A Digital Formative Assessment of Teamwork in Collaborative Inquiry Student Teams

Abstract

Working successfully in teams is not to be assumed as issues of social loafing and groupthink occur (Kayes, Kayes, & Kolb, 2005). In helping students become more skilful at working in teams, a digital formative assessment intervention project was designed and implemented for authentic collaborative inquiry teams. Formative assessment is an important pedagogical method, especially in teamwork skills, as it makes visible rubrics and measures, providing students with feedback that they can learn from to improve (Strijbos & Sluijsmans, 2010). Based on a synthesis of literature and pilot tests, teamwork was conceptualized as a four-dimensional teamwork competency that emphasized the process of working with other team members (Koh, Hong, & Tan, 2018). Teamwork competency consisted of coordination (COD), mutual performance monitoring (MPM), constructive conflict (CCF), and team emotional support (TES). A peer-rated teamwork competency instrument was developed for students’ to assess their peers in a recent collaborative inquiry experience. Peer assessment adds another level of knowledge, others-ratings, to help understand students’ behavior. This paper reports on the results of the digital formative assessment intervention in a year-long authentic collaborative inquiry project for Secondary Two students. We ask: what are students’ peer-rated teamwork competency dimensions over the project, and what is the relationship between student peer-rated teamwork competency dimensions and grades?