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Getting Started and Sustaining Knowledge Building

CSCL 2011, July 4-8, Hong Kong, China

+Presenters:Presenters:

Knowledge Building in Senior Kindergarten and Grade 1 Knowledge Building in Senior Kindergarten and Grade 1 Maria Chuy, Christian Tarchi, Monica Resendes & Bodong Chen

Challenges and strategies for effective Knowledge Building in g g g gelementary school: Principals’ perspective Elizabeth Morley & Richard Messina

Designing a Knowledge Building curriculum Katerine Bielaczyc & Teachers from Townsville Primary School, Singaporeg p

Knowledge Building International: Open Educational Courses, Innovation, and Resources Marlene Scardamalia, Carl Bereiter, Monica Resendes & Stian Haklev

Discussion by Jianwei Zhang

++Knowledge Building in Senior Kindergarten and Grade 1Kindergarten and Grade 1

Maria Chuy, Christian Tarchi, Monica Resendes & Bodong Chen

Institute for Knowledge Innovation and Technology, OISE/University of Toronto, Canada

+ Knowledge Building and Knowledge AgeK l d B ildi d (S d li & B it 1996 Knowledge Building pedagogy (Scardamalia & Bereiter, 1996; 2003) offers a Knowledge Age framework for education by supporting students’ capacity for innovation.

Instead of simply learning about science, history, literature, etc., students engage ideas as scientists, historians, writers, and so forth so forth.

They work in a community, building on each other’s knowledge, exploring and refining each other’s theories, and knowledge, exploring and refining each other s theories, and engaging in the progressive improvement of their ideas. This knowledge work is supported by Knowledge Forum (Scardamalia, 2004).( , )

Teachers who are eager to explore KB pedagogy and KF technology in their classrooms may not know where to begin…

+How and when do we get started How and when do we get started with Knowledge Building?

KB talk can be initiated as early as Kindergarten

At The Laboratory School at the Dr. Eric Jackman Institute of Child Study (Toronto, Canada), children are introduced to the knowledge building principles when they first enter the school at the age of hthree

The process of playing with ideas is natural in children, and is often exhibited as soon as children learn to speak often exhibited as soon as children learn to speak

Expression and discussion of students’ ideas can be vehicles to deeper knowledge and understanding deeper knowledge and understanding

So-called “misconceptions” are better thought of as “improvable ideas” and basis for conceptual change rather than “mistakes.” ideas and basis for conceptual change rather than mistakes.

+ Senior Kindergarten: Leaves are falling down because it is Fall

Example

The season is Fall and the teacher suggests the children begin to look at trees

Example

It is a process that takes place over many weeks – a period of time that allows young children to note and observe each stage of children to note and observe each stage of the trees’ change

The children are observing related variables: temperature changing, rainfall, or the wind blowing stronger

And all of these changes are occurring right And all of these changes are occurring right outside the door of each child’s home and school -- an authentic and real situation that can foster the creation of ideas on natural phenomena

+ KB in Senior Kindergarten By experiencing the pattern observation-

discussion-experiment-discussion, children learn that all ideas are improvable and that each step that all ideas are improvable and that each step helps to refine theories and, at the same time, generate new questions.

The ideas offered by individuals become The ideas offered by individuals become deliberately “detached” from the student so that they are “owned” by the group as a whole, rather than an individual.

The continuous reference to the ideas of the group creates a psychologically safe environment for the students, where they feel free to express their ideas without immediately being labeled

Authoritative sourcestheir ideas without immediately being labeled “right” or “wrong”, and then work on those ideas to improve their quality, coherence, and utility

At a certain point of KB Discourse students begin At a certain point of KB Discourse, students begin to address high-level ideas, calling into question difficult concepts, such as oxygen or chlorophyll. At this stage, the use of authoritative sources can be introduced be introduced

+ Grade 1:Towards Knowledge Forum

In order to be improved, ideas need to be recorded, revised and synthesized. Knowledge Forum represents a perfect community workspace for this. p

KF can be used as soon as students start to read and write, notably during the Grade 1 year (6-7 years old)

Since the cognitive cost of writing and reading processes is very high, it is important to develop these processes in a context that is engaging and somehow “lived” by the studentssomehow lived by the students

Before discussing it on KF, the topic could be worked through and used in various contexts, explored and questioned, and connected with students’ p qintuitions, habits and their real world

In this way, writing and reading enter into the process of KB naturally, as a l i l ti ti f th k id logical continuation of the work on ideas

+ Introducing KF in grade 1

The teacher invites students to sit in a circle while she is

Example

The teacher invites students to sit in a circle, while she is projecting a blank Knowledge Forum view onto a big screen

The teacher explained that every child at the school has The teacher explained that every child at the school has such a space to preserve and improve his/her ideas

Together the teacher and children decide on the name of the new view (How leaves change color ?) KF view

Individual work: the teacher asks each student to tell his/her best theory that explained why leaves change color

The teacher types everything the child is saying into a KF note under the student’s name

The teacher asks clarifying questions, but does not push

The teacher pays particular attention to the titles of the notes

St d t f t i di ti ith th i id Students are free to go in any direction with their ideas

+ Introducing KF in grade 1g g

E l

With a gentle nudge from their teacher, the children start to devise experiments that would allow them to test their theories

Example

Experimentsallow them to test their theories

After experiments, observation, and KB Talks the teacher types the children’s improved theories into a “build on” notetheories into a build on note

When the children’s reading and writing skills get stronger, they start to work independently on the database on the database

The students are excited about this new adventure – their theories had their own right to exist in a community spaceexist in a community space

It is clear how excited the children are to read a “build on” note to their note. This motivates the children to practice their reading children to practice their reading.

+ Idea Progress in Grade 1:

November 10 November 27

December 17 January 18December 17 January 18

The interplay between work on and off the database is critical in helping the children engage in idea improvement

+ To conclude:

An interview with SK and grade 1 teachers from the Dr. Eric Jackman Institute of Child StudyJackman Institute of Child Study(Toronto, Canada)

(Movie to be incorporated, about 3min) – Hedieh is working on this:

How do you begin a Knowledge Building inquiry?

Questions

How can you stimulate a powerful Knowledge Building discourse with young students?

What are the main aspects of Knowledge Building pedagogy that need to be grasp in order to become a knowledge b ildi t h ? building teacher?