Searching for an assessment method for the 21st century. Student board game design and rubrics

Abstract

Within the booming context of teaching learners the so-called 21st-century skills, tutoring teachers in novel teaching methods, approaches, and evaluation strategies, coupled with the massive trending use of games and gamification tactics, merge a necessity for teachers to be able to join together a series of requirements if they want to keep up-to-date as a part of the 21st century educational curriculum. In the quest to find activities that motivate English language students at the Language Center in the Autonomous Metropolitan University at Iztapalapa and Azcapotzalco campuses, it was decided to use a game-oriented activity. In many cases, a game-based approach has been used as a pedagogical activity that transmits knowledge; however, the possibility to create knowledge and to use games as evaluation tools has been set aside. Having analyzed learners’ perspective on the overall activity, it was decided that the assessment strategy needed deeper examination so that an implementation model could be proposed. It was considered that the rubrics used had the opportunity to be enriched. Thus, the types of rubrics and their characteristics were further investigated so that the rubrics initially used could be re-elaborated and improved. After the theoretical research, it was concluded that even though rubrics pose a positive assessment tool, they do need thorough planning and evaluation.