More pain, more gain? Extricating the effect of student involvement in rubric co-construction

Abstract

This quasi-experiment tested whether co-constructing a writing rubric gives students an advantage over only using the co-constructed rubric. We used students’ perception and use of the rubric, and their writing performance as outcome variables. One hundred and twenty-six second-year university students who enrolled in an elective course participated. The experimental group (N = 63) co-constructed the rubric with the lecturer. The rubric was then distributed to both groups to facilitate their writing. A peer-feedback session was held for the students to use the rubric to offer and interpret feedback. Independent-samples t-tests revealed no significant differences between the two groups in terms of their perception of the rubric, use of the rubric and writing performance. The overall null result suggests that as a one-off activity, rubric co-construction does not bring extra benefits to the students involved.