EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY

Chapter 14 page 327

Table 14.3:
Rubric for scoring math problem solutions
Dimension Score of 0 Score of 1 Score of 2
Represent
the problem

There is no problem

representation

There is a problem

representation, but it is

wrong or it is not explained

clearly.

There is a problem

representation that is

explained clearly.

Showing
each step in
the solution

The step-by-step solution is

not shown.

The step-by-step solution is

shown, but some steps are

missing or not explained

clearly.

Each step in the solution is

shown, and the steps are

shown clearly.

Calculating
accurately

Two or more calculations

are inaccurate

Most calculations are

accurate, but one is

inaccurate.

All calculations are

accurate.

Checking
solution

There is no check to see

whether the solution makes

sense.

There is a check on whether

the answer makes sense, but

the check is not clearly

explained.

There is a clearly explained

check on whether the

answer makes sense.

Another way to present criteria to students is through rubrics, which we learned about in Chapter

8. A rubric shows the different dimensions along which performance is judged. When students achieve at
   the highest level in each dimension, they have met the standards for that dimension. Rubrics can be highly
   effective at promoting student learning (Hafner & Hafner, 2003; M. Wilson & Sloane, 2000). Table 14.3
   shows a rubric that a math teacher could present to students to help them understand how to write out
   solutions to their math problems. The teacher then uses the rubric to score students’ written solutions to
   math problems (and students could use the rubric to score their own and each others’ written work on math
   problems). Students have met the criterion represented by each dimension if they achieve a score of 2 on
   that dimension.

Problem 14.6. Designing instruction. Developing rubrics.
Imagine a class that you could be teaching in the future (elementary, secondary social studies,
mathematics, etc.). Then decide a genre of writing that your students might be doing (e.g., writing
stories, writing poems, writing informational essays, writing lab reports, writing explanations of how
they solved a math problem). Develop a rubric that you and your students could use to evaluate their
planning for writing in the genre you have chosen.

Response: There are of course many possible answers to this question. Your response should include a
consideration of the different aspects of planning discussed in Chapter 7. You will also want to tailor
the rubric to the age of the students and to the genre.

Feedback. A direct form of scaffolding is feedback. As we have discussed in previous chapters,
effective feedback provides students with specific information about what they are doing well, so that they
continue doing it, and what they should try to improve. Teachers can scaffold the use of cognitive strategies
by directing their specific feedback at the quality of students’ strategy use. The teacher can specify what is
strong and weak about the student’s strategy use so that the student can improve performance the next
time. Suppose that a class is working on the strategy of summarization. A teacher could respond to a
student’s work on summarization by writing, “You are doing well excluding all the unimportant details
from your summaries. Sometimes you are omitting some important points, however. In this summary, you
didn’t mention the civil rights movement, even though 3 of the 8 paragraphs you are summarizing are
talking about the civil rights movement.” Teachers can also give specific feedback in this manner when they