Reading for idea advancement in a Grade 4 knowledge building community

This study looks into the reading practice in a Grade 4 knowledge building community that involved 22 students and a veteran teacher. The students investigated light over a three-month period supported by Knowledge Forum, a networked collaborative knowledge-building environment. The classroom designs encouraged the students to take on high-level responsibility for advancing the community’s knowledge, as represented in their online discourse in Knowledge Forum. The tracing of student conversations in Knowledge Forum and content analysis of their portfolio notes demonstrate productive advancement of scientific understanding. Qualitative analyses of classroom videos, online discourse, and the teacher’s reflection journal characterize student reading practice along four themes: reading for the purpose of advancing community knowledge; as progressive problem solving; embedded in sustained knowledge-building discourse; and as dialogues between local understanding and knowledge in the larger world. These results contribute to elaborating the possibility and processes of integrating reading with creative knowledge work in content areas. Classroom strategies are identified and discussed in relation to the role of collaborative online technologies.     

Project-based learning and student knowledge construction during asynchronous online discussion

Project-based learning engages students in problem solving through artefact design. However, previous studies of online project-based learning have focused primarily on the dynamics of online collaboration; students' knowledge construction throughout this process has not been examined thoroughly. This case study analyzed the relationship between students' levels of knowledge construction during asynchronous online discussions with respect to engagement in project-based learning. Graduate students' online postings in a course that comprised both project-based and non-project learning activities were coded and counted for knowledge construction, teaching, and social interaction moves using computer-mediated discourse analysis. Chi-square analyses found that the instructor's teaching discourse remained fairly consistent during project-based and non-project learning. Despite this, students' online discussions during project-based learning were characterized by more advanced levels of knowledge construction, where ideas were rationalized and integrated into plausible solutions. In contrast, students' online postings outside project-based learning rarely moved beyond the lower levels of information sharing and idea exploration. Based on these results, guidelines for designing and facilitating online project-based learning are presented and discussed.     

Towards Knowledge Building: From Facts to Explanations in Primary Students' Computer Mediated Discourse

Educational institutions are required to find new pedagogical and cognitive models and practices to cope with the challenges of an emerging knowledge society. In creating a theoretical and practical model for future education, Scardamalia and Bereiter have proposed the concept of knowledge building. An early implementation of this idea was in the networked classroom software and ancillary structures known as Computer-Supported Intentional Learning Environment (CSILE). The present study aimed to explore the indicators of knowledge building in computer-mediated discourse among 26 11-year-old Finnish students. The data were collected during a four-week course on Energy, and consisted of students' postings stored in the CSILE database. Analysis revealed three pedagogically and cognitively different modes of discourse: social-oriented, fact-oriented, and explanation-oriented. These modes differed essentially from each other in the nature of the knowledge which students constructed during discourse and in the object and focus of students' communication. During explanation-oriented discourse, students actively used abstract and scientific concepts and the objects of their comments were theories, ideas and methods of research. Such activity is a component of knowledge building. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Student-Directed Assessment of Knowledge Building Using Electronic Portfolios

Despite emphasis and progress in developing collaborative inquiry in computer-supported collaborative learning research, little attention has been given to examining how collective learning can be assessed in computer-supported collaborative learning classrooms, and how students can have agency in assessing their own collaborative process. We propose that assessments should capture both individual and collective aspects of learning and be designed in ways that foster collaboration. We describe the design of student-directed electronic portfolio assessments to characterize and “scaffold” collaborative inquiry using Knowledge Forum?. Our design involved asking students to identify exemplary notes in the computer discourse depicting knowledge building episodes using four knowledge building principles as criteria. We report three studies that examined the designs and roles of knowledge building portfolios with graduate and Grade 12 students in Hong Kong and Canada. The findings suggest that knowledge building portfolios help to characterize collective knowledge advances and foster domain understanding. We discuss lessons learned regarding how knowledge building may be fostered and provide principles for designing assessments that can be used to evaluate and foster deep inquiry in asynchronous online discussion environments.     

