As a semester research project for BIO 160, I have students research a disease and write a paper and present with a group their research. In past semesters I have simply posted the grading rubric on the LMS. This semester I decided to present the rubric and have students practice using the rubric in efforst to increase student awareness of thier contribution to their grade. I find that students are not fully aware of thier contribution to thier grade. I am hoping that taking the time to teach students how the project will be evaluated will result in higher quality projects. Annectdotally, I can report that the research presentations this semester were very much improved from previous semesters. The activities incorporated were deliberate and well thought out. The research papers were more focused and the references used were more appropriate than those of previous semesters. When comparing the scores of one class in the fall to one class in the spring, the average score for the research paper increased by 6 points and the average score for the presentation increased by 5 points.
Comments
Shannon - it appears that you did complete the cycle. There was a pre and post comparisaon. Will you be doing this again this fall to compare fall to fall students?
I like this. How did you have them practice the rubric?
Becky yes, I did complete the cycle. I forgot to mark it as complete and didn't update when I added the data. Heather I had the students use the rubric on pretend presentations to practice the rubric. I also had them brainstorm some activites that would be examples for each part of the rubric.
Nice application reflecting the action research cycle, Shannon! Too, you infused student metacognition in with your process. This is what CATS is all about!