Use rubrics to make assessment criteria and performance levels explicit so students can regulate their learning¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · 6 claims (4 for, 2 mixed) · 1 study (1 quant-synthesis), q3 · 1 of 1 report an effect size · 6 claims rest on one study

Description¶

The article's explanatory account is that rubrics provide transparency: "By making criteria, performance levels, and (when relevant) scoring strategies explicit, these may become objects of action and reflection themselves (i.e., students can use them to regulate their learning)." The meta-analytic results are consistent with this hypothesis, and the authors state "we can keep the hypothesis that by making criteria and performance levels explicit, students can use them to regulate their learning and improve their performance." Rubrics are typically implemented in combination with self- or peer-assessment activities.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Rubrics must be provided to students (in most included studies, before task performance) so criteria and performance levels can be used for planning and monitoring

Constraints¶

• The article notes the critique that sharing criteria may lead to instrumental learning, but states the empirical evidence behind this critique is currently weak

Target Learners¶

• primary, middle, secondary, and higher education students

Target Learning Goals¶

• academic performance
• self-regulated learning
• self-efficacy

Claims¶

• Using rubrics has a positive, moderate effect on students' academic performance (corrected g = 0.45; standardized mean change = 0.38) [+W]
• Rubric use has a small positive effect on students' self-efficacy (g = 0.18), based on only four studies [+W]
• Rubric use has a small, statistically non-significant pooled effect on self-regulated learning (g = 0.23) [+W]
• For self-regulated learning outcomes, rubrics combined with both self- and peer assessment show a significantly larger effect than rubrics with self-assessment alone [+W]
• Most moderator variables are not significantly related to rubric effects on academic performance, including rubric design specifics [~W]
• For standardized mean changes, rubric effects on performance decrease with mean age, yet secondary-education studies show larger effects than primary and middle school — contradictory moderator results [~W]

Related Strategies¶

• Checklists & Rubrics
• Use Rubrics And Exemplars
• Co Constructing Rubrics With Students
• Rubric Based Assessment

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Panadero, Ernesto; Jonsson, Anders; Pinedo, Leire; Fernández-Castilla, Belén. (2023). Effects of Rubrics on Academic Performance, Self-Regulated Learning, and self-Efficacy: a Meta-analytic Review. Educational Psychology Review. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-023-09823-4