LANGUAGE CIRCLE: Journal lof Language and Literature 12(1) October 2017  p-ISSN 1858-0165 

Available online at http://journal.unnes.ac.id   e-ISSN 2460-853X 

 

 

 
75 

Evaluating the Assessment Rubrics of an English Course 
 

Rama Dwika Herdiawan  
S1 English Language Education 

Majalengka University, West Java 

E-mail: rama_dwika@yahoo.co.id 
 

 
Received:  20 July 2017. Revised: 25 August 2017. Accepted: 20 September 2017 

 

Abstract 
Evaluation needs to be conducted regularly in order to assist the institution enhance its own 

performance management. Thus, this study is focused on evaluating the assessment of 

questionnaire rubrics used by National English Course (NEC) based on the evaluation rubrics 

proposed by Marshall (2014) which were concerned with the four-rating scales and  the six 

domains covering the whole aspects of lecturers‘ performances. They are planning and 

preparation for Learning, classroom management, delivery of Instruction, monitoring, 

Assessment, and follow-up, and professional responsibilities. The data gained from the lecturers‘ 

interview revealed that the NEC lecturers used some domains which contained aspects of 

lecturer‘s performance but not all aspects used in reality. Basically, they had considered the five 

domains of the rubric. However, few aspects were used in each domain, for example: in domain 

of planning and preparation; they only used aspects of knowledge, lessons, and also engagement. 

It needs further revision dealing with the assessment or evaluation on teacher‘s performance, 

materials, and so on. Meanwhile, the data gained from document observation revealed that the 

content of questionnaire did not cover all the aspects for the whole domains. It only covers some 

domains such as planning and preparation for Learning, and classroom management. This study 

indicated that providing the relevant aspects as well as the rating scale in the questionnaire is 

needed to be used in terms of teacher‘s evaluation rubric. 

Keywords: assessment rubrics, questionnaire 

 
How to Cite: Rama Dwika Herdiawan. 2017. Evaluating the Assessment Rubrics of an English Course. Language 

Circle: Journal of Language and Literature, 12(1), 75—82. 

__________________________________________________________________________________ 

 

Introduction 

Assessing a course needs to be conducted 

annually in order to not only help the 

institution enhance its effectiveness in 

running it but also the students assess their 

own progresses during the instructional 

process, it is also defined as ―a systematic 

process for gathering data about students‘ 

achievement,‖ is an essential component of 

teaching (Dhindsa, Omar, & Waldrip, 

2007:1261). Thus, there must be the related 

integration among the parties in the 

institution, and also approaches to the 

assessment itself. It is also mentioned by 

Robert, M. D (2008) that in the design 

process you should have stated all major 

mailto:rama_dwika@yahoo.co.id


LANGUAGE CIRCLE: Journal of Language and Literature 12(1) October 2017 

 

 

 

 
76 

instructional outcomes for your course and for 

each instructional unit within it. You can now 

begin work simultaneously in two areas: the 

selection and design of the evaluation 

procedures and instruments that are 

necessary, and the design and production of 

the instructional units themselves.  In 

addition, Brookhart (1997) states that 

classroom assessment is important because it 

has a strong impact on learning. The way an 

instructor approaches assessment influences 

the way students perceive the class, the 

material for study, and their own work. It is 

also supported by Doyle (1983) that 

assessment practices influence students by 

directing their attention to particular aspects 

of course content and by specifying ways of 

processing information. It is clear that what 

we need to consider is creating the main 

instructional outcomes which are relevant 

with the course unit as well as integrating the 

selection and design of the evaluation 

procedures and instruments which are also 

necessary to be done based on the overall 

effectiveness of the instruction. Therefore, 

this study is focused on evaluating the 

assessment rubric especially the questionnaire 

which is given to the students for the sake of 

evaluating the teachers‘ performances, the 

materials, and the classroom management 

strategies. It is aimed to assess the National 

English Course (NEC) in providing the 

assessment rubric which reflects the 

instructional aspects. National English Course 

is an informal institution which conduct a 

course to enhance the students‘ English 

proficiency in terms of English for specific 

purposes, and it focuses on having the 

corporation with the  nursing and midwifery 

colleges. 

