Assessment Overview
Week A: Teacher as Problem Solver—Individual

Private Theory Rubric
Weeks 4, 7, 10, 13

Goal: Identify what you believe to be true (private theories) and the reasons for why you have those beliefs.

Background: The mind is a wonderful thing. As soon as you read or hear a question, your mind races to make associations, bring prior experiences to bear, and generate hypotheses. It is said that "nature abhors a vacuum" and the mind may be no different.

Piaget demonstrated that even five-year-olds have theories about almost everything. When he asked Swiss five-year-olds, "Which came first--Lake Geneva or the city of Geneva?" they each had a theory and reasons for their thinking. "The city came first, then they built the lake to swim in," some said. Or, "They liked the lake so they built a city around it."

Unless private theories are revealed and examined, they often remain intact, in spite of countervailing evidence. Students learn quickly that "explanation giving" not "theory building" is required in most classes to be successful. Students tell teachers what others--the book, the experts, the teacher--think, not what they think.

What keeps people from revealing their theories? Often, no one asks about them. Or, when a theory is revealed, it is critiqued, rather than explored. People do not want to be wrong. Another reason is that people may not even be used to examining their own thoughts and beliefs. Private theories are tenacious, so evolving them takes time, discussion, and experience, which are often not the emphasis of the standard curriculum or way of teaching.

To get your private theories out and well-elaborated, state what you think. Make that educated guess, search for what "makes sense" to you, and pull out the reasons for why you think so. By starting with your private theories, you will be more actively engaged in supporting, elaborating, or debunking them. The purpose of this assignment is for you to list what you already know. You do not need to conduct any research to do this assignment.

Rubric
Your individual Week A: Teacher as Problem Solver assignment corresponds to PBL Steps 1, 2, and 3 and focuses on an Earth system science event. The rubric below assesses how well you do PBL Steps 2 and 3 in your effort to get your private theories out and well-elaborated.

Using the same rubric that your facilitator will use, you will rate your attempt to express your private theories in your Portfolio. Remember you are developing your ability and willingness to make your thinking visible, so you can increase the sophistication and accuracy of your theories.

You can earn as many as five points for completing this assignment. You will automatically earn one point for submitting your assignment on time. See the Time Rubric. Use the criteria and indicators below to gauge your success in earning the remaining four points.

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