Generic skill development and learning/assessment process: Use of rubrics and student validation

Abstract

In order to fulfll the European Higher Educaton Area requirements in the subject "Chemical Engineering Experimentaton II" (Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Degree, University of Barcelona), generic skills in teamwork, and both writen and oral communicaton were developed and assessed with the help of rubrics. The methodological usefulness of rubrics in formatve/summatve assessment was tested by means of student validaton. The students' perceptons of the teaching/learning process were collected, analyzed and compared to the academic marks. The lack of students' knowledge of the use of rubrics, their lack of commitment and proactvity in the teaching/learning process, and their lack of adaptability and high resistance to the introducton of methodological changes make further work necessary on implementaton. Because of the importance of the actve partcipaton of the students in the process of teaching/learning, the process of validaton should be contnued. The teaching experience indicates that rubrics are useful as an assessment tool, but in order to increase their utlity as a tool in the process of learning, the future challenge is to modify some aspects of the validaton queries and process.