In line with this, some findings 

revealed that the assessment conducted by 

National English course seemed to be 

irrelevant with the instructional goals and also 

outcomes such as the content of the 

questionnaire did not state the whole points 

related to the instructional process, and also 

did not represent the design of evaluation 

procedures and instruments. Not only that, 

there was not any exact instrument that used 

to measure the students‘ performances. As we 

know, the success of a course is mostly 

determined by the performances of the 

students. This one is considered to be the key 

point in terms of assessment or evaluation 

procedures. Regarding the related problems 

mentioned, this study is carried out to 

redesign the form of the questionnaire which 

represents the whole aspects of instructional 

process, the appropriate numerical and 

alphabetical labeling system, and procedures 

of using it as the assessment rubric. The 

format and mechanism of the questionnaire 

are designed to provide the accurate feedback 

in revising the weaknesses related to the 

services of the English course. The 

questionnaire format is adopted by Marshall 

(2014), as he mentions that the rubrics have 

six domains covering all aspects of a teacher‘s 

job performance: planning and preparation for 

Learning, classroom management, delivery of 

Instruction, monitoring, Assessment, and 

follow-up, family and community outreach, 

and professional responsibilities. Meanwhile, 

the rubrics use a four-level rating scale: (4) 

highly effective means master teacher 

performance that meets very demanding 

criteria, (3) effective  means solid, expected 

professional performance; teachers should 

feel good about scoring at this level, (2) 

improvement Necessary means performance 

is mediocre; no teacher should be content to 

remain at this level, (1) does not meet 

standards means unacceptable performance 



Rama Dwika Herdiawan. 2017. Evaluating the Assessment Rubrics of an English Course. Language Circle: Journal 

of Language and Literature, 12(1), 75—82. 

 

 

 
77 

leading to an improvement plan, intensive 

support and, if improvement isn‘t made 

within a reasonable amount of time, 

dismissal. In terms of the rubrics, the study is 

focused on five domains on the aspects of a 

teacher‘s job performance including planning 

and preparation for Learning, classroom 

management, delivery of Instruction, 

monitoring, Assessment, and follow-up, and 

professional responsibilities. And also applies 

the four-level rating scale. 

Regarding the statements mentioned 

above, there must be an integrated evaluation 

or assessment in order to increase the 

students‘ performances as well as embody the 

teaching success. The reason why the 

researcher is eager to conduct the research 

which is focused on evaluating or assessing 

the whole elements in line with the 

instructional process as well as the 

instruments used in terms of assessing a 

course are  first, this study is considered to be 

the new breakthrough in line with assessing 

the questionnaire as the assessment rubric. 

Second, this can be the assessment guidance 

which is concerned with evaluating the 

instructional aspects. This research is aimed 

to evaluate and design the content of 

questionnaire used in ESP class. It is also 

conducted to answer the following research 

questions: what is the appropriate content of 

questionnaire used to evaluate the 

instructional process National English 

Course?  

 

Methodology 

The study deals with descriptive qualitative 

method which focuses on gathering the data 

in words rather than numbers. As stated by 

Merrian,  B. (2009) also states ―it is a 

descriptive study because words are used in 

order to express what the researcher learned 

about the phenomenon, besides it is likely to 

have descriptions of the context and the 

participants‖. In addition, According to 

Wallace (1998) ―qualitative is used to 

describe data which are not amenable to being 

counted or measured in an objective way, and 

therefore subjective‖. This study is closely 

related to document analysis as the design. 

Therefore, it focuses on evaluating the 

assessment rubrics of the questionnaire. The 

source of data is taken from the questionnaire 

used by National English Course which is 

concerned with evaluating the lecturers‘ 

performances during instructional process.  In 

collecting the data, the researcher interviews 

the lecturer who is in charge of teaching the 

material as well as observes the format of the 

questionnaire in order to find out the strengths 

and weaknesses of it. Regarding the 

interview, there are ten related questions 

which are concerned with the assessment 

rubrics used in the questionnaire. It is also a 

part of surveys in line with this study because 

there are interviews which involve not only 

the lecturers but also the course coordinator in 

order to obtain the data which were relevant 

to design the rubric.  In terms of analyzing the 

data, the researcher transcribe the interview 

script in order that the data are interpreted 

based on the questions given. After finding 

out the weaknesses related to the content of 

questionnaire, the next step is interpreting it 

with the whole findings found during the 

observation. 

