Formative assessment on the upward spiral patterns of students’ high-order abilities under knowledge integration instruction

This study aimed to track the dynamic changes of high-order abilities during the learning process under a knowledge integration-based curriculum. The curriculum included the conceptual framework and a formative assessment as a classroom discussion tool across photosynthesis, respiration and food chains to foster students’ learning process from surface learning to deeper learning and transfer stages. In particular, the formative assessment on four high-order abilities (i.e., evidence-based reasoning, model construction, systematic view and critical discussion) was done in score and consistency. Participants were 132 seventh-grade students aged 12 to 14 years. The curriculum effectively improved students’ four high-order abilities in score and self-consistency and consistency with summative assessment of knowledge mastery, critical thinking and problem solving. The four high-order abilities showed the upward spiral patterns with different dynamics with the teaching across photosynthesis, respiration and food chains. The curriculum effectively fostered students’ learning process from surface learning to deeper learning and transfer stages, thereby prompting the acquiring and consolidating of high-order abilities. The four high-order abilities had a hierarchical order, showing the patterns differentiating in the dependence of the learning process.