EFFECTS OF FORMATIVE FEEDBACK by Monica Anna Resendes A thesi

327 Pages·2013·26.17 MB·English

ENHANCING KNOWLEDGE BUILDING DISCOURSE IN EARLY PRIMARY
EDUCATION: EFFECTS OF FORMATIVE FEEDBACK

by

Monica Anna Resendes

A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements
for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
Graduate Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
University of Toronto

© Copyright by Monica Anna Resendes 2014
ENHANCING KNOWLEDGE BUILDING DISCOURSE IN EARLY PRIMARY
EDUCATION: EFFECTS OF FORMATIVE FEEDBACK
Doctor of Philosophy 2014
Monica Anna Resendes
Graduate Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning
University of Toronto

Abstract

This research focuses on a Knowledge Building pedagogical approach and investigates
ways to boost students’ competencies in knowledge creation processes, specifically their ability
to contribute productively to high-level explanation-seeking discourse. This study uses a design-
based methodology to explore how pedagogical and technological innovations can enhance
students’ ways of contributing to knowledge building discourse, and examines whether
expanding students’ contribution repertoire helps them to advance community knowledge in
general. Gains associated with a Knowledge Building approach for secondary and post-
secondary students are widely documented. This research adds to this body of literature by
showing how a Knowledge Building approach can be productively engaged at the early primary
level. This work also contributes to studies exploring automated feedback and assessment tools
that can help boost student capacities for building new knowledge.
The research was conducted in three main phases. The first phase mapped the ways that
students from Grades 1-6 (n = 102) contribute to their naturally occurring Knowledge Building
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discourse in order to provide baseline data for subsequent design experiments. The following two
phases corresponded to two design iterations that involved work in Grade 2 science and that
tested different types of formative feedback. Design Cycle 1 (n = 42) focused on testing supports
to boost low-frequency contribution types. Design Cycle II (n = 43) aimed to reproduce and
improve results from the first iteration. In both design cycles, pedagogical supports included
whole-class metadiscourse sessions, while technological supports consisted of contribution and
content-oriented feedback tools that offered students a meta-perspective on their own discourse,
including Word Clouds (Cycle 1), Concept Clouds (Cycle 1-2), visualizations produced by the
Metadiscourse Tool (Cycle 1-2), and verbal scaffolds (Cycle 1-2).
Analyses of data revealed that these supports helped students to significantly increase
their engagement with targeted contribution types, diversify their general contribution repertoire,
and advance collective knowledge beyond that attained by their peers in prior years. This
research provides empirical evidence that Knowledge Building inquiry can be effectively
engaged at the primary level, and offers usable artifacts tested and shown to be conducive for
helping young students raise the level of their Knowledge Building discourse.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like First to thank my supervisor, Dr. Marlene Scardamalia, for her invaluable support
and guidance throughout the past five and half years. Working with Professor Scardamalia has
been a great privilege, and I am deeply indebted to the advice, encouragement and mentorship
she has given me over the course of my thesis work. Her tireless devotion to advancing
Knowledge Building initiatives worldwide is inspiring, as is her seemingly limitless energy and
capacity for tackling any project that comes along. I would also like to offer my sincere
appreciation and thanks to my committee members: Dr. Carl Bereiter, for sharing his wisdom
and critical support, it was always a great pleasure to listen to his thoughts and insights at
research meetings; Dr. Joan Moss, who offered encouragement as well as valuable comments
about how to shape and present my studies; and Dr. Carol Haythornthwaite, my external
examiner, whose work exposed me to novel ideas and approaches for extending this research in
new directions.
I am also grateful to all the wonderful people at IKIT who helped to make my experience
at OISE a great one, especially Susana La Rosa, Maria Chuy, Bodong Chen and Alisa Acosta. I
could not have done this work without all of your amazing help. I am so grateful to each of you
for your support and friendship—Susana, who can be counted on for anything, Maria and
Bodong for all their advice and support, and Alisa, for helping me with volumes of coding (and
for her delicious homemade snacks). I would also like to thank the teachers and students who
welcomed me into their classrooms, especially the Grade 2 students who participated in this
research, and their teacher, who generously gave of her time and expertise to help co-design and
carry out this research. I’m very thankful to her for always being so willing and enthusiastic
about this work—it was always a pleasure to be in her class each year.
Finally, my heartfelt thanks goes out to my parents, and my sister Vicki, who were
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always there to support and encourage me now matter what, and to Nick, who helped me
complete this thesis by cooking all the meals while I worked at the kitchen table. Last, I’m
grateful to Lindsay Butson, Desiree Falvo and Megan-Faye Rothschild, for your friendship and
support through my very long career as a student. To everyone, thank you.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Abstract ...................................................................................................................................... ii-iii
Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................... iv-v
List of Tables ................................................................................................................................ xi
List of Figures ......................................................................................................................... xii-xv
List of Appendices ...................................................................................................................... xvi

