How Rubrics Can Help The Evaluation Process And Why They Have Been Designed

According to Heidi Goodrich Andrade, a rubrics expert, a rubric can be defined as “a scoring tool that lists the criteria for a piece of work or what counts.” Rubrics have been invented to help teachers and learners focus on the topic they want to discuss. It allows teachers to become more comprehensive and communicate with their students without explaining themselves a million times. Even though they can be used to evaluate a student’s performance, they are also valuable in the learning process. Today we will see how these wonderful tools can help this interaction in class.

1. What are they supposed to do?
   The parameters on which rubrics have to be based are simple. First of all, the criteria have to be described. Will the teacher assess an essay based on clarity, arguments, etc.? Then we have the descriptors, which are the characteristics that are associated with the criteria we described above. For instance, the arguments can be checked to see whether there is clear evidence of their validity. Finally, we have to make sure that there is a rating scale that can evaluate the level of each student.
2. How can they help students?
   Rubrics are specially designed to explain to the students what their teacher wants from them and how they will evaluate their efforts. This way, kids or young teenagers can clearly understand the objectives. For instance, a rubric may tell kids they will be evaluated based on the document structure they will present and the reference they will use for their research. In this simple way, one can inform the children about the purpose of the work they have to deliver. Students will know they will have to learn how to present the references in a scientific article and why this is so important. Meanwhile, they will not have to bother with things that are not useful at this point. At the same time, they can narrow their efforts to a specific part of that work and avoid ”getting lost in translation.” The work is much easier, smaller, and easy to identify.
3. How can they help teachers?
   Moving on the teachers’ side, let us see how things can become easier for them. While teachers explain to the students which characteristics of their work will be evaluated using this precious tool, they also help themselves identify the essay’s purpose. In other words, teachers can find it easier to remember what they should be expecting from the learners and, finally, how to determine what grade they should put. The way teachers evaluate their students helps teachers be more relaxed as well since they do not have to worry about whether they have been fair or not. Especially in some lessons, grading takes a lot of work. For instance, in math, one should expect a right or a wrong result at the end to see if the student is correct. But what about topics like history, where students can be subjective and things are not as clear and strict? The way someone will evaluate another individual has to be clarified for both parties.
   Students are clearly ordered to focus on the things that matter. Once they are informed about what they must do and how they will be evaluated, they cannot come up with any complaints about their grades. It is like a mild type of contract. People being tested are not expected to complain if they are not willing to discipline the project’s instructions. As long as they are aware of the demands, they have to take full responsibility for the outcome of their effort. In addition, when teachers and instructors start the grading process, they do not have to spend time explaining how they decided to evaluate each student. Long comments can be avoided, and the teacher will only have to refer to the instructions of the rubric. Moreover, as with all kinds of evaluation tools, rubrics allow the teacher to clearly understand the classroom’s level. Knowing if the audience is on the same page, they can adjust their lectures so that everyone can follow their rhythm.

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