More Great Presentations...

So... It's been a while since my last post. I took some time off from the educational scene for a while. As I'm gearing up to get back out there, I've had some discussions with colleagues who are also using this month (August) to refresh and revive their teaching strategies.

I came across this presentation on teaching science with concept maps.Thanks Dr. Victor! I also like  Dr. Victor's blog.

Teaching science using concept maps from St.Xavier's College , Palayamkottai - 627 002

Great Advice on Presentations

Great advice...

The Future of Presentations: Top Trends for Communicators from Haiku Deck

Rueful “Rubrics”

A recent encounter with a colleague who insisted that he could not award a student the highest mark on a so called “rubric” because this would mean the student is perfect has raised some concerns over the fairness, and therefore quality, of assessments sometimes meted out to unfortunate and unsuspecting students.

I was a member of a team assigned to assess pre-service teachers. They are assessed on a number of dimensions ranging from lesson planning to the sometimes intangible qualities of professionalism. Although some of us on the team referred to the assessment instrument as a rubric (I know I did), on further reflection it is not a rubric, but is rather a rating scale. I define the instrument as a rating scale because it consists of a series of statements that are ranked (rated) from one to five, with "five" being the highest. For example, a statement may go as follows: “student is punctual” or “objectives were clearly written.” A student may get a "four" if she is mostly on time or a "two" if his objectives are unclear. In my case, I believe the critical elements missing from this rating scale are the criteria that describe the behaviours or conditions that warrant a particular rating.