Chapter 3: Primary Trait Analysis
Below is an example that incorporates a student learning outcome from the General Education Goal of Communicating Effectively which is a Student Learning Objective in an Economics Course.
Primary Traits are developed for course-embedded assessment. The assignment is for an oral report on a current controversial topic in Economics.
Instead of looking at the report for the purpose of assigning a grade the oral report specific traits or characteristics are identified. (More information)
Primary Traits Analysis for an Oral Economics Report
Student Assignment
Prepare an 8 minute oral presentation on one of the controversial topics in Economics from those listed in the syllabus.
The Student chose to give an Oral Report on Supply Side Economics
Identify Primary Traits
Identify the major traits or attributes which represent the most important elements of the assignment.
- Thesis
- Subject knowledge exhibited
- Organization of content
- Validity of Sources
- Delivery
Identify Criteria for Performance
In this step the criteria which determine the evaluation of the student's work are stated.
Thesis
- Clearly Stated
- Support
- Good Introduction
Subject knowledge
- Conflicting opinions
- Currency of data
- Sophistication of theory
- Effective response to questions
Organization
- Audience appeal
- Logical Sequence
- Supporting arguments
- Conclusion
Sources
- Documented
- Reliable
- Current
Delivery
- Elocution
- Eye Contact
- Use of visuals or Technology
- Content Appropriate to Audience
In the next step (building a rubric) we will demonstrate how to build evaluative criteria, assign weights and determine values or points that are recorded to alternative levels of student performance.
In an economics course the knowledge of content and sources may be more important than the quality of the delivery. We might assign different weights If this were a speech class.
The source for this design is found at:
Fulks, Janet. (2004). Primary Trait Analysis in Assessing Student Learning in Higher Education. Bakersfield College. http://online.bc.cc.ca.us/courseassessment/Section_4_Assessment_Tools/Section4_6PTA.htm
The traits and criteria are used to construct a scoring rubric.
The primary traits and performance standards used in the rubric should be determined by consultation with all faculty members who teach this course or share this assignment. You may also wish to consult colleagues from other disciplines (like speech). They may provide useful insight.
The next step is to develop a rubric used to score the student performance. A rubric is a grading tool used to assign points or values for meeting performance criteria. The rubric should be shared with students before the assignment.
Flow Chart for Developing Rubrics:
Here is a flow chart which describes the process of building a scoring Rubric. The Handbook Chapter on Rubrics also has links a variety of rubrics for specific courses that other faculty have created. Notice that they are all different and specifically designed for each assignment with relation to that course and the desired outcomes.
- Develop a list of the most important traits of student learning that you want to use in the assessment (Those will be the left hand column of your Rubric).
- Establish a 3 - 4 point evaluative scale (if desired give these numeric values and word values).
- In the cells you should describe what would represent excellent, above average, average and below average learning outcomes (the evaluative numbers may be different for different elements of your rubric if you wish to weight some elements as more important than others).
- Your assessment plan should establish standards of performance to use in evaluating learning success. These can be defined in terms of the percent of students who will score at alternative levels (3 or 4) in your assessment evaluation.
- Once the rubric is completed:
- Share it with your class
- Use it to grade student work
In this report the subject content is more important than delivery and organization (the evaluation numbers are all one point lower), but delivery and organization is a performance criteria contributing to the overall assessment.
Concepts adapted from:
Fulks, Janet. “Rubrics.” Assessing Student Learning in Higher Education. Bakersfield College. 2004. http://online.bc.cc.ca.us/courseassessment/Section_4_Assessment_Tools/Section4_7rubrics.htm