Designing and fostering knowledge building using embedded and transformative assessment

Abstract

We describe the design of a knowledge-building environment using concurrent, embedded and transformative assessment and examine the roles of knowledge-building principles and portfolios in fostering collaboration for students of different achievement levels. Students assessed their contribution in Knowledge Forum using rubrics, portfolios and group reviews to assess both individual and community progress. We used a 2 x 2 design (knowledge-building principles x achievement) with four classes of 9th grade students (n = 141) working on Knowledge Forum. We obtained the following results: (1) Students scaffolded with knowledge-building principles showed more participation and conceptual understanding than students working on Knowledge Forum with no principles; the effects were more pronounced for low-achievers compared to high-achievers, (2) Students’ portfolio scores significantly predicted domain understanding over and above the effects of academic achievement, and (3) Analyses of knowledge-building discourse and portfolios showed how students made progress in their collective knowledge advances.