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Chapter Overview ..................................................................................................................... 1
1.2 Motivation for Study ................................................................................................................. 1
1.2.1 Knowledge Building .............................................................................................................. 5
1.3 Research Objectives .................................................................................................................. 8
1.3.1 Research questions ................................................................................................................. 8
1.4 Organization of Thesis .............................................................................................................. 9

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Chapter Overview ................................................................................................................... 10
2.2 Theoretical Foundation: Knowledge Building ........................................................................ 10
2.2.1 Knowledge Building principles .................................................................................... 12
2.3 Discourse as the Medium for Knowledge Creation ................................................................ 24
2.3.1 Structural model of Knowledge Building discourse ..................................................... 26
2.3.2 Explanatory coherence .................................................................................................. 27
2.3.3 Contributor roles ........................................................................................................... 29
2.3.4 Ways of contributing to explanation-seeking discourse in science .............................. 30
2.4 Emergent Technologies: Supports for Collaborative Discourse ............................................. 38
2.4.1 Knowledge Building environments: Knowledge Forum .............................................. 42
2.5 Next Generation Knowledge Building Environments ............................................................ 43
2.5.1 Formative assessments .................................................................................................. 44
2.5.2 New formative assessments for Knowledge Building .................................................. 47
2.5.3 Next generation formative assessments for Knowledge Building ................................ 49
2.5.4 Formative assessments to support ways of contributing to explanation-seeking
discourse ................................................................................................................................. 50
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2.5 Chapter Summary
 .............................................................................................................................................
 54

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY
3.1 Chapter Overview ................................................................................................................... 56
3.2 Design-Based Research .......................................................................................................... 56
3.2.1 Characteristics of design-based research ...................................................................... 57
3.2.2 Challenges of design-based research ............................................................................ 58
3.3. Co-Design .............................................................................................................................. 60
3.3.1 Challenges of a co-design approach ............................................................................. 62
3.4 Co-Design Team ..................................................................................................................... 63
3.4.1 Setting ........................................................................................................................... 63
3.4.2 Researchers and developers .......................................................................................... 63
3.4.3 Teacher .......................................................................................................................... 64
3.4.4 Students ......................................................................................................................... 65
3.5 Overview of Research Plan ..................................................................................................... 66
3.6 Data Sources and Analytic Approach ..................................................................................... 67
3.7 Chapter Summary ................................................................................................................... 70

CHAPTER FOUR: WAYS OF CONTRIBUTION TO EXPLANATION-SEEKING
DISCOURSE IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL: A SURVEY
4.1 Chapter Overview ................................................................................................................... 71
4.2 Methods and Analyses ............................................................................................................ 71
4.2.1 Participants and classroom context ............................................................................... 72
4.2.2 Dataset ........................................................................................................................... 72
4.2.3 Plan of analysis ............................................................................................................. 73
4.3 Results ..................................................................................................................................... 74
4.3.1 Contribution repertoire: How do elementary-aged students contribute to explanation-
seeking dialogue in science? .................................................................................................. 75
4.3.2 Correlations: Are there relationships between various contribution types? ................. 81
4.3.3 Cross-grade comparisons: Do students contribute differently as they get older? Do
their ways of contributing expand with age? ......................................................................... 86
4.3.4 Cross-grade comparisons: Secondary contribution measures ....................................... 91
4.3.5 Cross-grade comparisons: To what extent does depth of understanding correspond to
contribution diversity? ........................................................................................................... 93
4.3.6 Trend Analysis .............................................................................................................. 95
4.4 Discussion of Results and Implications for Design Cycle 1 ................................................. 101
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4.5 Chapter Summary ................................................................................................................. 105

