Abstract:

A rubric was employed to assess laboratory reports in the Bachelor’s Degree in Environmental Sciences at the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV). The rubric was developed within the framework of an Educational Innovation Project, which is being carried out since the 2010/11 academic year. This project has been the result of a coordination effort between the Chemistry and the Hydraulic Engineering and Environment Departments.
Rubrics provide a very useful tool for learning, as they are a guide about contents and presentation and they allow students self-assessment. The project’s final goal is to prepare students for the labour market, where effective writing is a vital skill for environmental professionals, who should be able to create good quality reports. In this study a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis is performed to define the best strategy to improve its use. The use of rubrics to guide report’s writing in practices is analysed with first, second and third year students in the Bachelor’s Degree in Environmental Sciences. The teachers of the involved subjects identified the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, and elaborated the SWOT matrix. A survey was passed to the students of the 2010/11 and 2011/12 academic years to have into account their opinion.
The results advice to adopt a weaknesses and opportunities strategy, that overcome weaknesses by taking advantage of opportunities. The use of peer feedback groups’ method is suggested to overcome the need of a guided learning and the students’ difficulties in understanding the rubric. This is a recognized method aimed at supporting students in building academic writing competencies.

Keywords:

SWOT, rubrics.