Students Assessing Their Own Knowledge Using Portfilios

Students Assessing Their Own Knowledge
Submitted by Becky Rogerson
 
The goal of this study was to examine the roles of student-directed portfolio assessment in portraying knowledge building and scaffolding collaborations and understanding. The researchers are developing a design research program using student-directed portfolio assessments to portray and advance knowledge building. The definition of knowledge building that this paper uses is “the production and continual improvement of ideas of value to a community” (Bereiter, 2002).
The three main objectives of this research are (1) To examine whether students using portfolio assessments with knowledge building principles showed more participation, deeper inquiry and conceptual understanding compared to their counterparts: (2) To examine different ways to assess knowledge building and investigate whether knowledge building; and inquiry and discourse contributed to students’ conceptual understanding. (3) To examine how knowledge building principles and portfolios characterize and scaffold collective knowledge advances (Lee, Chan, & Van Aalst, 2006).
Knowledge Forum was implemented into three classrooms. The first classroom had Knowledge Forum only, the second classroom used Knowledge Forum with portfolios, and the third classroom used Knowledge Forum with portfolios and principles. “Knowledge Forum is an electronic group workspace designed to support the process of knowledge building. With Knowledge Forum, any number of individuals and groups can share information, launch collaborative investigations, and build networks of new ideas…together” (Welcome to Knowledge Forum 4.7).   Students in the “Knowledge Forum” online class were asked to engage in computer forum discussions, student in the “Knowledge Forum with portfolios” class were asked to create an electronic portfolio containing the four best collections of notes in the computer discourse with explanations for the selection. Finally the students in the “Knowledge Forum with portfolios and principles” class were provided with a set of knowledge building skills to aide them in note writing and note selection and were asked to describe how the notes they selected demonstrated the principles.
Results showed that portfolios contributed to the students’ conceptual understanding; however, students that were provided with knowledge building skills as scaffolds were more involved and engaged in more meaningful inquiry. This study has instructional method implications for designing student assessment. It promotes collaborative knowledge in computer supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environments and showed how assessments need not be at the end of a course, but proof of growth throughout the course.
 
References
Bereiter, C. (2002). Education and mind in the knowledge age. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Lee, E. Y., Chan, C. K., & Van Aalst, J. (2006). Students assessing their own collaborative knowledge building. International Journal of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning , 57-87.
Welcome to Knowledge Forum 4.7. (n.d.). Retrieved October 1, 2008, from Knowledge Forum: http://www.knowledgeforum.com/KForum.htm
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