Design of an assessment system for collaborative problem solving in STEM education
Abstract
This study developed an assessment system for evaluating junior high students’ collaborative problem-solving skills (CPS) in the context of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. The main theoretical basis for designing the CPS learning goals of this assessment system is the matrix of collaborative problem solving proposed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation Development (OECD). In this assessment system, there are eight assessment modules in STEM education developed by four groups of researchers who participated in this study. The modules were delivered as a web-based learning platform, where the computer was programmed to act as the agent of collaboration (rather than human-to-human collaboration), thus making this exploratory study more unique. The eight modules included problem tasks such as designing shelves, using a microwave oven, construct a house, etc. In order to ensure the validity of the assessment system, including the eight assessment modules in STEM education, three specialists were invited to examine the eight modules’ content validity. Additionally, in order to ensure criterion-related validity of the effectiveness of the modules, they were tested among 222 Taiwanese junior high students. Discrimination and difficulty indices were obtained for student CPS performance on each of the eight modules. Furthermore, intercorrelations were obtained for the students’ performance on each of the eight assessment modules in relation to overall and each of three collaborative problem-solving skills, i.e., (1) Establishing and maintaining shared understandings, (2) Taking appropriate action to solve the problem, and (3) Establishing and maintaining team organization. The following conclusions are drawn: (1) there was an evidence that the assessment system items had acceptable difficulty and satisfactory discrimination; (2) the intercorrelations of the students’ performance on the eight tasks in relation to overall and each of the three collaborative problem-solving skill dimensions were sufficiently significant, in most cases, to conclude that the eight tasks are consistently producing the same performance outcomes for overall and each of the three skills; that is, this assessment system was deemed effective for evaluating junior high students’ collaborative problem-solving skills in STEM education; and (3) with respect to some of the challenges in evaluating students’ collaborative problem-solving skills, one of the most demanding for us was designing a series of tasks and questions in evaluating students’ performance in establishing and maintaining team organization. Hence, we recommend that further research on students’ performance in establishing and maintaining team organization should be the focus of future studies.