BRIGHT IDEAS 6

Stuart Parker & Gus Wong
Teaching Rubrics

Abstract
My workshop proposal is entitled "Teaching Rubrics" and involves Action Research an EAP teacher, Gus Wong, and myself have been conducting in EAP classes at the Australian Catholic University, Melbourne. Although Rubrics are a vital part of the assessment process in Tertiary education, international students are often unfamiliar with both their purpose and what they actually mean. Disappointment and confusion in assessment scores is a likely repercussion of this.

The aim of this action research was to formalise a method of teaching rubrics such that students would have more confidence in identifying the specific elements making up an assessment task and be able to more realistically place work within the scoring bands. To do this, sessions were conducted with 3 main objects: 1. to analyse the language of a given rubric 2. to identify which classroom activities and materials applied to which 3. to give students the opportunity to rate samples of work for themselves by applying the rubric.

The feedback from students regarding these sessions was extremely positive with many reporting that until that point they had not been aware of the importance of rubrics in Australian tertiary settings. The purpose of the "Teaching Rubrics" workshop would be to report on this action research and to consider how it might be of benefit within all Elicos contexts.

Bio - Stuart Parker
I am the Assistant Academic Manager at the English Language Centre, Australian Catholic University, Melbourne. I have been teaching English Language for 20 years, including 8 years in Japan and 1.5 years in Thailand. I have taught EAP, GE, Ielts preparation and Business English.

Bio - Gus Wong
Having received education and taught in Asia, Europe as well as Australia, Gus possesses a deep understanding on the unique challenges that international students face and more importantly how they learn. As a young academic, Gus has a strong interest in English for Academic Purposes, Linguistics, New Literacies, Educational Practices and Theories and Social Justice. 2016 marks Gus’s tenth year in education and fourth year of teaching in Australia. Gus has been teaching the EAP, Bachelor of Education and Master of Teaching program at ACU. As Lecturer-in-Charge, he has contributed to the delivery and continuous improvement of the online version of ACU’s Core Curriculum.