Application of rubrics in the chemical laboratory for the evaluation of students

Abstract

The current work is an example of improvement in the laboratory practices of the subject QU0924 Química Inorgànica III through the introduction of rubrics as an evaluation tool.

Classically, the evaluation of the chemical laboratory used to be carried out in a subjective way, in other words, the teacher had an intuition about who was following and developing correctly the practices. Moreover, the students distribution in work groups (in pairs) produced that the individual evaluation was more difficult, thus in several cases the students did not know which one was the evaluation criteria. The introduction of a rubric for the evaluation of the different student’s competences in the chemical laboratory has allowed a systematization of the evaluation of this subject dividing it in the most important parts that have to be taken into account when evaluating. This fact is translated into an increase in the confidence and objectivity of the teacher in the evaluation part. Moreover, the students have much more clear which is the criteria that the teacher is going to use when evaluating, giving them the chance of focusing in the important things.