Students assessing their own collaborative knowledge building

We describe the design of a knowledge-building environment and examine the role of knowledge-building portfolios in characterizing and scaffolding collaborative inquiry. Our goal is to examine collaborative knowledge building in the context of exploring the alignment of learning, collaboration, and assessment in computer forums. The key design principle involved turning over epistemic agency to students; guided by several knowledge-building principles, they were asked to identify clusters of computer notes that indicated knowledge-building episodes in the computer discourse. Three classes of 9th grade students in Hong Kong used Knowledge Forum in several conditions: Knowledge Forum only, Knowledge Forum with portfolios, and Knowledge Forum with portfolios and principles. Results showed: (1) Students working on portfolios guided by knowledge-building principles showed deeper inquiry and more conceptual understanding than their counterparts; (2) Students' knowledge-building discourse, reflected in portfolio scores, contributed to their domain understanding; and (3) Knowledge-building portfolios helped to assess and foster collective knowledge advances: A portfolio with multiple contributions from students is a group accomplishment that captures the distributed and progressive nature of knowledge building. Students extended their collective understanding by analyzing the discourse, and the portfolio scaffolded the complex interactions between individual and collective knowledge advancements. Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (2006) 1(1):57-87 DOI 10.1007/s11412-006-6844-4 This paper was published without its complete corrections. This is a publisher and typesetter error. The online version of the original article can be found at:     

Fostering collective and individual learning through knowledge building

The purpose of this study was to design and examine a computer-supported knowledge-building environment and to investigate both collective knowledge-building dynamics and individual learning in the context of a tertiary education course in mainland China. The participants were 102 students in four intact Year-one tertiary business classes. Two classes experienced a knowledge-building environment (CKB) and the other two were taught using a regular project-based approach (RPBL). Data were obtained from interactions in the forum, writing quality, group-learning portfolios, and surveys. Quantitative analyses indicated that the knowledge-building groups outperformed the comparison groups on academic literacy assessed in terms of conceptual understanding and explanation, and obtained higher scores on beliefs about collaboration. Within-group analyses indicated that the students’ engagement in Knowledge Forum was a significant predictor of their academic literacy. Qualitative contrastive analyses of high- and low-performance groups identified different patterns of conceptual, metacognitive and social processes, and showed that student groups engaging in more collective and meta-discourse discourse moves performed better on individual scores in academic literacy. The implications of examining both collaborative dynamics and individual learning and designing computer-supported knowledge building for tertiary students are discussed.     

Designing collaborative knowledge building environments accessible to all learners: Impacts and design challenges

The present study attempted to investigate whether young learners who were new to knowledge building approaches could work towards advancing both individual and collective knowledge, and whether knowledge building could be beneficial to both high-achieving and low-achieving students. Findings reported in this paper are from one and a half-year design research for science learning in one primary school in Singapore. In this study, we closely examined the design and enactment of the Knowledge Building Community model in one class with high-achieving students and two classes with mixed-ability students. The research consists of two phases: Phase I Cultivating a collaborative knowledge building culture and Phase II Progressive Knowledge Building using Knowledge Forum. Data were collected from multiple sources, including knowledge assessment, conceptual understanding tasks, and the content analysis of Knowledge Forum postings. The results in Phase I show that while it is critical for students to monitor and build knowledge for their own understanding, they had difficulties developing such skills. In both phases, we found positive impacts on academic achievements showing improvement of student understanding in the course of reflective thinking and progressive inquiry. Overall, quantitative data suggest that the collaborative knowledge building environment was beneficial for both high-achieving and low-achieving students. We conclude by discussing some of challenges and issues in designing collaborative knowledge building environments for young learners with diverse abilities.     

