Week 5 : Rubrics and learners autonomy

According to Heidi Andrade a rubric is by definition “a document that articulates the expectations for an assignment by listing the criteria, or what counts, and describing levels of quality from excellent to poor”.  

The thing is, the role of rubrics can’t be cut off the overall context as it is the extension of a teacher’s approach that depends on presenting (pre-stage), guiding/monitoring (while-stage) then evaluating (post-stage) with the teacher’s voice and stance not overwhelming students’  through all these stages.

Autonomy is a key facet in modern teaching because it simply triggers more self-confidence which on its turn leads to more motivation and total student involvement. However, teachers don’t possess  magic wands and can’t by consequence make their  students autonomous only by wishing so. Autonomy comes as a result of an exhaustive preparation and adjustment of the learning environment to fit the students’ prerequisites and expectations. We can’t for example talk about  autonomy of the learner when the latter is not clear enough about the course goals or skeptical about the relevance and/or adequacy of the course book and the tools being used to teach it.

I actually tried in my reading rubric (see course wiki) to cover the reading activity and the tasks related to it  from beginning to end. Not only that , I also provided room for learners out-of class experience and knowledge  (learners stance and voice) and evaluated the way it is successfully invested in the reading task.

To conclude with, I realize now that PBL together with rubrics  and alternative assessment are becoming a MUST because through my humble couple of experience in Drama and Debate projects, I have seen how PBL succeeds where other strategies and teaching methods fail.