Chapter 14 page 326
Criteria. Another effective form of scaffolding is the use of criteria. Criteria are the standards
used to judge the quality of students’ work (Chinn, Duschl, Duncan, Pluta, Buckland et al., 2008). Criteria
for a good story are standards used to judge whether a story is good (e.g., it has realistic characters, an
interesting plot, vivid descriptions, etc.) Criteria for a good trumpet solo are the standards used to evaluate
how good the solo is (e.g., the playing is in tune, the tone has a good timbre, the student can play fast
passages smoothly, and so on). Teachers use criteria to evaluate students’ work. Students can use criteria
to evaluate their own and their classmates’ work, as well. When students’ work falls short on some criteria,
teachers can point to the criteria to help students see they are falling short and what they need to do to
improve.
For example, suppose that a teacher decides that he will establish five criteria for a good
persuasive essay: (1) The position is stated clearly. (2) There are at least 3 arguments for the position. (3)
The arguments are strong—that is, they use good evidence and are explained clearly. (4) The essay takes at
least two important counterarguments into consideration and explains why these counterarguments are not
as strong as the arguments. (5) The grammar, spelling, and word usage are all very good. Teachers can
also have students help set the criteria. Through a class discussion, students and the teacher might
collectively decide that good essays should have at least four arguments (not just three). They might also
agree to add a new criterion–e.g., that the essay is written in an interesting style.
Teacher can then use these criteria to grade students’ essays. Students can use the criteria to
evaluate their own and their classmates’ work. When they know what the criteria are, students will have a
clearer idea of what they need to do to write essays that people will evaluate highly. This enhances
students’ self-efficacy, as they learn what the goals are and what they need to achieve to meet these goals.
One way to present criteria to students is simply to present students with lists of criteria (Chinn,
Duschl, Duncan, Pluta, Buckland et al., 2008). A teacher could post these on the board or on the wall or
give the criteria to students in a handout. Table 14.2 shows a list of criteria that specify what the teacher
will count as a good argument (based on Chinn, Duschl, Duncan, Pluta, Buckland et al., 2008; McNeill &
Krajcik, 2008). By handing this list out to students, the teacher helps students learn that their arguments
need to include claims, evidence, and reasoning to be judged a good argument. Students can now monitor
their own work to make sure that they are meeting these criteria.
Table 14.2:
List of criteria for good arguments
Criteria Explanation Examples
The argument
includes a claim.
A claim is the position that
you are taking.Capital punishment does not deter crime.The argument
includes evidence.
Your evidence consists of
your facts or data for
believing your claim.A poll of police chiefs showed that police chiefs did
not believe that the death penalty deters crime.The argument
includes reasoning.
Your reasoning connects the
evidence to the claim. It
explains in more detail why
the evidence supports the
claim.Police chiefs are intimately familiar with what tends
to increase or decrease crime levels. The fact that
police chiefs do not believe that capital punishment
is a deterrent is evidence that the threat of capital
punishment does not have a strong influence on
crime.