?
So I stumbled upon the term "rubric," I learned what it meant, and I learned how to design rubrics from various sources in the literature - a special acknowledgement to BSCS (Biological Sciences Curriculum Studies) whose rubrics influenced my original thinking. As I developed rubrics for each of my assessments, I forced myself to think more explicitly about the goals I wanted my students to achieve and the criteria I would use to monitor their progress. Then I worked with my students to understand and practice achieving the goals and criteria with rubrics as a guide for communication. I now can manage reading and evaluating large numbers of well-written and reasoned responses. We all won. On another note, because my students understand and use rubrics, I seldom, if ever, have individuals who "argue for points" on any given assignment.
Last year, I was recruited by Michigan State University to become the director of a residential science school within the College of Natural Science, the Lyman Briggs School. Our faculty includes scientists, mathematicians and humanists who value their teaching as much as their research. So I left the sunshine of northern Arizona to engage in this
great opportunity to continue my research in undergraduate science education, this time with science majors in a small college within a large university -- stay tuned.
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