Knowledge building and vocabulary growth over two years, Grades 3 and 4

Productive knowledge work and high-level literacy are essential for engagement in a Knowledge society. In the research reported in this article, students were engaged in sustained collaborative knowledge building in science and social studies. The vocabulary growth of 22 students over Grades 3 and 4 was traced, based on their entries to Knowledge Forum—a knowledge building environment used as an integral part of classroom work. It is the communal space where knowledge work–ideas, reference material, results of experiments, and so forth–is entered and continually improved. Analysis of lexical frequency profiles indicated significant growth in productive written vocabulary, including academic words. In a Grade 4 inquiry, students incorporated almost all the domain-specific terms at and below their current grade level, and most of those expected for upper grade levels (5–8) based on the curriculum guidelines. Domain-specific and academic words were correlated with depth of understanding. High correlations between student engagement in knowledge building and vocabulary growth suggest that productive vocabulary can be developed through sustained knowledge building in subject areas.     

Teacher-education students’ views about knowledge building theory and practice

This study investigated the effects of engaging students to collectively learn and work with knowledge in a computer-supported collaborative learning environment called Knowledge Forum on their views about knowledge building theory and practice. Participants were 24 teacher-education students who took a required course titled “Integrating Theory and Practice in Teaching.” Data mainly came from (1) student discourse recorded in a Knowledge Forum database, (2) a survey that examined students’ views about knowledge building, and (3) interviews with regard to students’ perceived barriers to implementing knowledge building theory in teaching. Findings suggest that with sustained discourse to construct their collective understanding of the relationships between theory and practice in teaching for a semester, the participants were able to attain more informed and practical views about knowledge building theory. In addition, students’ perceived barriers to implementing knowledge building in teaching were identified and strategies to help overcome these barriers discussed.     

Exploring Factors Influencing Collaborative Knowledge Construction in Online Discussions: Student Facilitation and Quality of Initial Postings

Although lots of studies have investigated collaborative knowledge construction in online courses, the factors influencing this process are yet to be fully determined. This study provides quantitative and qualitative types of evidence on how (naturally emerged) student facilitation and quality of initial postings influence collaborative knowledge construction in online discussions. We analyzed the discourse of nine student groups (N = 34) working on a case problem in an online discussion forum. We found that student facilitation was an important contributor to the process. In contrast, the contribution of low-quality postings in early stages of the discussion can jeopardize the process. This work is an attempt to address quality in online learning by helping instructors decide on encouraging student facilitation in online discussions as well as structuring and carefully monitoring the content of initial discussion postings.     

Knowledge building community: Keys for using online forums

Conclusion “The need for learning in a knowledge-based society is more important than ever, including traditional classroom teaching, online learning, and/or blended learning” (Levitch & Milheim, 2003). Accordingly, learning in a technology-supported collaborative knowledge building community is more desirable than ever. Whether in distance or blended learning, online forums can provide either an exclusive discussion or a supplement to in-class discussion. Through thoughtful planning and careful implementation, online forums can be used in “creative ways to help students internalize knowledge and share ideas in enjoyable and exchange environments” (Raleigh, 2000). Successful employment of online forums can foster knowledge building community in which desired student qualities are cultivated.     

Judy constructs a genuine question: a case for interactional inclusion

This case study offers teachers and teacher educators a sociocultural view of inclusion, showing how it was accomplished for a student who had long been segregated in special education classrooms. Judy, a student classified as learning disabled, participated and learned in collaboration with her peers in a diverse classroom environment. Through close analysis of segments of instructional discourse, the study illustrates how her general education teacher enacted “interactional inclusion”. By making particular discourse moves, he supported the building of an inclusional culture that repositioned Judy and her classmates. She achieved social affiliation and academic success, without limiting other students’ learning opportunities. The study provides guidelines for the implementation of classroom inclusive practices suggested by this profile; offers evidence of the benefits of this kind of research; and, argues for why we need more if it.     