 

Results and Discussion 

Document observation and also lecturer‘s 

interview are employed to describe the 

content as well as form of the questionnaire 

used in National English Course. The 

evaluation rubrics are adopted from Marshall 

(2014). Thus, the study emphasizes on 



LANGUAGE CIRCLE: Journal of Language and Literature 12(1) October 2017 

 

 

 

 
78 

describing the findings based on the six 

domains covering the whole aspects of 

lecturers‘ performances. They are planning 

and preparation for Learning, classroom 

management, delivery of Instruction, 

monitoring, Assessment, and follow-up, and 

professional responsibilities. Besides this, the 

evaluation is concerned with the four-rating 

scale also proposed by Marshall (2014). The 

content of the questionnaire used in National 

English Course are as follows. 

 

Planning and preparation for learning. 

Based on the data gained from the lecturers‘ 

interview, it revealed that every lecturer made 

sure the condition of class before teaching the 

students, and also prepared the materials 

which were in the form of handout containing 

the related ones based on the students‘ 

necessities in line with nursery and midwifery 

content. The lecturers also designed the lesson 

or materials which were focused on 

achievable outcome related to the goals. 

Regarding the previous statement, it is clear 

that the lecturers created the lessons which 

were appropriate with the teaching goals.  

Furthermore, they also designed the 

motivating lesson which is likely to engage 

most students. In this case, the lecturers 

always motivated the students to study better, 

engage the students in the whole activities. 

Not only that, the lecturers were competent in 

teaching English for specific purposes 

because they were trained for ten days before 

they were ready to teach the students the 

materials. Regarding the document 

observation, there were only three aspects that 

covered the teachers‘ performances based on 

Marshall‘s rubrics, they were knowledge, 

lessons, and also engagement found. As stated 

by Marshall (2014), at least there must be ten 

aspects on the lecturer‘s evaluation rubric: 

knowledge, standards, units, assessments, 

anticipation, lessons, engagement, materials, 

differentiation, and environment. Thus, the 

questionnaire only covers three aspects which 

are concerned with knowledge of the lecturer, 

the lessons, and also engagement. That‘s why 

the questionnaire needs to be redesigned by 

adding the related rubric points proposed by 

Marshall (2014). 

 

Classroom managements 

In line with the classroom managements, the 

lecturers managed the class by making the 

seating arrangement in a group discussion, 

encouraging the students discipline and to be 

responsible for their own actions, and 

showing their caring, respect, and fairness for 

all students to build strong relationships. At 

least the lecturers were aware of the 

importance of employing good classroom 

management, for example: they embodied the 

importance of being discipline by coming to 

the class in time, they gave the feedback for 

the materials explained as well as the 

exercises given, and also they urged the 

students to provide the reasons when 

answering the questions (obtained from the 

lecturers‘ interview). Based on the document 

observation, it revealed that the questionnaire 

provided the aspects of responsibility, and 

also relationship. Point 9 and 2 from the 

questionnaire represents the aspects of 

responsibility and relationship. It is also 

supported by Marshall (2014) that evaluating 

classroom managements require at least ten 

aspects such as expectations, relationship, 

respect, social emotional, routines, 

responsibility, repertoire, efficiency, 

prevention, and incentives. Therefore, the 

questionnaire made by National English 

Course is necessary to be developed by using 

the aspects mentioned in order to obtain the 



Rama Dwika Herdiawan. 2017. Evaluating the Assessment Rubrics of an English Course. Language Circle: Journal 

of Language and Literature, 12(1), 75—82. 

 

 

 
79 

exact feedback for the students and also the 

institution.  

 

Delivery of Instructions 

In this point, the data are found based on the 

interview and document observation. The data 

are closely related to the way the lecturers 

teach the students. Based on the lecturers‘ 

interview, it revealed that the lecturers 

employed a clear explanation while teaching 

the materials, and they also asked the students 

to think actively during the discussion as well 

as explore their ideas in it, in addition, they 

summed up the materials taught at the end of 

the activity. Those represent how the lecturers 

provide the instructions to the students in 

order to make them fully understand it. 

