Examining the Potential of Adaptive Comparative Judgment for Elementary STEM Design Assessment

STEM education practices and approaches have been emphasized in recent years at the elementary school level. The emphasis on STEM integration at the elementary level has stressed learning, motivation, and 21st-century skills as positive outcomes. Despite this emphasis, elementary level teacher assessment practices for open-ended STEM design challenges are not clearly established. Additionally, little is known about the teacher workload associated with various forms of assessment connected with these activities. Therefore, the researchers collected and examined data from four teachers and 100 elementary school students engaged in three STEM design problems. Teachers assessed student work using traditional approaches and a relatively new approach called adaptive comparative judgment (ACJ). The time teachers spent assessing student work using the two forms of assessment, the scores received through traditional assessment approaches, and the rank order of student work from the ACJ assessment were collected. The data analysis revealed key similarities and differences, in the time required for assessment and the outcome of traditional and ACJ assessment approaches.