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.