Meanwhile, the data gained from the 

document observation revealed that the 

questionnaire contained aspects of clarity 

(mentioned in point 4), engagement 

(mentioned in point 6, 7, and 8). Thus, the 

questionnaire has attached two aspects in line 

with teacher‘s evaluation rubric. however, it 

should be expanded in terms of the content in 

order that it is very essential to evaluate the 

overall aspects of teachers‘ performances. 

 

Monitoring, Assessment, and Follow-up 

Regarding the domain of the rubric, it was 

found that the lecturers were responsible for 

the students‘ misconception toward the 

material given by giving some extra lessons 

outside the instructional process (it belongs to 

―tenacity‖, Marshall, 2014). They also 

provided the assessment related to the 

students‘ learning outcomes, concluded what 

they analyzed, and shared it to the coordinator 

(it belongs to ―analysis‖, Marshall, 2014). 

Based on the document observation, the 

questionnaire did not provide the aspects 

mentioned by the lecturers from the interview. 

Therefore, there are a number of plans in the 

study which is concerned with evaluating and 

also redesigning the questionnaire rubrics. In 

this point, the questionnaire should also 

describe the important aspects proposed by 

Marshall (2014) such as criteria, diagnosis, 

on-the-spot, self-assessment, recognition, 

interims, tenacity, support, analysis, and 

reflection. A good questionnaire needs to 

cover the whole aspects to achieve the goal of 

embodying an exact evaluation in line with 

the instructional process.  

 

Professional Responsibilities 
In this domain, there is an illustration 

regarding the data obtained from interview 

and also document observation. This one is 

also related to the second domain (classroom 

managements). From the interview, it is 

mentioned that most lecturers were 

categorized as the professional because they 

attended the class without permission or 

absence (aspect of attendance proposed by 

Marshall, 2014). On the other hand, they had 

near-perfect attendances. In addition, they 

also maintained the relationships with the 

other colleagues in terms of planning the 

units, sharing teaching ideas, and also 

revising the students‘ works (aspect of 

collaboration proposed by Marshall, 2014). 

From the document observation, there was no 

aspect used in the questionnaire as proposed 

by Marshall (2014). Those aspects are also 

crucial to be used in the teacher‘s evaluation 

rubric because it can be the reflection of the 

teacher‘s activities during the teaching and 

learning process.  

 

A Four-Level Rating Scale of Rubric 
Regarding this part, it was found from the 

document observation that the questionnaire 

did not use a level rating scale within the 



LANGUAGE CIRCLE: Journal of Language and Literature 12(1) October 2017 

 

 

 

 
80 

categories such as highly effective, effective, 

improvement necessary, does not meet the 

standards. It only provided the scores for each 

point without the exact categories. This can 

lead to the students‘ misunderstanding to fill 

in the questionnaire properly. As stated by 

Marshall (2014) that there are four-level 

rating scales of a rubric in terms of teacher‘s 

evaluation rubric, they are highly effective 

with score (4)  means master teacher 

performance that meets very demanding 

criteria, effective  with score (3) means solid, 

expected professional performance; teachers 

should feel good about scoring at this level, 

improvement Necessary with the score (2) 

means performance is mediocre; no teacher 

should be content to remain at this level, does 

not meet standards with the score (1) means 

unacceptable performance leading to an 

improvement plan, intensive support and, if 

improvement isn‘t made within a reasonable 

amount of time, dismissal. Based on the rating 

scale of a rubric above, it is very important to 

provide the clear category as well as scoring 

in line with the questionnaire given to the 

students.  

In line with the statements above, the 

appropriate content of questionnaire should 

cover at least 5 evaluation components as well 

as the four-rating scale that can be applied to 

assess the lecturers‘ performances properly. 

In addition, the institution should pay 

attention at creating the assessment rubrics 

which are relevant with the goals as well as 

instructional process. The strengths of NEC 

questionnaire are considering the instructional 

aspects such as the students‘ needs, lecturers‘ 

feedback, and teaching media. In addition, the 

assessment is held twice a year to obtain the 

exact data which reflect the lecturers‘ 

performances. Meanwhile, the weaknesses are 

related to the content of the questionnaire as 

the assessment rubric which still has lack of 

instructional components and also the format 

needs to be developed by adding the four-

rating scale proposed by Marshall (2014) such 

highly effective, effective, improvement 

necessary, and does not meet standards.   