Co-Organizing the Collective Journey of Inquiry With Idea Thread Mapper

This research integrates theory building, technology design, and design-based research to address a central challenge pertaining to collective inquiry and knowledge building: How can student-driven, ever-deepening inquiry processes become socially organized and pedagogically supported in a community? Different from supporting inquiry using predesigned structures, we propose reflective structuration as a social and temporal mechanism by which members of a community coconstruct/reconstruct shared inquiry structures to shape and guide their ongoing knowledge building processes. Idea Thread Mapper (ITM) was designed to help students and their teacher monitor emergent directions and co-organize the unfolding inquiry processes over time. A study was conducted in two upper primary school classrooms that investigated electricity with the support of ITM. Qualitative analyses of classroom videos and observational data documented the formation and elaboration of shared inquiry structures. Content analysis of the online discourse and student reflective summaries showed that in the classroom with reflective structuration, students made more active and connected contributions to their online discourse, leading to deeper and more coherent scientific understandings.     

“Kindergarten, can I have your eyes and ears?” politeness and teacher directive choices in inquiry-based science classrooms

This study explores elementary teachers’ social understandings and employment of directives and politeness while facilitating inquiry science lessons prior and subsequent to their participation in a summer institute in which they were introduced to the scholarly literature on regulative discourse (directives used by teachers to regulate student behavior). A grounded theory analysis of the institute professional development activities revealed that teachers developed an increased awareness of the authoritative functions served by impolite or direct directives (i.e., pragmatic awareness). Furthermore, a comparative microethnographic analysis of participants’ inquiry-based classroom practices revealed that after the institute teachers demonstrated an increased ability to share authority with students by strategically making directive choices that were more polite, indirect, inclusive, involvement-focused and creative. Such ability led to a reduced emphasis on teacher regulation of student compliance with classroom behavioral norms and an increased focus on the discursive organization of the inquiry-based science learning/teaching process. Despite teachers’ increased pragmatic awareness, teacher–student linguistic relationships did not become entirely symmetrical subsequent to their participation in the summer institute (i.e., teacher authority was not completely relinquished or lost). Based on such findings, it is argued that teachers need to develop higher levels of pragmatic awareness to become effectively prepared to engage in language-mediated teacher–student interaction in the context of inquiry-based science classroom discourse.     

Science Students’ Classroom Discourse: Tasha’s Umwelt

Over the past twenty-five years researchers have been concerned with understanding the science student. The need for such research is still grounded in contemporary issues including providing opportunities for all students to develop scientific literacy and the failure of school science to connect with student’s lives, interests and personal identities. The research reported here is unusual in its use of discourse analysis in social psychology to contribute to an understanding of the way students make meaning in secondary school science. Data constructed for the study was drawn from videotapes of nine consecutive lessons in a year-seven science classroom in Melbourne, post-lesson video-stimulated interviews with students and the teacher, classroom observation and the students’ written work. The classroom videotapes were recorded using four cameras and seven audio tracks by the International Centre for Classroom Research at the University of Melbourne. Student talk within and about their science lessons was analysed from a discursive perspective. Classroom episodes in which students expressed their sense of personal identity and agency, knowledge, attitude or emotion in relation to science were identified for detailed analysis of the function of the discourse used by students, and in particular the way students were positioned by others or positioned themselves. This article presents the discursive Umwelt or life-space of one middle years science student, Tasha. Her case is used here to highlight the complex social process of meaning making in science classrooms and the need to attend to local moral orders of rights and duties in research on student language use, identity and learning in science.     

Rethinking online discourse: Improving learning through discussions in the online classroom

As colleges continue to expand online offerings, student participation within courses should be assessed to ensure that teachers can best implement effective, responsible lesson plans. This study examined discourse in an online classroom in order to gauge student participation by observing student-to-student and student-to-instructor exchanges within the discussion board. Classroom discourse was analyzed using Stahl’s computer supported collaborative learning methodology. Data was collected to assess development of classroom dialogue through group collaboration, and to determine whether participants were interpreting previous posts and contributing to the development of the discussion topic. This study shows that students within the online classroom were able to construct deeper meanings in classroom dialogues through thoughtful and personal contributions, thereby reaching new understandings through collaborative discussion. This study contends that through insightful planning and guided responses, instructors can manage online classroom discussions to better direct student communications in order to improve collaborative learning and knowledge construction.     

