The Contribution of Collaborative Assessment of Classroom Participation to Learners’ Sense of Classroom Community

Abstract

In the past few decades, developing a sense of classroom community (SCC) in learning environments has gained momentum. It is believed that there is a bond between students’ SCC and their interaction and cooperation. SCC and students’ collaboration in learning and assessment are well documented in online environments; however, these issues have been overlooked in traditional settings. To fill this gap, the current study investigated the effect of collaborative assessment (CA) of students’ classroom participation (CP) on their SCC in faceto-face classes. 18 Iranian intermediate EFL learners of an institute were randomly assigned to an experimental group and a control group with 9 students in each. During 16 sessions, the control group received only conventional instructions while the experimental group additionally engaged in five pair or group activities in each session and had 6 class discussions followed by self- and peer assessments. Two whole-class meetings were also held in which the students collaborated with their teacher to score learners’ participation. In order to carry out a validated CA, two observers attended the discussion sessions and monitored the learners’ performance. They filled an observation checklist and scored the learners’ CP twice. To measure learners’ SCC, Rovai’s Classroom Community Scale (CCS) was administered to them after the treatment. The experimental group significantly outperformed the control group on this scale. In the light of this finding, CA is recommended to enhance SCC.