Students' views of collaboration and online participation in Knowledge Forum

This study examined students’ views of collaboration and learning, and investigated how these predict students’ online participation in a computer-supported learning environment. The participants were 521 secondary school students in Hong Kong, who took part in online collaborative inquiry conducted using Knowledge Forum™. We developed a questionnaire to assess the students’ views of their collaboration aligned with the knowledge-building perspective. We also administered the Learning Process Questionnaire to examine their preferred approaches to learning. The students’ online participation in Knowledge Forum was examined using the Analytic Toolkit software. Analyses indicated that students who viewed their collaboration as more aligned with collaborative knowledge building were more likely to employ a deep approach to learning. A structural equation model indicated that the students’ views of collaboration exerted a direct effect on online participation in Knowledge Forum and mediated the effects of deep approaches on forum participation. Implications of examining students’ views of collaboration for productive online participation are discussed.     

Using Scaffold Supports to Improve Student Practice and Understanding of an Authentic Inquiry Process in Science

This study addressed computer-supported collaborative scientific inquiries in remote networked schools (Quebec, Canada). Three dyads of Grade 5–6 classrooms from remote locations across the province collaborated using the knowledge-building tool Knowledge Forum. Customized scaffold supports embedded in the online tool were used to support student understanding and practice of an authentic inquiry process. The research studied how the use of the scaffolds could help students to understand and put into practice an authentic inquiry process. Students created notes and used the scaffolds to support their inquiry process; however, without sufficient direct teacher modeling, coherent use of the scaffolds stayed low across activities. Pre- and posttest results show that the students gained a better understanding of the inquiry process, but low posttest scores suggest further need for direct teacher modeling of the inquiry process during science instruction.     

Socio-cognitive openness in online knowledge building discourse: does openness keep conversations going?

This study describes the socio-cognitive dynamics of collaborative online knowledge-building discourse among Dutch Master of Education students from the perspective of openness. A socio-cognitive openness framework consisting of four social and four cognitive components was used to analyze contributions to online collective knowledge building processes in two Knowledge Forum® databases. Analysis revealed that the contributions express a moderate level of openness, with higher social than cognitive openness. Three cognitive indicators of openness were positively associated with follow-up, while the social indicators of openness appeared to have no bearings on follow-up. Findings also suggested that teachers’ contributions were more social in nature and had less follow-up compared to students’ contributions. From the perspective of openness, the discourse acts of building knowledge and expressing uncertainty appear to be key in keeping knowledge building discourse going, in particular through linking new knowledge claims to previous claims and simultaneously inviting others to refine the contributed claim.

     

Reflective assessment in knowledge building by students with low academic achievement

This study investigated whether and how students with low prior achievement can carry out and benefit from reflective assessment supported by the Knowledge Connections Analyzer (KCA) to collaboratively improve their knowledge-building discourse. Participants were a class of 20 Grade 11 students with low achievement taking visual art from an experienced teacher. We used multiple methods to analyze the students’ online discourse at several levels of granularity. Results indicated that students with low achievement were able to take responsibility for advancing collective knowledge, as they generated theories and questions, built on each others’ ideas, and synthesized and rose above their community’s ideas. Analysis of qualitative data such as the KCA prompt sheets, student interviews and classroom observations indicated that students were capable of carrying out reflective assessment using the KCA in a knowledge building environment, and that the use of reflective assessment may have helped students to focus on goals of knowledge building. Implications for how students with low achievement collaboratively improve their knowledge-building discourse facilitated by reflective assessment are discussed.     

Knowledge building in mathematics: Supporting collaborative learning in pattern problems

While it has been suggested that patterning activities support early algebra learning, it is widely acknowledged that the shift from perceiving patterns to understanding algebraic functions—and correspondingly, from reporting empirical patterns to providing explanations—is difficult. This paper reports on the collaborations of grade 4 students (n = 68) from three classrooms in diverse urban settings, connected through a knowledge-building environment (Knowledge Forum), when solving mathematical generalizing problems as part of an early algebra research project. The purpose of this study was to investigate the underlying principles of idea improvement and epistemic agency and the potential of knowledge building—as supported by Knowledge Forum—to support student work. Our analyses of student-generated collaborative workspaces revealed that students were able to find multiple rules for challenging problems and revise their own conjectures regarding those rules. Furthermore, the discourse was sustained over 8 weeks and students were able to find similarities across problem types without the support of teachers or researchers, suggesting that these grade-4 students had developed a disposition for evidence use and justification that eludes much older students.     