 

Conclusion  

This study indicated that providing the 

relevant aspects as well as the rating scale in 

the questionnaire is needed to be used in 

terms of teacher‘s evaluation rubric. The data 

gained from the lecturers‘ interview revealed 

that the NEC lecturers already used some 

domains which contained aspects of lecturer‘s 

performance but not all aspects used in 

reality. Basically, they had considered the 

domains of the rubric such as planning and 

preparation for Learning, classroom 

management, delivery of Instruction, 

monitoring, Assessment, and follow-up, and 

professional responsibilities. However, few 

aspects were used in each domain for example 

in domain of planning and preparation; they 

only used aspects of knowledge, lessons, and 

also engagement. It needs further revision 

dealing with the assessment or evaluation on 

teacher‘s performance, materials, and 

curriculum. Meanwhile, the data gained from 

document observation revealed that the 

content of questionnaire did cover all the 

aspects for the whole domains, moreover, it 

only covers three domains such as planning 

and preparation for Learning, classroom 

management, delivery of Instruction. 

 

 

 



LANGUAGE CIRCLE: Journal lof Language and Literature 12(1) October 2017  p-ISSN 1858-0165 

Available online at http://journal.unnes.ac.id   e-ISSN 2460-853X 

 

 

 

 
81 

 

References 

Brookhart, S. M. (1997). The Relationship of Classroom Assessment to Student Effort and 

Achievement in the College Classroom: Pilot Study Technical Report. American 

Educational Research Association Conference Proceedings: Chicago. 

Doyle, W. (1983). Academic Work. Review of Educational Research 53(2), 159–199. 

Dhindsa, H. et al. (2007). Upper Secondary Bruneian Science Students' Perceptions of 

Assessment. International Journal of Science Education, 29(10), 1281-1280.  

Merriam, S. B. (1998). Qualitative Research and Case Study Applications in Education. Jossey-

Bass Publisher. 

Marshall, K. (2014). Teacher Evaluation Rubric. Internet Download accessed at 

http://www.marshallmemo.com/articles/Teacher%20rubrics%20Jan%202014.pdf. 

Wallace. (1998). Action research for language teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge University 

Press 

 

 

Apppendix 

The Questionnaire 

 

LEARNER’S COURSE 

EVALUATION 

 

LEVEL & CLASS:                   DATE         : 

TEACHER      :         BRANCH : 

 

The following statements are related to the assessment rubrics of English class held by 

NEC teachers. Circle the mark for each statement from 10 up to 1 based on your opinions. 

 

        High        low 

1. The given material is appropriate with the students‘ needs :  
10      9      8      7      6        5         4         3         2      1 

 

2. The class condition created truly supported the students in learning English : 
10      9      8      7      6        5         4         3         2      1 

 

3. The handout is very beneficial to enhance the students‘ English proficiencies : 
10      9      8      7      6        5         4         3         2      1 

 

4. The teachers‘ explanations are easy to understand :  
10      9      8      7      6        5         4         3         2      1 

 

5. The teachers are cooperative when the students face the difficulties in learning : 

http://www.marshallmemo.com/articles/Teacher%20rubrics%20Jan%202014.pdf


LANGUAGE CIRCLE: Journal of Language and Literature 12(1) October 2017 

 

 

 

 
82 

10      9      8      7      6        5         4         3         2      1 

 

6. The teachers always use the instructional media : 
10      9      8      7      6        5         4         3         2      1 

 

7. The teachers motivate the students a lot: 
10      9      8      7      6        5         4         3         2      1 

 

8. The teachers always encourage the students to speak English a lot : 
10      9      8      7      6        5         4         3         2      1 

 

9. The teachers always come in time : 
10      9      8      7      6        5         4         3         2      1 

 

10. The teachers always dress up well : 
10      9      8      7      6        5         4         3        2 1 

 

General opinion: 

1) The English class is generally : 
a) excellent    b) good c) does not meet the standard 
 

 

2) The teachers are generally : 
a) excellent    b) good c) does not meet the standard 
 

3) in terms of the institution improvement, write out your suggestions regarding our 
services: 

………………………………………………………………………………………………

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