Week Three--How to Construct a Rubric

I. Reading for the week--GMIT 660--Chapter Three in Introduction to Rubrics; highlights from the chapter:

• Rubric construction gets easier with time, partly because we get better at it and also because we often find ourselves revising rubrics we created for other, similar assignments.
• Four basic stages are involved in constructing any rubric regardless of the number of people participating: 1) Reflecting; 2) Listing; 3) Grouping and Labeling; 4) Application.
• We reflect not only on the assignment but also on the overall course objectives for this particular class.
• Constructing a rubric requires reflection on our overall class objectives, the assignment itself, its purposes, the task objectives, and students' prior knowledge, as well as our own previous experience with this type of assignment.
• In listing, we ask ourselves what specific learning objectives we hope will be accomplished with the completion of this assignment.
• Lists of learning objectives can vary tremendously, even in classes that seem very similar and that are taught by the same professor.
• Once the learning goals have been listed, you can add a description of the highest level of performance you expect for each learning goal.
• Like the objectives themselves, these descriptions also articulate the individual, disciplinary, and departmental objectives of the class.
• In grouping and labeling, we group similar performance expectations together and create labels for each group.
• Once the performance descriptions are in groups of similar skills, we read them and start to find out what is common across the group and label it.
• In application, we transfer our lists and groupings to a rubric grid.
• We need to be clear about expectations and about failures as well as successes, yet we also try to avoid overly negative or competitive labels.
• Rubrics help us give more feedback, more consistently, with many more opportunities for all students to not only understand but to meet our expectations.

II. Fellow cohort, Rex Coleman had the honor in leading the seminar for this course; his proposed questions and resources along with my view on how things went:

Question #1:

The focus of the entire chapter deals with building a rubric. An easy method to build a rubric is to begin with a template.
Please review the following rubric:
http://styluspub.com/resources/1579221157-otherlink2.doc
Could you use this rubric as a template for a class you are teaching or might teach? Please explain why or why not..

Rex provided us a rubric that was imcomplete and had a very questionable format; he was playing "devil's advocate," as he put it later in the discussion. Obviously, the rubric was imcomplete, but I tried to make the best of what was offered and reflected on the content, which, for the most part made sense to me. Rex's incomplete rubric in question was a good way to eventually get everyone to see that a good rubric is complete with nothing left to interpretation, and has a good, readable format.

Question #2:

The chapter states that there are some questions to be answered prior to designing a rubric.
Beginning on page 30 there are 8 questions. Choose one of the 8 questions to answer, using information from a class you are currently teaching.

If you are not currently teaching, use the group course created last term.

The participants did a good job of selecting a question from the text and applying their thoughts on rubrics planning. The questions ranged from how the teacher plans to accomplish his or her goals, to what skills the students have to have to do well in the assignment.

Question #3:

The chapter briefly discusses the use of student feedback in the process of developing a rubric.
Please refer to a rubric that you are using for a class, and then discuss some of the comments/feedback from your students regarding that rubric. If you are not teaching a course, please comment from the student perspective, on the following rubric: http://styluspub.com/resources/1579221157-otherlink2.doc

There was plenty of lively discussion regarding this question; participants provided good feedback and ideas from existing rubrics used in their field of expertise, as well as giving good feedback to others postings.

Rex also provided us with some good websites and articles related to the topic, which got some good feedback from the participants!

III. My overall reflections on the seminar:

• I thought Rex did a good job of providing good questions, websites, and scholarly articles on the main topic of creating rubrics, as well as keeping the discussions going with good comments.
• I learned a great deal about constructing rubrics from this seminar, as well as from the textbook reading.
• I will refer back to several of the rubrics formats in the future as I move along in my teaching career!
• I participated at a graduate student level in the seminar; I offered a few scholarly articles from EBSCO database on the subject matter and participated with replies to postings that helped move things along.
• This seminar format worked very well as a good educational tool in sharing and learning on the main topic!
  

Week Three--Practical Intelligence and the Development of Expertise

I. Reading for the week in GMIT 650--Chapter Three in Learning and Change in the Adult Years; highlights from the chapter:

• Many people who are not in conventional terms academically successful or "intelligent" do manage to negotiate their own paths through the world and to master any topic that interests them.
• Development of tests of intelligence reinforced the bias toward those who can successfully manipulate the theoretical problems typically posed in IQ tests, which are by nature stripped of everyday context and presented in a formal educational setting.
• Adult intelligence and cognitive development can be reconceptualized as comprising both practical intelligence and expertise.
• Historically, Western culture has taken a lower view of manual work than of congitive activity.
• Western culture has had a historical propensity to distinguish the practical from the theoretical, and those who work with their hands from those who work with their minds.
• Practical intelligence has external goals; the goals to be accomplished must be transitional, and they must be important either to the individual being assessed or to the cultural groups of which the individual is a part.
• Cognitive research in everyday environments is fraught with methodological and practical difficulties.
• Practical thinking is marked by flexibility--solving the same problem in different ways, with each way finely fitted to the particular occasion on hand.
• Skilled practical thinking draws aspects of the given environment, be they people, things, or information, into the problem-solving system.
• Expert performance in real-world settings relies to a dree on tacit knowledge, that is, knowledge that is usually not openly expressed or stated.

II. Fellow cohorts, Gina DeFreece and Gina Ewing, led the seminar--questions proposed, discussion summary:

Question #1:

Beginning on page 51 of the text, the development of practical intelligence is described and a proposed theory of clinical expertise is broken down into four stages. How can you relate the various stages to your own development of expertise, either in your work as an educator, or your own role as a student?

Seminar participants did a great job of relating the presented stages to their own areas of expertise, as well as their roles as students. The various perspectives of the participants provided plenty of ideas to discuss for the whole group.

Question #2:

How would you argue (for or against?) the statement:
"Tacit knowledge can't be taught."
Does tacit knowledge impact online course development? Explain.

There were arguments for and against the statement about tacit knowledge. Most agreed that tacit knowledge is something we bring about ourselves through observing others and relating our own personal experiences as move along in our careers.

Question #3:

On page 41 the author states, “Our argument is that there has been a historical bias toward the abstract over the practical in Western culture and that a contemporary corollary of this is the exaltation of academic intelligence over practical intelligence. Recent challenges to the latter view may prove very important to the field of adult education.”
Explain this argument in your own words. Do you agree/disagree with the author?

The general consensus was that the bias exists, academic intelligence is highly regarded, but practical intelligence is very important in the long run in regard to careers, maybe more so.

Gina and Gina also provided us with some good articles and websites relating to the chapter topic, with one website being an interactive historical map!

III. My personal reflections:

• Gina and Gina provided us with great resources and questions in the seminar relating to the topic of practical intelligence and development of expertise. The did a great job of keeping the discussions going, while providing input on the topic!
• I learned a lot about the main topic from the seminar; it really helps to see all of the different perspectives!
• I would like to investigate further the discussion on tacit knowledge and how it relates to learning and teaching.
• I participated in the seminar at the level of a graduate student; my input helped the discussions move forward and it was a good learning experience.
• The seminar format worked well with the topic for the week; there was good discussion in all areas!