Examining the role of computer‐supported knowledge‐building discourse in epistemic and conceptual understanding

This study characterized students' online collaborative discourse from a theory‐building perspective and examined its relation to epistemic and conceptual understanding. Fifty‐two fifth graders' Knowledge Forum discussions on electricity were analysed. Discourse moves were coded within the inquiry threads, and two key epistemic patterns were identified: problem‐centred uptake and theory‐building moves. Analysis showed that higher‐quality discourse threads included more problem‐centred uptake moves in which ideas were built more coherently on each other to address the central problem. There were also more theory‐building moves on explanation and sustain inquiry. We also examined the relationship between discourse moves and conceptual‐epistemic understanding. Regression analyses showed that problem‐centred uptake predicted epistemic cognition beyond prior epistemic cognition and that theory‐building moves on explanation predicted students' conceptual understanding beyond their prior science understanding. Implications for fostering more productive discourse and sophisticated epistemic cognitions using online discussion are discussed.     

Role taking and knowledge building in a blended university course

Role taking is an established approach for promoting social cognition. Playing a specific role within a group could lead students to exercise collective cognitive responsibility for collaborative knowledge building. Two studies explored the relationship of role taking to participation in a blended university course. Students participated in the same knowledge-building activity over three consecutive, five-week modules and enacted four roles designed in alignment with knowledge building pedagogy (Scardamalia and Bereiter 2010). In Study 1, 59 students were distributed into groups with two conditions: students who took a role in Module 2 and students who did not take a role, using Module 1 and 3 as pre and post tests. Results showed no differences in participation in Module 1, higher levels of writing and reading for role takers in Module 2, and this pattern was sustained in Module 3. Students with the Synthesizer role were the most active in terms of writing and the second most active for reading; students with the Social Tutor role were the most active for reading. In Study 2, 143 students were divided into groups with two conditions: students who took a role in Module 1 and students who did not take a role. Content analysis revealed that role takers tended to vary their contributions more than non-role takers by proposing more problems, synthesizing the discourse, reflecting on the process and organization of activity. They also assumed appropriate responsibilities for their role: the Skeptic prioritizes questioning of content, the Synthesizer emphasizes synthesizing of content, and the Social Tutor privileges maintaining of relationships. Implications of designing role taking to foster knowledge building in university blended courses are discussed.     

Knowledge building in asynchronous discussion groups: Going beyond quantitative analysis

This contribution examines the methodological challenges involved in defining the collaborative knowledge-building processes occurring in asynchronous discussion and proposes an approach that could advance understanding of these processes. The written protocols that are available to the analyst provide an exact record of the instructional transactions at a given time in the online discussion. On the basis of a study of online discussion forums used in a higher education context, a model for the analysis of collaborative knowledge building in asynchronous discussion is presented. The model allows examination of the communication from the multiple perspectives of interaction, cognition and discourse analysis. The investigation was conducted using a qualitative case study approach and involved an in-depth examination of three cases. Content analysis of the discourse was done at a number of levels, focusing on the discussion forum itself, the discussion threads, the messages, and the exchanges and moves among the messages. As a result of correspondences found among the variables representing the different levels of the analysis, the most important being the relationship between type of interaction, phase of critical inquiry, and move in the exchange structure, it was possible to build a scheme for assessing knowledge building in asynchronous discussion groups. The scheme integrates the interactive, cognitive and discourse dimensions in computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL). The study represents a merging of quantitative analysis within qualitative methodology and provides both an analytic and a holistic perspective on CSCL.     