知识建构共同体及其支撑环境

面对知识社会的挑战,我们需要将学校改造成为知识建构共同体。知识建构共同体是以思想的形成和持续改进为关注点的团体,其成员通过建构性的互动过程发展对于共同体有价值的思想。为了支持和促进知识建构共同体,本课题组研制了CSILE/知识论坛系统。本文对上述理论观点、技术系统以及有关的实验研究结果做了简要介绍。     

Activity Theory as a Framework for Analysing Knowledge Building

Content analyses of computer databases parsed into notes or ideas do not shed adequate light on the role of collaboration and the Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning environment in knowledge building; analysis of what is happening in the classroom and how students interpret that is also needed. This study used ethnographic methods to explore activity theory as an analytic framework for knowledge building, drawing from a class of Grade 4 students’ contributions to online and face-to-face discourse over a period of five months, as well as end-of-year interviews with the students. The analysis focuses on four issues: community; rules; mediating artefacts; and division of labour. The findings indicate how understanding such issues can lead to better understanding of collaboration and of the role of the online environment. The use of activity theory as a framework for improving pedagogy aimed at knowledge building is also outlined.     

A Study of Online Discourse at The Chronicle of Higher Education

Given the explosive growth of online communications, new forms of discourse are an intriguing topic of study. This research focused on ten online discussions hosted by The Chronicle of Higher Education, using content and discourse analysis of the postings to answer several questions. What is the “conversational scaffolding” used by posters in higher education-related online discussions? Are academic online discussions more like speech or writing? Additional questions dealt with how posters identify themselves, who their audience is, what motivates them, how accurate and political they are, and what the experience of reading these online discussions is like. Based on the analyses, these posters were more likely to write correctly although with diary-like personal insights. Through the analysis I also identified both positive and negative aspects of the online discussion experience.     

运用知识建构圈促进学生课堂深度互动研究

课堂话语是促进学生参与课堂互动的核心要素之一,而现有的课堂话语体系多是围绕教师展开的"师生对话"或是被少数"话霸"主导的"生生对话",缺乏全员互动的"广度"与探究的"深度"。该文以南京市某小学四年一班学生为研究对象,采用准实验方法和基于设计的研究方法相结合的方式,根据知识建构理论利用知识建构圈教学策略开展了为期12周的教学实践。教学实践中通过更改教室座椅布局、调整知识建构圈中师生位次、建立会话规则、明确协商机制以及整合教学内容等教学手段进行多次教学迭代,尝试改进课堂互动效果。在将全程班级课堂互动录像转录为文本的基础上,根据知识深度模型、问题解释深度量表对其编码并进行语义分析。结果表明:采用知识建构圈教学策略能有效的提升学生互动的参与度以及提出问题的"量"与"质";能推进学生互动的"广度"与"深度";能提高学生的言语表达能力和人际交往能力,初步实现了课堂由"浅层"互动向"深层"互动的转变。     

The Classroom Practice of a Prospective Secondary Biology Teacher and His Conceptions of the Nature of Science and of Teaching and Learning Science

We describe research carried out with a prospective secondary biology teacher, whom we shall call Miguel. The teacher’s conceptions of the nature of science and of learning and teaching science were analyzed and compared with his classroom practice when teaching science lessons. The data gathering procedures were interviews analyzed by means of cognitive maps and classroom observations. The results reflected Miguel’s relativist conceptions of the nature of science that were consistent with his constructivist orientation in learning and teaching. In the classroom, however, he followed a strategy of transmission of external knowledge based exclusively on teacher explanations, the students being regarded as mere passive receptors of that knowledge. Miguel’s classroom behavior was completely contrary to his conceptions, which were to reinforce the students’ alternative ideas through debate, and not by means of teacher explanation.     

Active classroom participation in a Group Scribbles primary science classroom

A key stimulus of learning efficacy for students in the classroom is active participation and engagement in the learning process. This study examines the nature of teacher–student and student–student discourse when leveraged by an interactive technology—Group Scribbles (GS) in a Primary 5 Science classroom in Singapore which supports rapid collaborative knowledge building (RCKB). We envisaged nine design principles for RCKB in the design of lessons and postulated a logic model that links and explains the effects of our design principles to the ultimate goal of learning efficacy. We presented a case study of a GS lesson which shows that GS affordances leveraged by good lesson and activity design could enable the students to have more epistemic agency. Students had opportunities to participate spontaneously in class discussions by fully expressing their ideas without inhibition. The technology effect is used to support instant formative feedback and interactions among students effectively.