Social Process Awareness: Extracting Learning Process Patterns for Actionable Formative Feedback

Abstract

Students’ formative assessment is essential for promoting self-regulated learning, particularly during long vacations when students manage their own learning without direct teacher support. While traditional formative assessment has been teacher-led, recent studies emphasize the importance of providing feedback that is actionable and formative to students. This study serves as a preliminary analysis toward implementing Social Process Awareness (SPA), a concept designed to help students gain formative insights by comparing their learning processes with peer group trends. Using trace data from the LEAF system, we analyzed patterns that can provide actionable formative feedback. We identified three progress patterns—“Low Engagers,” “Early Finishers,” and “Consistent Finishers”—as well as three effort patterns—“Proficient Students,” “Struggling Students,” and “Persistent Students,” which were defined based on final answer accuracy and reattempt actions. Results show that “Early Finishers” performed significantly better, whereas “Struggling Students,” categorized as a low-effort group, had lower performance. If these findings are visualized on a dashboard, students’ formative assessment can be supported with their progress and effort displayed in actionable and formative ways.