The impact of rubrics and scripts on self-regulation, self-efficacy and performance in collaborative problem-solving tasks

Abstract

Rubrics and scripts are tools that can promote self-assessment. Although similar, rubrics and scripts differ in the metacognitive processes they support, their cognitive demands, how students use them and their focus. While there is ample evidence of the positive effects of rubrics, there is less research on the impact of scripts and their use in collaborative tasks. We aimed to compare the effects of rubrics and scripts on self-regulation, self-efficacy, academic performance and students’ perceptions when used in group tasks on econometrics. A total of 134 university students participated in a quasi-experiment under three conditions (rubrics, scripts, control). Positive effects on self-regulation were found for the experimental groups, and a positive impact on self-efficacy only for the rubric group. Additionally, as previous academic performance differed among conditions, difference-in-differences analysis was employed. In the rubric condition, the students that started from very high levels of academic achievement benefited more from using the rubric. In contrast, in the script condition, it was the students with intermediate or high levels of academic performance who experienced the greatest benefits from employing the script.

Keywords:

• Rubric
• script
• self-assessment
• self-regulated learning

Acknowledgements

We thank Ernesto Panadero for his great help in the design and writing of this article. We are grateful to Heidi Andrade for the feedback in the SIG1 & SIG4 Conference 2022. Finally, we would like to thank Javier Fernández-Ruiz and José M. Sánchez Galán for their collaboration with data collection and processing.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

(1) Universidad Francisco de Vitoria, Call for Research Educational Innovation 2020, Reference number UFV2020-46. (2) Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Call Teaching Innovation Projects 2017/18, Reference number CEE_018.17_IMP. (3) Spanish National R + D call from the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (Generación del conocimiento 2020), reference number: PID2019-108982GB-I00.

Notes on contributors

Juan Fraile

Juan Fraile is Associate Professor at Universidad Francisco de Vitoria. His research interests include self-assessment, self-regulated learning and the use of rubrics.

María Gil-Izquierdo

María Gil-Izquierdo is Professor of Statistics at the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid). Her current work focuses on the areas of the economics of education, teaching innovation and data analysis.

Eva Medina-Moral

Eva Medina-Moral is Associate Professor of Econometrics at the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid). Her main areas of research focus on multivariate analysis, development and related political-economic factors, renewable energies, and immigration and the labour market.