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The Use of Knowledge Building Communities in the Classroom
The Use of Knowledge Building Communities
in the Classroom
Svetlana Gibson
University of British Columbia
ETEC 530
Diana Janes
March 4, 2007
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The Use of Knowledge Building Communities in the Classroom
Introduction
With the constant barrage of information being thrown at the young and developing
minds of our students it is clear that teachers can no longer serve as repositories of
knowledge but must act as facilitators and coaches in knowledge searches, retrieval and
development. Bereiter and Scardamalia argued that the “Knowledge Age” we are
currently living in “requires increased capacity for innovation, and they suggest that the
knowledge building perspective is one vehicle for moving in that direction.” (Hill,
Cummings, & van Aalst, 2003, p. 4) Knowledge building is a social constructivist
approach to education that is based on the process of expertise in which discourse to
improve communal ideas over time is central. With computers becoming the norm and
not the exception in virtually every classroom, it is time that teachers start to shift their
pedagogical views towards not only incorporating computers in their every-day teaching
but in allowing the students to become owners of their own learning. Using knowledge
building communities in the classroom would allow students to contribute to existing
knowledge. This change must go beyond the classroom and encompass the whole
school. Scardamalia and Bereiter believe that “schools need to be restructured as
communities in which the construction of knowledge is supported as a collective goal,
and the role of educational technology should be to replace classroom discourse patterns
with those having more immediate and natural extensions to knowledge-building
communities outside school walls.” (Scardamalia & Bereiter, 1994, p.265) Computer-
supported intentional learning environment (CSILE) is being proposed by Scardamalia
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The Use of Knowledge Building Communities in the Classroom
and Bereiter as a means for restructuring classroom discourse to ‘support knowledge
building in ways extensible to out-of-school knowledge-advancing enterprises.”
(Scardamalia & Bereiter, 1994, p.265)
Theoretical Background
After researching on the writing process and the process of expertise, Bereiter and
Scardamalia began arguing for educational perspective they call knowledge building.
The knowledge building perspective attempts to make the processes that experts use to
approach new learning central in education in a variety of contexts, including K-12
education, health education, and teacher education. “These processes involve what
Bereiter and Scardamalia have referred to as ‘epistemic agency’, which says that students
can identify gaps in their understanding and take the steps necessary for closing these
gaps; and progressive problem solving (students reinvest learning resources in
understanding a problem at progressively deeper levels).” (Hill, C., Cummings, M., &
van Aalst, 2003, p.3). The epistemological notion that knowledge is not static and certain
but can be improved over time, is also key. Bereiter and Scardamalia have been arguing
that the era that we live in—the so-called “Knowledge Age”—requires increased capacity
for innovation, and they suggest that the knowledge building perspective is one vehicle
for moving in that direction.
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The Use of Knowledge Building Communities in the Classroom
In order to understand knowledge building, we must understand the interplay between the
individual and the collective and thus, we must look at what role Popper’s three worlds
play in the knowledge building perspective. “Popper’s world 1 consists of material
artifacts. World 2 is the world of conceptual artifacts such as theories, designs, and
proofs.” (Hill et al., 2003, p. 5) The interpretation that world 2 deals with individual
learning and world 3 deals with social learning is incorrect. According to Vygotsky,
“individual students develop understanding first on an inter-subjective plane; language
and social interaction play key roles in this process. (Hill et al., 2003, p. 5) The student
“internalizes” understanding acquired in this way and the beliefs developed in this way
are world 2 objects. According to this view, although the process of learning is social,
“the subject develops personally held beliefs (or knowledge) that can be applied to new
situations.” (Hill et al., 2003, p. 5) When someone contributes an idea to world 3, the
idea is discussed and students try to understand it. Now the purpose is to improve the
idea and not just to understand it. “In world 3, the idea, initially contributed by a specific
person, takes on ‘a life of its own’ and, as a result, belongs to this community.” (Hill et
al., 2003, p. 5) Bereiter points out that in “conventional education students focus on
understanding what has already been understood by others, rather than contributing new
ideas to the world.” (Hill et al., 2003, p. 5) Therefore, conventional education resides
completely in worlds 1 and 2. It is the knowledge building perspective that tries to
expand educational activity to world 3.
The four pedagogical knowledge building principles introduced by van Aalst and Chan
must be looked at in order to further illustrate the social aspects of knowledge building
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The Use of Knowledge Building Communities in the Classroom
and to characterize the process by which students create new knowledge in classrooms.
The following four principles have been used to assess and scaffold knowledge building
discourse.
1. Working at the cutting edge
This principle is based on the idea that a scholarly community works to advance its
collective knowledge. For example, scientists work on problems that can contribute
something new to a field and not just on problems arising from personal interests. In
order for students to appreciate scholarly discourse, they must become familiar with
previous work on the topic and the problems students formulate become the community’s
problems.
2. Progressive problem solving
“The basic idea is that when experts understand a problem at one level, he or she
reinvests learning resources into new learning.” (Bereiter & Scardamalia,1993)
Characteristics of progressive problem solving in the computer database would include
instances when students have solved certain problems but then reinvest their efforts in
formulating and inquiring problems for deeper understanding. Other characteristics
involve keeping the problem they are pursuing in focus rather than asking topical
questions, and periodically marking progress on the improvement of idea.
3. Collaborative effort
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The Use of Knowledge Building Communities in the Classroom
This principle focuses on the importance of working on shared goals and values in
developing community knowledge. In classrooms, although competition is present and
can be valuable, cooperation is the more important dynamic.
