knowledge building communities research project

1. “Designing Knowledge Building
Communities in secondary schools”
research project 2012-2013
I’ve treated this presentation as a ‘knowledge object’ and tweaked it to suit
my context – Madeline Campbell, Westland High School, Hokitika
madelinecampbell@westlandhigh.school.nz
Originally by Kwok-Wing Lai (in charge of project)
University of Otago College of Education
wing.lai@otago.ac.nz

2. Methodology
Teachers will use the knowledge building pedagogy and
Knowledge Forum to teach selected topics. Class and online
observations will be conducted. Online discussion notes
portfolios will be collected. Teachers and students will be
interviewed. Participation data will be collected.
Data Collection
The Effective Lifelong Learning Inventory (ELLI) will be
administered to collect data on creativity, skills of learning how
to learn, and collaborative learning skills.
Analysis
Content analysis on the discussion notes and portfolios, social
network analysis of the participation data, document analysis,
thematic analysis of the interview transcripts, and statistical
analyses on the ELLI data will be conducted.

3. Why is this research important?
New Zealand is shifting from an industrial society to a
knowledge society, and there is an urgent need to
develop young people’s competency to work
creatively and innovatively with knowledge. This
research will provide evidence of how this can be
effectively done in secondary schools.
Jane Gilbert (NZCER) has been working extensively to
investigate how the shift to a knowledge society
impacts education in NZ.
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4. Information and communication technology has the
potential to support students to acquire the
metacognitive, problem solving, collaborative, and
‘learning how to learn’ skills that are required to work
with and create knowledge in the knowledge society.
One of the very few technology-supported learning
environments that is based on a well-designed
pedagogical model is “knowledge building
communities”. The goal of knowledge building is “the
production and continual improvement of ideas of
value to a community” (Scardamalia & Bereiter, 2003,
p.1370) and is based on the premise that all students
can create authentic knowledge work and advance
communal knowledge in their classes, similar to what
research and science communities do.

5. In a knowledge building community, students use
Knowledge Forum, a Web-based networking software
system designed to support knowledge building
discussions with a set of scaffolding tools.
Knowledge building communities have been
systematically researched internationally and have
demonstrated success in enhancing students’
knowledge building competency.

6. NZ secondary school knowledge building
research project 2012-2013 aims…
✺ The roles of teachers and the strategies they use to support
students’ advancement of knowledge.
✺ The effects of the knowledge building community on the
change of students’ domain knowledge, ‘collaborative
learning skills’, skills of ‘learning how to learn’, and
‘dispositions as a lifelong knowledge builder’.
✺ How to develop a knowledge building culture in secondary
schools.
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7. The Knowledge Society…
✺ Emergence of globalisation & the knowledge
economy
✺ Knowledge, not capital or labour, is the driver of
economic growth
✺ Global workers have to be able to adapt to
technological innovations - the “mind workers”
✺ “A knowledge-based economy relies primarily on
the use of ideas…and on the application of
technology” (The World Bank, 2003, p.xvii)TIME, December18, 2006)
(Image from

8. The Knowledge Society…
✺ Students should not reproduce knowledge, but
“actively interact with it: to understand, critique,
manipulate, create, and transform it”
(R. Bolstad & J. Gilbert, 2008, p.39)
✺ New Zealand students are to acquire the
competency of becoming “competent thinkers
and problem solvers, [that] actively seek, use,
and create knowledge”
(New Zealand Curriculum, 2007)
(Image from TIME, December18, 2006)

9. The Knowledge Society…
Workers in the 21st
Century are “global
trade literate, sensitive
to foreign cultures,
conversant in different
languages”
(Eskew, CEO of UPS, Dec 2006)
(Image from TIME, December18, 2006)

10. Teaching & learning in 2020…
✺ Ability to communicate orally at a high level
✺ Be reliable, punctual & show perseverance
✺ Work with others in a team
✺ Evaluate information critically
✺ Manage own learning
✺ Develop effective learning habits
✺ Work independently
✺ Be able to investigate problems & find solutions
✺ Be resilient
✺ Be creative, inventive, enterprising & entrepreneurial
(UK Department for Education and Skills, 2006)

11. What is knowledge building?
✺ The goal of knowledge building is “the production
and continual improvement of ideas of value to a
community” (Scardamalia & Bereiter, 2003, p.1370)
✺ The role of the teacher is to guide learners to
“engage in extended questioning and explanation-
driven inquiry” (So, Seah, & Toh-Heng, 2010, p. 480).

12. What is knowledge building?
✺ In Knowledge Building learners work in a
community (in groups). They investigate a topic, ask
questions, conduct research (readings,
experiments, etc) & assess their progress.
✺ Learners engage in online discussions to share,
critique, build-on, and synthesize ideas that are
new to their community.
✺ Personal and communal knowledge is advanced.
✺ Learners use a software called Knowledge Forum
to support Knowledge Building.

13. Can learners create knowledge?
✺ Real ideas but not copied ideas
✺ Solutions to authentic problems useful to their
community
✺ Knowledge that can create further knowledge
✺ Knowledge building as ‘theory building’

14. Twelve pedagogical principles of knowledge building…
Real ideas, authentic problems Democratising knowledge
Improvable ideas Symmetric knowledge advancement
Idea diversity Pervasive knowledge building
Rise above Constructive uses of authoritative sources
Epistemic agency Knowledge building discourse
Community knowledge, collective Concurrent, embedded, and transformative
responsibility assessment

15. How do you contribute to knowledge building?
Develop the three A attitude:
✺ All ideas are acceptable
✺ All ideas are improvable
✺ All ideas become “knowledge objects” that
belong to the knowledge community
(Fong, 2010)

16. How do you contribute to knowledge building?
Use the “PQP” system:

✺ “Praise” – state what you think is a good idea, a
helpful piece of information, or a point you agree with
✺ “Question” – ask a question that will prompt you and
the others to think deeper about the issue, or a
question to help clarify a point
✺ “Propose” – suggest a new idea, new information,
new strategy, or new approach to solve your current
problem of understanding
(Fong, 2010)

17. How do you contribute to knowledge building?
Ask good questions:
✺ Big ideas – questions embedded with a number of
concepts related to the curriculum
✺ Authentic and related to real life
✺ Interesting
✺ Broad, ill-structured, multifaceted
✺ Avoid descriptive or factual information, or questions
with a simple answer (Chan, 2010)

18. How do you contribute to knowledge building?
Understand the nature of text-based communication:
✺ Lack of contextual cues
✺ Absence of various communicative cues – auditory,
visual, kinaesthetic, olfactory
✺ Communication has to be explicit to avoid
misunderstanding
✺ A public forum - a complete record of everything
✺ Flaming - argumentative, outspoken, increased group
conflict
✺ Conversational form of writing - continually responsive -
somewhere between spoken dialogue & written
interaction