Toward a classification of discourse patterns in asynchronous online discussions

The goal of this study was to develop a classification for a range of discourse patterns that occur in text-based asynchronous discussion forums, and that can aid in the distinction of three modes of discourse: knowledge sharing, knowledge construction, and knowledge building. The dataset was taken from Knowledge Forum® databases in the Knowledge Building Teacher Network in Hong Kong, and included three discussion views created for different classes: Grade 5 Science, Grade 10 Visual Arts, and Grade 10 Liberal Studies. We used a combination of qualitative coding and narrative analysis as well as teachers’ understanding of online discourse to analyze student discussions. Nine discourse patterns were identified. These patterns revealed a variety of ways in which students go about their collaborative interactions online and demonstrated how and why students succeed or fail in sustaining collaborative interactions. This study extended the three modes of online discourse and developed different discourse patterns, which are efforts to provide instructional guidance. The implications of supporting productive discourse and the enactment of CSCL innovations in classrooms are discussed.     

Cross-community knowledge building with idea thread mapper

Research on computer-supported collaborative learning faces the challenge of extending student collaboration to higher social levels and enabling cross-boundary interaction. This study investigated collaborative knowledge building among four Grade 5 classroom communities that studied human body systems with the support of Idea Thread Mapper (ITM). While students in each classroom collaborated in their local (home) discourse space to investigate various human body functions, they generated reflective syntheses— “super notes”—to share knowledge progress and challenges in a cross-community meta-space. As a cross-community collaboration, students from the four classrooms further used the Super Talk feature of ITM to investigate a common problem: how do people grow? Data sources included classroom observations and videos, online discourse within each community, students’ super notes and records of Super Talk discussion shared across the classrooms, and student interviews. The results showed that the fifth-graders were able to generate high quality super notes to reflect on their inquiry progress for cross-classroom sharing. Detailed analysis of the cross-classroom Super Talk documented students’ multifaceted understanding constructed to understand how people grow, which built on the diverse ideas from each classroom and further contributed to enriching student discourse within each individual classroom. The findings are discussed focusing on how to approach cross-community collaboration as an expansive and dynamic context for high-level inquiry and continual knowledge building with technology support.

     

Collaborative argumentation and justifications: A statistical discourse analysis of online discussions

As justifications (such as evidence or explanations) are central to productive argumentation, this study examines how the discourse moves of students engaged in collaborative learning are related to their justifications during computer mediated communication (CMC). Twenty-four students posted 131 messages on Knowledge Forum, an online collaborative learning environment. These messages were coded and analyzed with a multiple outcome, multilevel logit, vector autoregression. When students disagreed or made claims, they were more likely to use evidence. After a student made an alternative claim, the next student posting a message was less likely to use evidence. When students made claims, disagreed, disagreed with other’s justifications, or read more messages, they were more likely to use explanations. Boys were more likely than girls to make new claims. Together, these results suggest that discourse moves and sequences are linked to justifications on online forums.     

Distinguishing knowledge-sharing, knowledge-construction, and knowledge-creation discourses

The study reported here sought to obtain the clear articulation of asynchronous computer-mediated discourse needed for Carl Bereiter and Marlene Scardamalia’s knowledge-creation model. Distinctions were set up between three modes of discourse: knowledge sharing, knowledge construction, and knowledge creation. These were applied to the asynchronous online discourses of four groups of secondary school students (40 students in total) who studied aspects of an outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and related topics. The participants completed a pretest of relevant knowledge and a collaborative summary note in Knowledge Forum, in which they self-assessed their collective knowledge advances. A coding scheme was then developed and applied to the group discourses to obtain a possible explanation of the between-group differences in the performance of the summary notes and examine the discourses as examples of the three modes. The findings indicate that the group with the best summary note was involved in a threshold knowledge-creation discourse. Of the other groups, one engaged in a knowledge-sharing discourse and the discourses of other two groups were hybrids of all three modes. Several strategies for cultivating knowledge-creation discourse are proposed.

A systems theoretical approach to online knowledge building

This article describes the phenomenon of knowledge building in online environments. Knowledge building is a process within a community, which leads to the development of knowledge. In order to analyze this process, we will look into the ways in which individuals interact with the collective as a whole. For this purpose, the psychic and social systems, which are involved here are regarded as meaning-based systems in the sense of Luhmann’s systems theory—open to the environment, but operatively closed. The respective modes of operation of psychic and social systems will be examined, and “structural coupling” between these systems described. Another characteristic of knowledge-building communities is self-organization, which is described here in the sense of autopoiesis. A pivotal task, which knowledge-building communities have to tackle, is to handle complexity and reach common understanding. These aspects will also be described using conceptualizations of Luhmann’s systems theory, illustrated by many examples.     

