others. For example, you can emphasize the student's team performance. A supplemental sheet like the one on p. 23 can be used for this purposewith any rubric. 19 If you wanted to assess the teams' recommendations for a salon bookkeeping system using completeness, credibility, usability, and professionalism as evaluative criteria, the rubric on p. 18 would meet your needs. At the beginning of the project, you would provide each student with a copy of the rubric. The class would discuss each criteria and the observable indicators for rating each one. Students could be invited to add to or modify the rubric. At the end of the project, you would use a clean copy of the rubric to record the ratings for each team. In our hypothetical example, a team might be rated as follows: Completeness: If team members analyzed 2-3 bookkeeping methods, a score of "2" would be given. Credibility: If recommendations for the most effective method were well supported by an appropriate number of credible sources, a score of "3" would be given. *Usability: If recommendations were written clearly, but the tools used to describe the recommendations were only slightly useful, a score of "2" would be given. Professionalism: If recommendations were presented somewhat professionallywas somewhat attractive, included a few graphics, was understandable and an acceptable lengtha score of "2" would be given. In this example, the team's overall score would be a "9." (If you wish, you can divide the overall score by the number of criteria, e.g., 9 Ă· 4 = 2.25.) If a team disagrees with the teacher's rating, the team would be required to defend its positionusing the rubric to back up its argument. 0 0 O o How are rubrics developed? You can write your own rubrics by taking these steps: 1. Choose 3-5 criteria that are most important in giving an overall evaluation of the students' performance, products, and/or procedures for the project(s) you have in mind. 2. For each criterion, develop the observable indicators of quality. a. You can begin with a description of what an excellent performance, product, or procedure would look like (i.e., what the highest rating would look and/or sound like). b. Then describe what a poor performance, product, or procedure would look like and/or sound like (i.e., what the lowest rating would look like). c. Finally, consider how many additional quality levels are needed and write descriptions for them. Many teachers find that three quality levels are adequate to assess student performance. Hints for writing rubrics: Some teachers use actual examples of exemplary student work to validate their expectations. When possible, focus on the presence, rather than the absence, of behaviors; avoid negatives. For example, "Writing includes incomplete sentences" is better than "Does not use proper sentence structure." Are there ready-made rubrics that I can use? Several rubrics are provided at the end of this section (pp. 17-22). You can use them, in whole or part, to assess student learning. If ready-made rubrics don't meet your needs, you may wish to write your own rubrics to address your specific circumstances. Evaluation Forms Student, peer, and instructor evaluations can be used to assess students' team-related performance. You can use these when assessing student performance on the projects in this book. The evaluations on pp. 24-26 can be used to assess students' performance when working on projects in teams. 21 Mystery Shopper Evaluations One of the cosmetology teachers who wrote projects for this book uses mystery shopper evaluations as a tool for gathering feedback about how students apply customer service skills when working with actual customers in lab situations. The teacher who uses mystery shoppers in her lab notes that "this idea was borrowed from the real world, where customers are hired to evaluate the service they receive from employees and the atmosphere they encounter in restaurants, hotels, businesses, and stores. The crucial element in this system is surprise: the employees never know who might be a mystery shopper. The essential lesson all employees learn (sometimes painfully) is that all customers must be treated with equal professionalism and considerationregardless of appearance, needs, or behavior." To implement a mystery shopper evaluation program, take these steps: 1. Facilitate a class discussion that includes the following topics: Explain to the students that you are recruiting mystery shoppers to provide students with feedback about their lab performance with customers. Review the letter (p. 27) and the questionnaire (p. 28) so that expectations are clear. Explain that names of both the mystery shoppers and the stylists will be confidential. Discuss how receiving this type of feedback will show students how