RUBRIC-MAKING AS A CLASSROOM ASSESSMENT

A RUBRIC FOR ETHICAL DECISION MAKING

OBJECTIVE OF THIS ASSESSMENT

1. To have students participate in constructing a rubric for assessing their own ability to make moral and ethical arguments.

2. To see whether the dimensions students generate for the rubric are in keeping with the objectives of the course.

BUILDING A RUBRIC

After we had dealt with several real situations which called for the students to make moral and ethical decisions, I asked them to answer two questions anonymously:

1. How have you improved in making moral and ethical decisions?

2. How would you like to improve in making moral and ethical decisions?

BUILDING A RUBRIC

I then reviewed their answers and looked for what I considered dimensions of moral and ethical reasoning. Some were mentioned several times while others were only mentioned once.

DIMENSIONS MENTIONED BY STUDENTS

1. Using clearly worded arguments when I state my position;

2. Stating my position without offending others; 3. Making sure I have all the facts before I

make my decision; 4. Taking my time rather than rushing to make

a decision on an issue; 5. Listen carefully when others state their

positions on an issue;

DIMENSIONS MENTIONED BY STUDENTS

6. Supporting my arguments with biblical truths;

7. Having a clear process for moving all the way to a decision;

8. Making my decisions based on reason rather than letting my emotions get the “upper hand”;

9. Making sure I have good support for my positions (facts, reasons, statistics,etc.).

DIMENSIONS MENTIONED BY STUDENTS

10. Taking the views of others into consideration when I make my decisions.

11. Staying well informed on the issues of the day.

12. Learning to use sources in addition to the Bible to support my position.

BUILDING A RUBRIC

My next step was to ask the students to vote on which five of the dimensions they generated they thought would be most helpful in assessing their ability to make moral and ethical decisions.

BUILDING A RUBRIC

The dimensions they selected were: 1. Using clearly worded arguments when I state my

position; 2.Making sure I have good support for my position

(facts, reasoning, statistics, etc.). 3. Taking the views of others into consideration when I

make my decision; 4. Supporting my arguments with biblical truth; 5. Taking my time rather than rushing into a decision.

BUILDING A RUBRIC

My next step was to involve the students in actually constructing the rubric as a group in class. This did not work for me. Students found this exercise frustrating. Other instructors have told me they had the same experience.

Rubrics require a preciseness and economy of language that at least my students were not able to deal with. They certainly could get the concept, but they could not handle the formulation of the actual language.

BUILDING A RUBRIC

I therefore built the rubric myself. I then distributed it to the students and asked them to use it to assess their ability to make moral and ethical arguments at this point in the semester.

I had them turn them in with their names. At the end of the semester I will have them fill

out the rubric again and then give them the one they filled out earlier.

BUILDING A RUBRIC

Finally, I will ask them to write a reflective piece, based on the two rubric results, addressing what they think they have learned in the course.

WHAT I LEARNED

I was very happy that both listening and speaking were involved in the top five dimensions the students selected. They were not only focusing on persuading others to accept their views.

I was pleased that a research dimension was also in the top five.

I was pleased that they consider the Bible a major source of support in their moral and ethical decisions.

WHAT I LEARNED

I was not pleased that the use of major approaches to moral and ethical issues (I.e., Aristotle’s Golden Mean, Rawls’ Veil of Ignorance, Utilitarianism, Kant’s Categorical Imperative, Christian Ethic of Love) did not turn up anywhere in the students’ writing.

I was not pleased that the Potter Box, a method we use in class for making moral and ethical decisions (created by Dr. Ralph Potter of Harvard Divinity School) did not turn up in any of the students’ writing. We use the Potter Box repeatedly in dealing with case studies in the class.

WHAT I LEARNED

They generated these dimensions early in the course. Of course they would have added the major approaches and the Potter Box if they were to generate those dimensions later in the course. (:>) At least I hope they would.

The Kingdom Ethics text has a somewhat different method and students may get confused between the two. I should probably use one or the other throughout the course.

In the future, I will add a dimension on the major approaches and/or the Potter Box even if they are not generated by students.

WHAT I LEARNED

I learned that I should give students a sample rubric as a model before asking them to work on building one for themselves. Since this is not a course preparing students to use rubrics later on, I am not sure how important it is to have students actually work on the rubric construction themselves anyway.

WHAT I LEARNED

Senior Colloquium as I teach it is more discussion of the readings than lecture. I may need to think of ways to get students to wrestle more with the ethical and theological concepts in addition to learning to listen and respond effectively to the views of others.