Results of application of a rubric for the evaluation by competences: measurement of the magnetic field of small magnets with a smartphone

Abstract

The last year, at the International Conference on Technology, Education and Development (INTED 2018), we presented a work about a rubric for the development of a laboratory practice in Physics, for the degree in Computer Engineering, entitled: Elaboration of rubrics for the evaluation by competences of Physics in the University. This task, is in the process of being implemented during the academic course 2018/2019, to know if the use of rubrics facilitates and benefits the evaluation process by competences, students and teachers. In this publication, we present the results of a comparative analysis that we have carried out with two study groups; the first group developed the practice with the help of the rubric (experimental group) and the second group, also developed the practice but without rubric (control group). Through this work, we want to know the impact of the use of rubrics on subjects that are complex for students, as we well know, Physics is different from other subjects, because, most of the time, the answers to the questions we can do to ourselves are not found in books, but they are accomplished through reasoning and inferences, which become sometimes laborious. We believe that providing a detailed instrument, such as the rubric, where the student is clearly specified what should be developed, facilitate their significant learning. The use of rubrics is implemented in more theoretical subjects, we know little about their application in sciences, therefore, if our results are positive, we want to continue developing rubrics for future lab work in Physics and share our experience and results with other teachers in this area. This work was applied to students of Physics for Computer Science Engineering of the Faculty of Computer Science Engineering at the University of Castilla -La Mancha (UCLM), Campus of Albacete, Spain.