1. Introduction
Assessment
in schools has increased importance not only to the students and also the
teachers but also the administrators, future employers and all stake holders of
education. A fair assessment task is one in which students are given equitable
opportunities to demonstrate their leaning (Lam, 1995). Huba and Freed (2000,) define assessment as:-
The process of gathering and
discussing information from multiple and diverse sources in order to develop a
deep understanding of what students know, understand and can do with their
knowledge as a result of their educational experiences; the process culminates
when assessment results are used to improve subsequent learning.
2.
Marking Guide:
Marking
guide also called marking schemes in Australia and Uk are also referred to as
rubrics in the USA. They are assessment tools that indicate the marking criteria. They can be used in marking of
students assessments (assignments, class participation, projects, examination
or overall grades). They consist of the breakdown of marks available for an
assessment. They may include model answers and show how marks are allocated for
different aspects of a good answer. A marking guide can either specify the
individual marks to be a warded or assign a group of marks to allow subjective
and qualitative judgment to be made especially for essay type of questions
2.1
The benefits of
the marking guide
The
marking guide play an important role in criterion- referenced assessment (
whether individual students can achieve certain stated objectives).and many
institutions of learning insist on their use. They explicitly explain how a
student is graded and every mark is accounted for. This is beneficial to the
teacher, student or the institution.
The
advantages of a marking guide are;
a)
To academic
staff
i.
Marking
is both quicker and easier or reduces the amount of time the teacher spends on
evaluating student’s work.
ii.
Preparation
of the marking scheme ahead of time allows the teacher to review his or her own
questions, to verify that they are really testing the material you want to test
and to think about possible alternative answers that might come up.
iii.
Since
the qualities of ‘good’ answer are predetermined and judgment applied to each
assessment in turn, the judgment process is more likely to be free from bias (i.e
fair).
iv.
Well
drafted marking guides can minimize student questions about their results as
the evaluation result is more transparent and informative.
v.
Students
grow to trust assessment process where they are made transparent.
vi.
Teachers
can communicate expectations for an assessment, provide focused feedback on
works in progress and grade final products ( Andrade,2000;Goodrich
1997;Moskal,2003 Popham,1997).
vii.
Other
people can use the same marking guide to mark assessment in case the setter is
not available.
b)
To Students
1.
Improvement
in the quality of feedback when marking guides are made available after an assessment
is completed. Students should be able to see where their answers deviate from
the marking guides and thus how their work might have been improved (
Marzano,2002, Wolf and Stevens,2007).
2.
Helps
the students to recognize and match teachers’ expectations and encourage
students’ autonomy ( Ramsden, 2000) there by promoting deep learning.
3.
Increase
validity and reliability of assessment (Dunn,Morgan, O’Reilly and parry,2004
p17)
c)
To the School
1.
Assessment
is objective and consistent thus helping in standardizing grading.
2.
Help
in meeting quality assurance standards of the school.
Despite the
advantages of a marking guide one objection to its use is that it makes
academics vulnerable as students find it easier to challenge the grading decisions
(Dunn, Morgan O’Reilly and Parry 2004 p230).
2.2
Qualities of a
good Marking guide.
The following is
check list for a high quality marking guide;
1)
Is
the marking guide usable by the non experts?
A good marking
guide should be able to be applied by any member of staff with sufficient
knowledge to understand the answer.
2) Does the guide allow credit for alternative
good answers? All the reasonable ways of tackling the answer should be catered
for.
3) Does the guide distribute marks
according to the importance of each component of a good answer?.
4)
The balance of marks should be allocated to the most important points.
It should not be possible to compensate for a bad answer by accumulating marks
allocated to trivial point.
5) Does the guide allow ‘consequential’ marks
where an earlier mistake froe out the rest of an answer? It should not be
possible for a student to make a mistake early in the question and then lose
marks by proceeding logically and, in a sense, correctly down a wrong route for example through a simple
error of calculation.
6) Does the guide make it quicker and easier to
mark an assessment?. That marking guide should specify marking and not make the
task more difficult.
7) Is the standard of marking as close
as possible to that which will apply in subsequent assessment events?
Marking
guide constitute important elements of feedback for students. They indicate
where marks are lost and won. This is only useful if practices are consistent
so that what a student learns from one assignment feedback can be applied to
the next.
Does the marking guide prevent students
from ‘hedging’ their bets?
Student should not gain marks by putting
down all they know on a particular topic and hoping the examiner will pick out
the right things and reward them while ignoring the inappropriate or wrong
things. Marking guides must therefore reward logical exposition and focused
writing rather than ill informed regurgitation by speed writers.
Does the question point sufficiently
towards the marking guide?
When a marking guide has been prepared,
review it and determine whether the question asked will lead the knowledgeable
student to this answer. This will help to re-write the questions to remove
ambiguities.
2.3
Preparation and
use of a marking guide
Draft marking
guides should be prepared at the same time as the assessment is designed.