CHAPTER FIVE: DESIGN CYCLE 1: EFFECT OF FORMATIVE FEEDBACK ON
WAYS OF CONTRIBUTING TO EXPLANATION-SEEKING DISCOURSE IN GRADE
TWO
5.1 Chapter Overview ................................................................................................................. 110
5.2 Co-Designing the Knowledge Building Inquiries ................................................................. 110
5.2.1 Targeting contribution types ....................................................................................... 112
5.2.2 Creating a principles-based design ............................................................................. 113
5.3 Methods and Analyses .......................................................................................................... 123
5.3.1 Participants and classroom context ............................................................................. 123
5.3.2 Procedure .................................................................................................................... 126
5.3.3 Metadiscourse sessions ............................................................................................... 127
5.3.4 Dataset ......................................................................................................................... 130
5.3.5 Plan of analysis ........................................................................................................... 130
5.4 Results ................................................................................................................................... 131
5.4.1 Did students’ contribution repertoire diversity from Grade 1 to Grade 2? .................. 131
5.4.2 Did the experimental class contribute more diversely than their peers the previous
year? ...................................................................................................................................... 138
5.4.3 Ways that the Grade 2 students were “Obtaining Information” in their explanation-
seeking discourse .................................................................................................................. 142
5.4.4 Did the experimental class achieve greater knowledge advancement? ....................... 145
5.4.5 Ways that the Grade 2 students were advancing community knowledge .................... 147
5.5 Could Young Students Engage in Productive Metadiscourse? ............................................. 150
5.6 Triangulating data: Comparing the Experimental Grade 2 Groups with Groups in the Primary
Study ........................................................................................................................................ 157
5.6.1 How do three different Grade 2 class compare with respect to contribution and
knowledge advancement measures? ..................................................................................... 157
5.6.2 How did the experimental Grade 2 class fare on contribution and knowledge
advancement measures in comparison with other grades? ................................................... 162
5.7 Lessons Learned from Design Cycle 1 ................................................................................. 166
5.7.1 Lesson 1: Productive design components .................................................................... 166
5.7.2 Lesson 2: Design components that can be improved ................................................... 169
5.8 Chapter Summary ................................................................................................................. 170

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CHAPTER SIX: SECONDARY ANALYSIS: THE EFFECT OF FORMATIVE
FEEDBACK ON VOCABULARY USE AND DISTRIBUTION OF VOCABULARY
KNOWLEDGE
6.1 Chapter Overview ................................................................................................................. 172
6.2 Knowledge Building for Vocabulary Learning .................................................................... 172
6.3 Co-Designing the Vocabulary Study .................................................................................... 177
6.3.1 Creating a principles-based design ............................................................................. 178
6.4 Methods and Analyses .......................................................................................................... 179
6.4.1 Participants and classroom context ............................................................................. 179
6.4.2 Procedure .................................................................................................................... 180
6.4.3 Dataset ......................................................................................................................... 180
6.4.4 Plan of analysis ........................................................................................................... 180
6.5 Results ................................................................................................................................... 183
6.5.1 Did the experimental class exhibit more productive vocabulary growth than the
benchmark class? ................................................................................................................. 183
6.5.2 To what extent was vocabulary distributed in the shared discourse? ......................... 186
6.6 How Did Students Respond to Formative Feedback? .......................................................... 192
6.7 Implication of Findings for Classroom Practice ................................................................... 195
6.8 Chapter Summary ................................................................................................................. 196

CHAPTER SEVEN: DESIGN CYCLE 2: ENHANCING THE EFFECT OF FORMATIVE
FEEDBACK WAYS OF CONTRIBUTING TO EXPLANATION- SEEKING DIALOGUE
IN GRADE 2
7.1 Chapter Overview ................................................................................................................. 198
7.2 Co-Designing the Knowledge Building Inquiries ................................................................. 198
7.2.1 Refinements to Design Cycle 2: Targeting the “Big Ideas” in the “Understanding Life
Systems” stream ................................................................................................................... 199
7.2.2 From a “naive biology” to deep understanding .......................................................... 201
7.2.3 Refinements to Design Cycle 1: Creating a principle-based design ........................... 208
7.3 Methods and Analyses .......................................................................................................... 213
7.3.1 Participants and classroom context ............................................................................. 213
7.3.2 Procedure .................................................................................................................... 213
7.3.3 Metadiscourse sessions ............................................................................................... 214
7.3.4 Dataset ......................................................................................................................... 216
7.3.5 Plan of Analysis .......................................................................................................... 216
7.4 Results ................................................................................................................................... 216
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7.4.1 Did the experimental class contribute more diversely than their peers the previous
year? ...................................................................................................................................... 217
7.4.2 Did the experimental class achieve greater knowledge advancement? ...................... 219
7.4.3 Ways that the Grade 2 students were advancing community knowledge ................... 219
7.4.4 An evaluative framework for assessing students’ evolutionary ideas ........................ 220
7.4.5 Students advancing knowledge about the “Big Ideas” in evolutionary biology .......... 221
7.4.6 Quiz assessment .......................................................................................................... 233
7.5 Can Young Students Engage in Productive Metadiscourse? ................................................ 236
7.6 Lessons Learned from Design Cycle 2 ................................................................................. 240
7.6.1 Lesson 1: Productive design components ................................................................... 240
7.6.2 Lesson 2: Design components that can be improved .................................................. 241
7.7. Chapter Summary ................................................................................................................ 243

CHAPTER 8: GENERAL DISCUSSION
8.1 Chapter Overview ................................................................................................................. 245
8.2 Addressing the Research Questions ...................................................................................... 246
8.3 Implications for Knowledge Building Research ................................................................... 252
8.4 Conclusions ........................................................................................................................... 254

REFERENCES ........................................................................................................................... 256

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