Jan van Aalst

Student-Directed Assessment of Knowledge Building Using Electronic Portfolios

Despite emphasis and progress in developing collaborative inquiry in computer-supported collaborative learning research, little attention has been given to examining how collective learning can be assessed in computer-supported collaborative learning classrooms, and how students can have agency in assessing their own collaborative process. We propose that assessments should capture both individual and collective aspects of learning and be designed in ways that foster collaboration. We describe the design of student-directed electronic portfolio assessments to characterize and “scaffold” collaborative inquiry using Knowledge Forum™. Our design involved asking students to identify exemplary notes in the computer discourse depicting knowledge building episodes using four knowledge building principles as criteria. We report three studies that examined the designs and roles of knowledge building portfolios with graduate and Grade 12 students in Hong Kong and Canada. The findings suggest that knowledge building portfolios help to characterize collective knowledge advances and foster domain understanding. We discuss lessons learned regarding how knowledge building may be fostered and provide principles for designing assessments that can be used to evaluate and foster deep inquiry in asynchronous online discussion environments.

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.

Using Google Scholar to Estimate the Impact of Journal Articles in Education

This article discusses the potential of Google Scholar as an alternative or complement to the Web of Science and Scopus for measuring the impact of journal articles in education. Three handbooks on research in science education, language education, and educational technology were used to identify a sample of 112 accomplished scholars. Google Scholar, Web of Science, and Scopus citations for 401 journal articles published by these authors during the 5-year period from 2003 to 2007 were then analyzed. The findings illustrate the promise and pitfalls of using Google Scholar for characterizing the influence of research output, particularly in terms of differences between the three subfields in publication practices. A calibration of the growth of Google Scholar citations is also provided.

Rethinking the nature of online work in asynchronous learning networks

Research on asynchronous learning networks (ALNs) has indicated that there are problems with both the quantity and quality of online interactions that can undermine the aim of inquiry. The goal of this paper is to offer a new way of thinking about these problems in the context of knowledge building, a specific form of collaborative inquiry supported by an ALN. Drawing from interviews with teachers following two teacher education courses that introduced teachers to knowledge building, it is argued that we need to rethink the role and purpose of online work in ALNs-as building a communal learning resource. A framework for doing this is proposed in terms of three notions: collaboration, learning how to learn and idea improvement. The framework is expected to contribute to the literature on knowledge building by providing a new way to distinguish knowledge building from other forms of collaborative inquiry.

Promoting Knowledge Creation Discourse in an Asian Primary Five Classroom: Results from an Inquiry into Life Cycles.

The phrase ‘knowledge creation’ refers to the practices by which a community advances its collective knowledge. Experience with a model of knowledge creation could help students to learn about the nature of science. This research examined how much progress a teacher and 16 Primary Five (Grade 4) students in the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme could make towards the discourse needed for Bereiter and Scardamalia’s model of knowledge creation. The study consisted of two phases: a five‐month period focusing on the development of the classroom ethos and skills needed for this model (Phase 1), followed by a two‐month inquiry into life cycles (Phase 2). In Phase 1, we examined the classroom practices that are thought to support knowledge creation and the early experiences of the students with a web‐based inquiry environment, Knowledge Forum®. In Phase 2, we conducted a summative evaluation of the students’ work in Knowledge Forum in the light of the model. The data sources included classroom video recordings, artefacts of the in‐class work, the Knowledge Forum database, a science content test, questionnaires, and interviews. The findings indicate that the students made substantial progress towards the knowledge creation discourse, particularly regarding the social structure of this kind of discourse and, to a lesser extent, its idea‐centred nature. They also made acceptable advances in scientific knowledge and appeared to enjoy this way of learning. The study provides one of the first accounts in the literature of how a teacher new to the knowledge creation model enacted it in an Asian primary classroom.

Fixed Group and Opportunistic Collaboration in a CSCL Environment.

This study investigated synchronous discourses involving student collaboration in fixed groups during an introductory research methods course’s first 8-week phase, and opportunistic collaboration during its second 8-week phase. Twenty-seven Chinese undergraduates participated in online discourse on Knowledge Forum as part of the course. A multi-faceted analysis was performed to examine different aspects of collaboration – interaction patterns, knowledge characteristics distributed over inquiry, discourse patterns, and knowledge advances that emerged from discourse threads. The results show little variation in social interactions, but substantial differences in knowledge distribution between fixed groups. Groups that were productive in constructive discourse tended to generate higher-level questions and ideas. When engaged in opportunistic collaboration, the students were capable of engaging in a large range of interactions and of contributing higher-level questions and ideas; however, they were constrained by making little use of metacognition and having scattered interactions. Additionally, this study tested the relationship between online discourse and individual performance in the end-of-course assessment tasks. The results indicate that actively participating and contributing high-level ideas were positively correlated with students’ domain knowledge. The study’s implications for understanding online discourse dynamics within and across fixed groups and opportunistic collaboration in a computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environment are discussed.

Collaborative Inquiry and Knowledge Building in Networked Multimedia Environments

This chapter examines the role of networked multimedia environments in supporting and advancing new educational models that emphasize inquiry, collaboration, and knowledge building. We first examine changing theories and metaphors of learning and consider how designs of multimedia networked environments are influenced by these changing views. Following that, we examine three prominent research programs, Knowledge Integration, Collaborative Visualization, and Knowledge Building, all three examples advance evolving theories and 21st century learning goals and use design-based research in fostering innovations in complex classrooms. We propose that research and design of networked multimedia environments can enrich the theorizing of new models of learning and we discuss design research as a promising methodology for promoting educational innovations in classroom.

Teacher Development through Computer-Supported Knowledge Building: Experience from Hong Kong and Canadian Teachers.

In Hong Kong and Canada, indeed globally, slogans about learning to learn and teaching for 21st‐century knowledge and skills are common. However, there are few examples of how teacher education courses or programs are responding to these new demands. In this paper, we propose a framework for designing teacher education premised on the theoretical perspective of knowledge building. We describe two courses, a pre‐service teacher education in course Hong Kong teachers and a joint graduate course for Hong Kong and Canadian teachers. In both cases, participants engaged in knowledge‐building discourse mediated by a computer‐supported learning environment. We present the design and illustrate how the teachers were able to work as collaborative inquirers and knowledge creators in a knowledge‐building community. Implications of knowledge building for teacher development as related to socio‐cultural contexts are discussed.

Assessing and scaffolding knowledge building: Pedagogical knowledge building principles and electronic portfolios

This paper explores the design of knowledge building portfolios in assessing and scaffolding collaborative knowledge building. We sought (a) to examine how knowledge building portfolios can characterize and assess both individual and collective aspects of knowledge building; and (b) to investigate the roles of knowledge-building portfolios in fostering students’ conceptual understanding. The key design feature involves asking students to identify exemplary notes in the database illustrating collaborative knowledge building guided by four pedagogical knowledge building principles. We illustrate the design with results from two studies involving a graduate course in education and a Form 6 (Grade 12) course in physical geography. The results indicate that knowledge building portfolio scores are related to other knowledge building measures; and students producing knowledge building portfolios performed better than comparison students on conceptual understanding.

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.