Knowing Science Collaborative Learning

Assessments are an important tool both for teachers and students. Formative, or diagnostic, assessments are designed to guide the learning process and identify concepts students do not yet understand.

Summative assessments are the painful part of the education process. Ideally, these assessments should cover exactly what has been learned and mastered in the class. Unfortunately, for various reasons, they don’t always align with what the students have actually learned or understood. As a result, tests produce anxiety in students and may even discourage students from learning.

​Knowing Science removes all the pain and anxiety from the test-taking process by letting students work together during an assessment. Students discuss the carefully designed 3-Dimensional questions that follow a Learning Progression and help each other learn.

A critical factor to remember about the learning process is that learning is social. Students love to interact with each other – they feel safest among their peers. Most students do not want to raise their hand in front of a class and ask a question; they prefer to talk to each other. Collaborative learning is also emphasized in the Framework for K-12 Science Education.

Students, rarely, if ever, are given instructions on best practices for taking tests. Student collaboration during a test helps them to develop test-taking skills: students debate and help each other eliminate incorrect answers and discuss evidence for the correct one. These test-taking skills are a lifelong benefit.

Finally, after a team of students works together to learn from the questions and supporting videos, graphics, and charts presented, a student can take an individual, brief test, providing a test score for the teacher.