Literature Review Rubric for Post Graduate Programs Students

Evaluating students learning and knowledge is challenging for the teachers. An additional difficulty in this process is how assessment approach can be adopted to assess the specific needs of the students. Teachers conduct students the assessment in a way that meets the learning objectives and it is beneficial for both students and teachers. The steps of the literature review are search strategy, relevant literature, evaluation of sources, identification of chronological themes, debates, gaps, outline table, synthesis, analysis and conclusion. The purpose of this paper to develop a grading rubric regarding literature review writing for graduated students.

Methodology: In rubric development, the Pennsylvania State University of UK (2020) guidelines was used.

Validity and Reliability: Validity and reliability are concepts used to measure quality of rubric (Mathieu, 2020). The content validity of each component will be measured by three experts on relevancy scale. 

Educational Impact: This rubric will also provide feedback that enhances the performance capability of the students. This rubric will provide understanding and road map to the students for developing their review assignment. This rubric will also make clear what teachers expect from their students.

Rubric

Evaluating students learning and knowledge is challenging for the teachers (Park et al., 2016). An additional difficulty in this process is how assessment approach can be adopted to assess the specific needs of the students (Cockett & Jackson, 2018). Teachers conduct students the assessment in a way that meets the learning objectives and it is beneficial for both students and teachers (Biggs, 2012; Charteris & Thomas, 2017). Therefore, teachers use rubric to grade student’s work and performance (Charteris & Thomas, 2017). A rubric has the potential to help students to understand the targets for their learning, standard of quality for a particular assignment and make a dependable judgment about students own work (Nkhoma, Nakhoma, Thomas & Le, 2020). The use of rubrics is important when working with complex and subjective material in order to allow students and teachers to develop more objective and consistent assessment processes (Nkhoma et al., 2020). Rubric guidelines facilitate teachers and students to clearly understand the criteria of assessment and it facilitate to the students and teachers for feedback (Moss & Brookhart, 2019). A rubric is commonly defined as a tool that articulates the expectation for assignment by listing criteria, and describing level of quality for each criterion (Park et al., 2016; Cockett & Jackson, 2018). The task-specific rubric is functioning as scoring direction for the person who is grading the work; it provides specific descriptive information regarding specific task (Papadakis, Kalogiannakis & Zaranis, 2017). Similarly, a literature review rubric is a guide listing specific criteria for grading students’ academic work, paper, project or test (Park et al., 2017). A literature review is a complicated assignment for the research students that includes the organization of different thoughts and skills such as conceptual thinking, organization of idea, themes, appropriate literature, and gap identification (Brookhart, 2018). According to Qasem and Zayid (2019) nearly 70% of the students face challenges predominantly in writing of the literature review. The barriers in literature review are selecting of the topic, lack of understanding, inadequate information, inability of finding modern and related references, inadequate time, and guidelines (Qasem & Zayid, 2019). The major proficiency in writing is due to various factors such as grammatical errors, less practice, lack of motivations, educational background and weakness in using appropriate literature (Qasem & Zayid, 2019). The conducting review of literature is complicated, sometimes confusing and difficult process for novice education researches; mostly, graduate students find challenging in conducting of the review (Papadakis et al., 2017).

The literature review describes the relevance of the problem or hypothesis of the given research project; it establishes the project in the context of the field (Masthedisho, 2020). The absence of a standardized literature review format, lack of knowledge in identifying clear and relevant resources, inadequate feedback from supervisor are barriers in writing review (Shaw, 2020). Literature review provides an overview of existing knowledge and allowing to identify relevant theories, methods and gaps in the available literature (Oztemel, 2020). A literature review involves finding relevant publications, critically analyzing themes, and explaining published researches (Shaw, 2020). A good literature review provides summary of the sources, analysis, synthesis and critical evaluation to give a clear picture of the state of the knowledge on the subject (Shaw, 2020; Oztemel, 2020). A review of the literature discovers the relationship between research studies and ideas (Burnett, 2020). Review provides major themes, concepts and published literature on the research topic; it identified the critical gaps and points of disagreement (Burnett, 2020; Shaw, 2020; Oztemel, 2020). The review of literature inspires students to think critically, specifically for the discussing and thinking components (Shaw, 2020; Oztemel, 2020). The review reveals that which researches have written the most on a specific topic (Shaw, 2020; Oztemel, 2020). The literature review annotated bibliography of primary resources such as summary and evaluation (Shaw, 2020; Oztemel, 2020). The resources compiled in alphabetic order (Oztemel, 2020). The steps of the literature review are search strategy, relevant literature, evaluation of sources, identification of chronological themes, debates, gaps, outline table, synthesis, analysis and conclusion (Tremblay, 2017). The steps include in the search strategy are identification of keywords, formatting keyword with Boolean operators, turning keyword into effective search, using filters to screen the database, using of authentic search engines and researching for finalizing results (Ghosh et al., 2016; Tremblay, 2017). A good rule of thumb to use two to three years resources for the faster-paced field because it reflects newest discovers, theories process or best practice (Papadakis et al., 2017). 

In analysis, the above review suggested that a review of literature is a study of scholarly sources on a specific topic or problem (Papadakis et al., 2017; Masthedisho, 2020). a review of literature provides key themes, concepts, gaps and points of disagreement (Burnett, 2020; Shaw, 2020; Oztemel, 2020). the literature review inspires students to think critically, specifically for discussing and thinking components (Shaw, 2020; Oztemel, 2020). In synthesis, Tremblay (2017) proposed steps of literature review are search strategy, relevant literature, evaluation of sources, identification of chronological themes, debates, gaps, synthesis, analysis and conclusion. 

In the light of the above review, the authors search the rubric guideline in the academic context, but none of the rubric was found regarding literature review.

Purpose

The purpose of this paper to develop a grading rubric regarding literature review writing for graduated students. 

In rubric development, the Pennsylvania State University of UK (2020) guidelines was used. The guidelines for developing the rubric are: review of learning objectives, list performance criteria, describe level of quality, develop a grid, numerical scoring, rubric validity and reliability check and review of the rubric (PSU, 2020). The following steps were followed in developing current literature review rubric. Firstly, learning objectives were identified from the author experience and published literature. Secondly, expected performance list of criteria were defined for the students. Thirdly, the level of quality for each criterion was described in the rubric. Three to six criteria seem to work best in the rubric (Su, 2020). Correspondingly, numerical scoring was given to each level such as beginning (0-1), proficient (1.5-2) and advanced (2.5-3). Finally, the level of quality defined for each cell of the rubric.

Table 1: Literature Review Rubric

Validity and Reliability

Validity and reliability are concepts used to measure quality of rubric (Mathieu, 2020). The content validity of each component will be measured by three experts on relevancy scale. The reliability of the rubric will be measured through the pilot test and Cranach’s alpha.

Educational Impact 

This rubric will also provide feedback that enhances the performance capability of the students. This rubric will provide understanding and road map to the students for developing their review assignment. This rubric will also make clear what teachers expect from their students.

Administration and Validation Plan 

The content will be review by three experts. The pilot testing will be conducted of current rubric. The approval for the rubric will take by academic committee. The content will be rechecked from the experts. The rubric will be modified after each step. The workshops of teachers will be conducted for reviewing content. Before using formally, it will be verified to evaluate previous students work. The rubric will be shared with students to clarify what is expected in their work. After students clear understanding, the rubric will be shared for students grading assessment. The rubric will be revised after implementation.

Conflict of Interest: None