ILS Review of "Assessing Elementary Students’ Collaborative Problem-Solving in Makerspace Activities"

I want to question the legitimacy of standardized testing of collaboration. So much talk about assessing collaboration, so little talk about teaching or cultivating collaboration.

Note that there are critical aspects to be engaged with: the colonial activity, how the rubrics presume legitimacy of the task (e.g. the dimensions of collaboration do not assess building a shared understanding and agreement of the desired outcomes of collaboration) and of dominant practices (e.g. positive communication is valued, regardless of whether challenging dominant practices might be more productive. See recent critiques of niceness.)

The need for this criticality is evident in the anecdote about Elle being relegated to making “dresses for the girls” (p. 20, line 52).

“most students did not make strong connections between their collaborative work and what might happen in the real world” (p. 23, line 33).

Solid on its own grounds, but doesn’t dig deep enough.

Notes for me

automated analyses of collaboration (Dönmez et al, 2005; Rosé et al., 2008)