Rubrics as a Tool for Objective Assessment in Art Education

Abstract

The paper describes the importance of a rubric as an assessment tool in art education. The assessment of a work of art, for example, a landscape or a portrait painting usually consists of a combination of objective information and a subjective point of view, which makes it difficult for educators to assess students’ learning outcomes. The use of rubrics is considered an innovative way for educators not only to measure the student’s comprehension and skills but also as a teaching method to increase learners’ engagement in order to bring the creation of art to the forefront of the learning process within school art education. The relevance of the subject of this paper is defined by the changes in the evaluation system during the ongoing education reform in Latvia. The rubric, as an assessment tool in Latvia, was first introduced in 2020 as a part of the reform of the school curriculum. Rubrics for creative art assignments observe the main stages of the learning process, including sketching, expression of original ideas, creative work, documentation of the creation process and self-evaluation. It can be used for both, summative and formative assessments of learning outcomes. The criteria are based on the Common European Framework of Reference for Visual Literacy which was developed by The European Network of Visual Literacy. Therefore, the research aim is to determine the optimal way to evaluate students’ work in art lessons within the framework of school art education. The research involved two stages of data collection. During the first stage (2021) there was conducted a survey of 60 Latvian secondary school teachers that identified several problematic issues concerning the evaluation criteria. In the second stage (2022) the in-depth analysis was performed to investigate the connection between the feedback from educational practice and recommended rubrics in new curricula.