Boundaries and roles: Positioning and social location in the Virtual Math Teams (VMT) online community

As research in Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) expands its understanding of joint knowledge building, new perspectives on how social reality is constructed become necessary. Our research concentrates on the longitudinal or diachronic trajectories of Virtual Math Teams (VMT) at The Math Forum, an online community supporting mathematical inquiry. We investigate how these virtual teams constitute themselves while engaged in building collaborative knowledge. We describe as well, through the lens of positioning theory, the interactional activities that allow participants to situate themselves, others, and their collective knowledge resources over time. Our analysis suggests that positioning work is central to constructing a sustained problem space and illustrates how the configurations of positions and resources that co-participants put forward through interaction might change across a team’s trajectory. These changes constitute and are sensitive to the participants’ evolving reasoning routines and other forms of joint participation uniquely related knowledge building. In addition, we show that the VMT activity system affords participants a level of disciplinary engagement which is partly illustrated by active engagement in positioning work. Finally, we suggest that an interactional approach to roles and participation provides a fruitful framework for researchers, designers, and practitioners interested in understanding and creating engaging CSCL interactions.     

Teachers’ pedagogical designs for technology-supported collective inquiry: A national case study

The aim of the present study was to analyze teachers’ pedagogical designs, plans of organized technology-supported, collective student inquiry. Ten teachers in Finland designed and implemented eight, inquiry-learning units (‘designs’) in 12 primary and secondary level classrooms in various subject domains. The guiding principles behind the designs were the objectives of progressive inquiry, such as facilitation of question- and explanation-driven learning, and the use of collaborative technology to support the sharing of knowledge. The participating teachers received substantial pedagogical training on these issues before the classroom implementations. The present study concentrated on examining three aspects in the teachers’ pedagogical designs: solutions for supporting students’ inquiry efforts, organization of collaboration, and the role given to the web-based Collaborative Learning Environment (CLE). The teachers experienced the use of CLE as a valuable new possibility to foster collaboration in classroom work, but there was much variation in the ways that the affordances of the system were utilized. The results indicated that it was a challenge for the teachers, especially in secondary level, to find appropriate methods for supporting students’ inquiry efforts. The most difficult aim to achieve appeared to be the promotion of real collaborative knowledge building; the social arrangements of many designs still relied on rather individualistic ways of working.     

Exploring metaskills of knowledge-creating inquiry in higher education

The skills of knowledge-creating inquiry are explored as a challenge for higher education. The knowledge-creation approach to learning provides a theoretical tool for addressing them: In addition to the individual and social aspects in regulation of inquiry, the knowledge-creation approach focuses on aspects related to advancing shared objects of inquiry. The development of corresponding metaskills is suggested as an important long-term goal for higher education; these pertain, simultaneously to the individual, collective, and object-oriented aspects of monitoring inquiry. Taking part in collaborative inquiry toward advancing a shared knowledge object is foreseen as a means to facilitate the development of metaskills; the present study examines one undergraduate university course in psychology with that aim. The data consisted of a database discourse and students’ self-reflections after the course, examined by qualitative content analysis. Three analyses investigated discourse evolution, knowledge advancement, and the challenge of the inquiry practices. The student-groups differed markedly in their engagement in the inquiry efforts. The study gave insights concerning novel challenges evoked by knowledge-creating inquiry, relating in particular to commitment, epistemic involvement, dealing with confusion, and the iterative nature of knowledge advancement. We propose the following implication for educational practices: Although dealing with uncertainty and areas beyond one’s expertise, as well as engaging in self-directed collaborative inquiry, may seem overly demanding for students, such experiences are decisive for developing one’s skills in dealing with open-ended knowledge objects in a longer time frame.