4. Self-monitoring of knowledge
This principle is based on the idea that in order for knowledge building to work,
metacognitive understanding must be present, that is, students must have insight into their
own learning processes. “It is similar to progressive problem solving in that it documents
the history of ideas or problems—but now the focus is placed on the growth of personal
knowledge.” (Hill et al., 2003, p. 6)
Both social and individual aspects of knowledge are involved in the above four
principles. “Working at the cutting edge requires that students individually identify gaps
in their understanding, but it also requires a social responsibility to raise problems that
have not yet been solved by the community.” (Hill et al., 2003, p. 6) In collaborative
effort students individually do their best to learn the information they encounter, but they
have a responsibility to share what they learn where it is needed by the community
discourse. “While progressive problem solving tends to document the progress the
community makes, “self-monitoring knowledge” does this for the progress the student
makes.” (Hill et al., 2003, p. 5)
Current Research Findings
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The Use of Knowledge Building Communities in the Classroom
Extensive research shows that using knowledge building principles helps students at all
levels to gain a deeper understanding of subjects studied. Niu and van Aalst looked at two
Social Studies 10 classes with the idea of seeing if knowledge building was for everyone
or for a specific group of students. One class was a regular Socials 10 and the other an
Honours 10. Detailed analyses showed that the two classes of students were more alike
than different as to knowledge building. “The regular students even outperformed the
honors students at knowledge building principles like real ideas, and embedded and
transformative assessment in particular views.” (Niu, & van Aalst, 2005, p.2) The
differences among the students were more at the group level than at the class level, which
implied that group was a better way to verify the differences as to participations patterns
rather than class.
Another study, which involved students in the Masters of Science program offered by a
Division of Biomedical Communication in the Faculty of Medicine at University of
Toronto found that students were able to outperform the previous year’s students in terms
of solving problems they were asked to solve. The students also reported being more
satisfied with the way knowledge building allowed them to build on previous year’s
findings and the feedback they got from professionals in the same field. Students
commented that “knowledge building discourse result[ed] in more than sharing of
knowledge; the knowledge itself [was] refined and transformed through the discursive
practices of the community.” (Lax, Taylor, Wilson-Pauwels, & Scardamalia, 2004, p. 5)
Criticism
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The Use of Knowledge Building Communities in the Classroom
Although the theoretical value of knowledge building is becoming more widely accepted
by teachers, there are still many who think that knowledge building is too difficult to
carry out in practice. When teachers try to implement knowledge building, they tend to
provide too much structure and management of activities. “This results in sacrificing
essential characteristics of knowledge building like epistemic agency.” (Niu & van Aalst
2005, p. 9) Another concern is that misconceptions will occur during knowledge
building and that students will learn these misconceptions instead of the correct
information. “Knowledge building is also in conflict with the belief of ‘learn first,
produce later’, which implies that creative work can only occur after a long time of
learning existing knowledge.” (Niu & van Aalst 2005, p. 9) The common barriers to
knowledge building include:
1. The assumption that knowledge building will work with certain students, but not with
most students in a typical class
2. The assumption that it is too difficult to integrate knowledge building with the
curriculum. It takes more time, and teachers worry about whether students will be
prepared adequately for external exams and future learning.
3. Uncertainty about the fate of misconceptions. When students discuss their ideas,
misconceptions surface and teachers worry that these may become prominent in student
thinking because they have been brought to the foreground and have not been addressed
adequately. ( Niu & van Aalst 2005, p. 9) It seems that more research is needed in order
to determine the feasibility of knowledge building as an educational approach.
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The Use of Knowledge Building Communities in the Classroom
Conclusion
Knowledge building allows the production and continual improvement of ideas of value
to the community. It provides a framework for collaboration and development of diverse
ideas. “Knowledge building theory extends the pedagogical agenda beyond the highest
level of Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives, from evaluation to advancement of
knowledge.” (Lax, et all, 2004, p. 5) Therefore, it is up to the teachers to bring new and
innovative teaching methodology and technology into their classroom and provide their
students with necessary skills and understanding of the world we are living in.
It must become clear to teachers that teaching in the way we have for centuries will have
to change. The advances in technology and the permeation of technology into every facet
of our lives are slowly but permanently changing our world. We must re-evaluate how
we teach and what we teach in this “Age of Technology.” We are no longer able to ask
students to memorize the latest new developments in any field because of the volume and
the fluid nature of information. We must arm our students with tools with which they can
venture forth into the great information highways of this century and become not just
consumers but intelligent critics and contributors to that greater communal knowledge.
One way of doing this is through knowledge building communities. Knowledge building
allows students the medium in which to improve their knowledge and the knowledge of
others.
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The Use of Knowledge Building Communities in the Classroom
Reference
1. Chan, K. K., van Aalst, J., & Lee, E., (2005). Analysis of Collaborative Knowledge Building Using e-Portfolios. Retrieved February 5, 2007 from http://www.educ.sfu.ca/kb/Papers/Chanetal2005.pdf
2. Hill, C., Cummings, M., & van Aalst, J. (2003). Activity Theory as a Framework for Analyzing Participation within a Knowledge Building Community. Retrieved February 2, 2007, from http://www.educ.sfu.ca/kb/Papers/Hill_Cummings.pdf
3. Lax, L., Taylor, I., Wilson-Pauwels, L., & Scardamalia, M. (2004) Dynamic Curriculum Design in Biomedical Communications: Integrating a Knowledge Building Approach and a Knowledge Forum Learning Environment in a Medical Legal Visualization Course. The Journal of Biocommunication,30 (1)
4. Niu, H. & van Aalst, J. (2005), Is Knowledge Building Only for Certain Students? An Exploration of Online Interaction Patterns. Retrieved February 5, 2007 from http://www.educ.sfu.ca/kb/Papers/Niu-vanAalst2005.pdf
5. Scardamalia, M. & Bereiter, C., (1994) Computer Support for Knowledge-Building Communities. The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 3 (3), 265-283
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