Comparisons between what the students have been requested to do in the
assignment and the associated marking guides will often highlight areas of
ambiguity in the question or task. It will also facilitate judgment concerning
the validity of the task (Does the marking guide represent a reasonable match
with the Subject syllabus and the intended learning out comes?). Marking guides should be sent to heads of
departments with draft examination papers where appropriate for moderation.
Marking practices vary a lot with
subjects. In some cases a marking guide will specify what a student will have
to in order to be awarded each work. There is little room for the individual
judgment. This is practical in some types of assignment such as numerical ones
encountered in science and engineering. In arts where extended writing (
essays) are involved it may not be possible to specify precisely what a student
will have to do in order to be awarded each mark. The marker has to exercise
judgment concerning the extent to which each learning outcome has been
demonstrated. The detail to be expected on the marking guide, therefore, cannot
prescribed but must follow the potential variability of the answer.
2.4
Marking guide
for Essays;
The following
outlines should be followed when preparing the marking guides for essay type of
questions.
·
Make
a model answer( outline answer)
·
Questions
to consider are;
Ø What key points
do you expect in an answer? Can you prioritize them ( as a way of indicating a
proportion of marks for each point)?
Ø Should you allocate marks for other aspects of
the work?
Ø Does you model
answer give an indication of the expected answer for different marking bands
(i.e are there particular points that should affect the mark or grades
awarded)?
·
A
model answer may take different forms;
I.
A
list of factual content
II.
A
list of alternative interpretation to the set essay title.
III.
A
list of references or other sources.
·
Select
the learning outcomes to which the assignment is testing i.e determine whether
the marks awarded should be based solely on content (factual and illustrative)
of the essay or whether some marks be awarded for structure and style.
Approaches to using a marking guide
The following guidelines are helpful in the
implementation of a marking guide;
a)
Review
marking guide after examination. Once the examination has been done, read a few
scripts and review the marking guide. You may sometimes find that students have
interpreted your questions in a way that is different from what you have
intended. Students may come up with excellent that may be slightly outside what
you asked. Consider giving these students partial marks.
b)
You could start marking by giving an overall
mark to a piece of work, based on an overall impression and then do detailed
analysis against the marking guide. Alternatively you could start in an
analytical way. Awarding marks for each part of the answer according to the
marking guide and then seeing if the overall resultant marks feel right.
c)
For
a large pile of work, especially exam scripts, you could combine the marking
guide with following approach;
Ø Read and assign
a tentative grade to the first scripts before you start marking proper. This
will give you a feel of the overall standards.
Ø Skin through the
scripts, sorting impressionistically into say five grade piles (for example
ABCDE). Alternatively try to put them into rank order and the note where the
grade boundaries fall.
Ø Mark all the
scripts.
Ø When you have finished marking, check back
with the first five you marked to make sure your standards haven’t drifted up
or down.
Ø Draw a few at random
from the pile and mark them again. Check with your original mark. If you’re
standard has not changed, WHY?
d)
When
marking make notes on scripts. These will make in clear why you gave a
particular mark.
Recommendations
It is not only
the setting of assessment which affects their validity and reliability but also
how they are marked (graded). In order to enforce the use of the marking guide
and make it contribute to a fairer assessment in secondary schools in Uganda,
the following recommendations are made;
a)
Before
dispatch of the draft question papers to the Director of studies office in a
school, the heads of departments should ensure that the subject teacher has
provided, draft questions together with marking guide.
b)
After
marking has been done by the subject teachers the heads of departments should
receive scripts, marking guides, question papers, Midterm results (Examination file)
from every subject teacher.
c)
Secondary
schools may have to put in place a policy regarding use marking guide for all
forms of assessment and a mechanism of monitoring its use.
d)
There
is need for sensitization workshops for secondary school teachers on the use of
a marking guide and its implementation.
e)
There
is need for the National teacher training colleges in Uganda and the institutions
of higher learning to teach the teachers
the pedagogical aspects of making a marking guide.
Conclusion
Marking guide
can be used for all assessment including oral presentations, essays, course
work, reports and final examinations. In addition to many benefits to the
staff, Students and institutions discussed above marking guide also helps to
minimize complaints about grading. Marking guides should be used for all
assessments and the teachers in Islamic university in Uganda should devise
means to make sure that students are familiar with them in giving feedback to
enhance learning.
REFERENCES
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Shifting the focus from teaching to learninng. Allyn and Bacon.
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Marzano, R. (2002). A Comparison of selected methods of scoring
classroom Assessments.Applied Measurement in Education.
Moskal B, M. (2003). Recommendations for developing classroom
performance assessment and scoring rubrics. Practical assessment,Research and
Evaluation.
Popham, J. (1997). What is wrong and what is right with rubrics.
Education leardership,55(2),72-75.
Ramsden, P. (2000). Learning to teach in Higher Education. London:
Rouledge Falmer.
Ramsden, P. (2003). Learning to teach in Higher Education. London:
Rouledge Falmer.
Wolf, K. S. (2007). The role of Rubrics in advancing and assessing
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