Philippine E-Journals

Assessing Knowledge Transformation Through an Authentic Assessment Ecosystem: Evidence from a First-Cycle Classroom Action Research Study in an Introductory Economics Course

Kimberly Christie S. Vergara | Raymond Allan G. Vergara

Discipline: Education

 

Abstract:

This first-cycle classroom action research study examines whether stu-dents’ perception of their economic knowledge and skills can transform through an authentic assessment ecosystem of an introductory economic course. The authentic assessment ecosystem comprised learning circles organized around real Philippine economic issues, weekly scaffolded in-dividual assignments grounded in the 10 Principles of Economics, group presentations as formative checkpoints, a midterm learning paper, and a final group podcast. Using a convergent mixed-methods design, pre-course and post-course self-assessment surveys measured changes in students' self-perceived economic knowledge and skills across five do-mains, while thematic analysis of post-course open-ended responses provided qualitative evidence of perspective transformation. Findings in-dicate a consistent and directionally uniform pattern of upward change across all survey items and all knowledge domains, with the greatest gains concentrated in foundational economic knowledge and the smallest gains observed where students entered with already high levels of com-petence. Qualitative analysis revealed four themes consistent with Mezi-row's (1991) perspective transformation framework: a shift from intui-tive to analytical decision-making, from surface to systemic understand-ing, from personal to social awareness of economic conditions, and from national to global analytical framing. Findings are treated as design in-puts for a more methodologically rigorous second cycle and contribute practitioner-generated evidence on the role of authentic assessment eco-systems in fostering knowledge transformation in introductory econom-ics education.