A Rubric for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing Scientific Inquiry in Psychology

Authors

Jane S. Halonen, James Madison UniversityFollow
Ted Bosack, Providence College
Shirley Clay, Northeast Texas Community College
Maureen McCarthy, Austin Peay State UniversityFollow
Dana S. Dunn, Moravian College
G. William Hill IV, Kennesaw State UniversityFollow
Rob McEntarffer, Lincoln Southeast High School, Lincoln Nebraska
Chandra Mehrotra, The College of St. Scholastica
Robbye Nesmith, Navarro College
Kenneth A. Weaver, Emporia State University
Kristin Whitlock, Davis County School District, Utah

Department

Psychology

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

Summer 2003

Abstract

Accountability pressures influence all levels of psychology instruction. In this article we explore how to meet those pressures with integrity, focusing on authentic assessment and teaching as a primary solution. We propose a rubric to describe the progress of students' acquisition of scientific inquiry skills applied to behavior and provide an example of an authentic assessment that demonstrates use of the rubric. Application of the rubric can enhance active learning, promote more sophisticated scientific inquiry, improve metacognitive development, support program evaluation, and enrich faculty development.

Journal Title

Teaching of Psychology

Journal ISSN

1532-8023

Volume

30

Issue

3

First Page

196

Last Page

208

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

10.1207/S15328023TOP3003_01