Knowledge Building Principles

國

立 政 治 大 學

‧

N a tio na

l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y

these statements, Yang et al. suggested that the first three questions are related to analysis of community collective efforts while the last question is related to self-assessment on an individual’s ideas in KB. All four questions correspond to particular KBPs. For instance, the last question of KCA, “What is happening to my own notes” corresponds to the last KBP called concurrent, embedded, and transformative assessment.

2.3.8 Analytic Toolkit (ATK)

ATK is another KB tool that is designed separately from KF. Burtis (as cited in Yücel &

Usluel, 2016) explained that ATK was developed to record log data from individual participation and community interaction during the KB process. ATK has applied various indexes to run a comprehensive database analysis in recording required log data.

Both the KF and KB tools introduced above have a strong connection with knowledge building principles (KBPs). Scardamalia (2004) pointed out that KF is a web-based learning platform which is constructed based on KBPs. KB tools embedded in KF are developed from KBPs. Yang et al. (2012) highlighted question statements that show how KCA are concerned with particular KBPs. Thus, next section will introduce these KBPs in detail.

2.4 Knowledge Building Principles (KBPs)

Scardamalia and Bereiter (2010) summarized 12 KBPs that provide a powerful theoretical framework for this study. Chen and Hong (2016) organized these 12 KBPs into three categories, as shown in Figure 2-1. Each category contains four relevant KBPs. The first category is idea-related KBPs, where learners generate ideas according to these KBPs.

The second category is agent-related KBPs, where learners implement these KBPs to foster KB process. The third category is practice-related KBPs, where learners implement both idea-related and agent-related KBPs to the online and offline pedagogy environment. Table

‧

立 政 治 大 學

‧

N a tio na

l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y

17

2-3 provides a detailed description of each KBP based on these categories.

Figure 2-1 Three Categories of KBPs

Note. Adapted from “Schools as knowledge-building organizations: Thirty years of design research,” by B. Chen and H.-Y. Hong, 2016, Educational Psychologist, 51(2), p.272.

‧

Three Categories of KBPs with Description

Category KBP Description

Ideas

Real ideas,

authentic problems

Learners are able to generate concrete ideas that can solve authentic problems that rely on learners understanding the world they live in. In other words, learners need to realize real life problems and generate ideas for solving authentic problems.

Improvable ideas All ideas generated by learners are incomplete notions. Therefore, ideas are improvable when learners work collaboratively in the community.

Idea diversity In the KB process, learners need to pay attention to diverse ideas rather than merely relying on a single idea. Diverse ideas are fundamental to knowledge innovation through distinction and recombination with others’ ideas. Subsequently, learners are able to refine ideas after comparing and contrasting ideas with other members.

Rise above Learners need more comprehensive principles and higher-level formulation of problems to achieve creative KB goals. In other words, learners who work with complex and diverse problems can achieve a higher-level formulation of problems that assists them in moving beyond KB practice.

Agents

Epistemic agency Learners need to pay attention to both personal and collective responsibility for sustaining knowledge advancement. Learners provide their own personal ideas. Meanwhile, they also need to work with others’ ideas. Learners need to negotiate both their own and others’ ideas. Learners need to deal with the problems of goals, motivation, assessment, and systematic planning that are normally left to teachers.

Constructive uses of authoritative sources

To understand a discipline, learners should be aware of the authoritative sources that represent the

current state of knowledge and its frontiers. By respecting these sources, students should develop a critical stance toward them.

‧

KB discourse KB discourse among community members is mainly represented in the form of knowledge sharing. Knowledge itself is refined and transformed through an intellectual discourse among community members which considers community knowledge advancement as an explicit goal.

Concurrent, embedded, and transformative assessment

Assessment is a part of knowledge advancement. It is used to identify knowledge problems embedded in the school. Community members engaging in self-reflection assessments need to be more rigorous than they do with external assessment.

Practices

Community knowledge, collective responsibility

KB is emphasized in order to produce valuable ideas shared with others. Learners have to

contribute their ideas in achieving top-level goals of community. Furthermore, it brings learners

knowledge growth. As a part of a community, learners have to share the collective responsibility in generating ideas among the community.

Democratizing knowledge

All learners are legitimate contributors to the shared goals of community. Therefore, they share the honors when they achieve goals as a member of the community. There are no separations between innovator and non-innovator since all learners are empowered to engage in knowledge innovation.

Symmetric knowledge advancement

Expertise of learners is distributed within and between communities. Knowledge is not solely shared through having more expertise from multiple learners. However, it depends on the amount of participation of learners within and between communities. Distributed expertise of learners is highly valued when they collaboratively participate and exchange their ideas.

Pervasive KB All knowledge is integrated with creative ideas, all tasks and activities are remarked as an occasion of knowledge works. Hence, knowledge innovation extends outside of the school rather than being limited to a particular occasion.

Note. Adapted from “A Brief History of Knowledge Building,” by M. Scardamalia and C.

Bereiter, 2010, Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology, 36, p.9-11.

‧

立 政 治 大 學

‧

N a tio na

l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y

There are abundant research findings showing the effectiveness of pedagogical design and implementation based on KBPs. The three categories of learning outcomes in KB studies are presented in the next section.

2.5 Related Studies on Learning Outcomes