The use of co-operative work and rubrics to develop competences

Some of the most important engineering skills required nowadays, such as the ability to co-operate to find appropriate information, to solve problems through critical and creative thinking, to make decisions and to communicate effectively, are dealt with in this study carried out with chemical engineering students. The study investigates how certain competences needed by students may be developed through co-operative learning. Learners were given clear evaluation rubrics to know what was expected of them. Data were obtained from a survey form, assessment results and meetings with individual groups. The main results indicate that the teacher's involvement in creating a challenging, integrated teaching unit and students' effort in co-operating to create their final written and oral reports led to considerable improvement in understanding unit operations as well as to very high student motivation. The data support the hypothesis that well-defined comprehensive protocols, rubrics and co-operative work direct students towards successful learning. (C) 2010 The Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.