Collaborative writing assessment: Sowing seeds for transformational adult learning

The authors report on an interpretive case study that investigated how three elementary teachers summatively assessed their own students’ written work over a three and one-half month period. Their collaborative assessment sessions reflected their ongoing routines that created productive social spaces that sowed the seeds for transformational adult learning (Mezirow, 2000). The authors describe four conversational routines or structures of the observed sessions: group gossiping or spectating, reading/rereading, deliberating/reframing, and collaboratively creating. We argue that these dialogical structures promoted thoughtful grading practices and encouraged instances of objective reframing of beliefs and assumptions about writing pedagogy and assessment; these collaborative sessions became fertile ground for the teachers’ professional growth. Instances of such reframing suggest the potentially powerful nature of collaborative grading practices. We conclude that a sociocultural and social constructivist theoretical framework for assessment involving social protocols for assessment of written work can be beneficial for teachers’ professional development and confidence in assessment.