Assessing student knowledge transfer during group work

Successful group work requires that students transfer relevant prior knowledge to solve problems. This paper establishes a method to assess dynamic knowledge transfer in a group setting through analysis of a group project in a biomechanics class. Transcripts of student-student and student-instructor interactions were coded for evidence of target tools (students identifying relevant problem features), source tools (students activating prior knowledge), answers (stopping points), external inputs (resources and prompts from individuals or the instructor), and workbench explanations (student explanations of connections between source tools and target tools). Knowledge transfer was identified when a source tool and a target tool were coded within a phrase. The frequencies of codes were quantified to provide an overall picture of knowledge transfer for each group member throughout the project. Analysis for one group (a sophomore and junior bioengineering student, and a freshman engineering student) revealed that the junior was the largest contributor in the group, followed by the sophomore and freshman. The group mentioned source tools most frequently, followed by external inputs and target tools. The analysis provided evidence of knowledge transfer within the group through their identification of target tools and use of prior knowledge to explain their observations.