Abstract
Teachers and students face many challenges in shifting from traditional classroom cultures to enacting the Knowledge-Building Communities model (KBC model) supported by the CSCL environment, Knowledge Forum (Bereiter, 2002; Bereiter & Scardamalia, 1993; Scardamalia, 2002; Scardamalia & Bereiter, 2006). Enacting the model involves socializing students into knowledge work, similar to disciplinary communities. A useful construct in the field of the Learning Sciences for understanding knowledge work is “epistemic games” (Collins & Ferguson, 1993; Morrison & Collins 1995; Perkins, 1997). We propose that a powerful means for supporting classroom enactments of the KBC model entails conceptualizing Knowledge Forum as a collective space for playing multi-player epistemic games. Participation in knowledge-building communities is then scaffolded through learning the moves of such games. We have designed scaffolding tools that highlight particular knowledge-building moves for practice and reflection as a means of supporting students and teachers in coming to understand how to collectively work together toward the progressive improvement of ideas. In order to examine our design theories in practice, we present research on Ideas First, a design-based research program involving enactments of the KBC model in Singaporean primary science classrooms (Bielaczyc & Ow, 2007, 2010; Ow & Bielaczyc, 2007; 2008).
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Notes
Refer to http://www.ikit.org
In past publications we have referred to this epistemic game as the “Progressive-Investigation Game.” Here we change to a name that conveys more clearly the key goal of the game --- the progressive improvement of ideas.
It should be noted that the Knowledge-Building Communities model and the name of its associated software, Knowledge Forum, have become quite synonymous in educational circles over the years. It is not uncommon for people to refer to classrooms that have adopted the model as “Knowledge Forum classrooms.”
Note that we did not speak of “interactions among the players themselves,” but instead of “interactions among the player’s contributions.” In KBC classrooms, just as in disciplinary communities, the players need not engage each other personally for their contributions to interact and lead to advances in the community’s knowledge. Of course, as in disciplinary communities, personal interactions and collaborations among students can also play a valuable role within the classroom community.
This Ministry of Education policy emphasizes curricular depth over breadth.
It should be noted that the Ideas First curriculum maintained the original curricular objectives. However, “coverage” was not achieved through a linear sequence of topic-by-topic alignment to curriculum guidelines, but rather a more interconnected approach. Lampert (1996) details such approaches to curriculum coverage.
Quote adapted from Bereiter (2002).
Students work on a common problem of understanding that is provided to the whole class in order to address curricular time constraints due to high-stakes testing. In Singapore, the school year comprises four 10-week terms. In this school there were 2–2.5 h of Science scheduled per week in Primary 3 and 4, and an exam period at the end of every term. There is also a national curriculum specifying science objectives to be covered in preparation for the Primary School Leaving Exam (PSLE), a national exam given at the end of Primary 6.
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Bielaczyc, K., Ow, J. Multi-player epistemic games: Guiding the enactment of classroom knowledge-building communities. Intern. J. Comput.-Support. Collab. Learn. 9, 33–62 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11412-013-9186-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11412-013-9186-z