Evaluation and Self-Assessment Rubrics: A Useful Strategy to Identify the Level of Understanding of Chemical Concepts in Tenth-Grade Students

Abstract

This article considers the development of a project carried out in order to establish the importance of self-assessment within the evaluation process carried out in tenth-grade chemistry classes at the Champagnat School in Bogotá. It is important to focus attention on the evaluation because it is ultimately through this process that the teacher and the student are informed of the level of understanding acquired, in order to take action about their process and propose new strategies to achieve the proposed performances. When students are aware of their comprehension process, they are able to consider new challenges and to get to evaluate his classmates under criteria in which the evaluation rubrics play an important role. During the Practice I course, students revealed some difficulties when developing the diagnostic assessment, which was not consistent with the results of the classwork and the self-assessment processes that suggested that the concepts studied were understood. In addition, during the self-assessment process, most of the time students were not aware of their own learning process, but the result of this was assumed as an opportunity to improve the grade. This generated the following questions: is a continuous diagnostic evaluation in the 10th grade class of the Champagnat School, where the student identifies his or her understanding of the chemical concepts from a self-assessment process being promoted? Through the implementation of the evaluation rubrics, will students’ self-assessment processes improve by allowing them to participate, becoming aware of their comprehension process? The development of the research raised the rubric of evaluation, which made it possible to carry out a rigorous process of the level of understanding of the students, from the processes of hetero-assessment and co-assessment as well as of self-assessment.