Knowledge building
The theory of knowledge building and theory of knowledge building describes a form of constructivist learning : The learner becomes an active part can be a "learning community" that generates a collective knowledge that each member is freely accessible and modified by this. The focus here is not on the individual learning, but on their contribution to the construction of "public knowledge". The theory emerged from the work of Marlene Scardamalia and Carl Bereiter (2006), from whom this concept is mainly used in the context of school education.
Assumptions
The authors understand the progress of knowledge as a central feature of a modern society and claim that a deeper understanding of the content to be acquired is only possible if children are already included in a culture of the knowledge society at school. This not only includes teaching them the skills that are necessary for the joint construction of knowledge, but also the message that they are an active part of a knowledge-creating society that works on common problems and develops new knowledge. Not only declarative knowledge about (knowledge about) a thing is one of them, but a deeper deductive intuitive and implicit understanding (knowledge of) of the things is this sought after Scardamalia and heaters. Ideas should not only be generated temporarily, but continuously improved in order to advance the process of knowledge construction. And this should be done collectively in the sense of knowledge building in a cooperative working group (e.g. school, university, ...). The focus is on understanding and not just bluntly working through questions and storing facts.
Scardamalia and Bereiter (2002) name twelve basic assumptions of knowledge building:
- Real Ideas and Authentic Problems: The classroom learning community deals with problems in the real world of students.
- Improvable Ideas: Students' ideas are seen as improvable "items".
- Idea diversity: The diversity of ideas in the classroom is necessary.
- Rise above: As ideas continue to improve, students move to higher and higher levels of knowledge and develop more and more advanced knowledge concepts.
- Epistemic agency: Students find their own way to progress.
- Community Knowledge, collective responsibility: The contribution of students to collective knowledge is the goal of Knowledge Building.
- Democratizing knowledge : Every individual is invited to support progress.
- Symmetric knowledge advancement : The goal of knowledge building is that individuals and organizations actively promote the mutual increase in knowledge.
- Pervasive Knowledge building : The students contribute to the collective knowledge building.
- Constructive uses of authoritative sources : All participating individuals, including the teacher, question themselves against the background of a natural process of understanding.
- Knowledge building discourse : All students take part in the discourse and share knowledge with one another in order to improve collective knowledge.
- Concurrent, embedded, and transformative assessment : Students take a global view of their understanding and then decide how and where to apply their assessments. They decide and test their views in many ways within the learning community.
Applications
Important components of knowledge building are on the one hand epistemic artifacts (theories, models, etc.) and on the other hand the communal discourse. They represent auxiliary constructions that can significantly advance the progress of knowledge. The constructive discourse differs from the - and often aimless - debates and arguments that are common in school classes in that it is committed to further developing the area of knowledge. A common understanding of the topic is sought, and further attempts should be made to expand the number of facts accepted by all sides in one area.
Knowledge building technology should make it easier to "use" information instead of just learning it in the traditional sense . Scardamalia and Bereiter (1999) characterize the pedagogy of knowledge building based on a few contrasts to conventional school and learning practice:
Problem focus versus topic focus
Knowledge building pedagogy is more dedicated to problem and solution-oriented learning. Problems can be recorded virtually as a note, which is also displayed in the following comments, so that the problem is always kept in focus and related questions are more easily accessible.
Production of knowledge objects versus media objects
In contrast to a ready-made knowledge object, knowledge forums offer notes (or compositions of notes and comments) that can be supplemented and questioned by various individuals in the learning community. These textual and graphic notes can be used in views, i.e. H. High-level visualizations working on a specific problem, are grouped together.
Contribution versus display
In contrast to the traditional query of knowledge or written work in the class, knowledge building pedagogy emphasizes individual contributions to the progress of a general knowledge discourse.
Theory Improvement versus Finding Answers
When children know that they have to find answers to questions, they tend to "learn" the answers given in school books. According to the Knowledge Building Theory, students should be encouraged to name the problem, express a guess (in the Knowledge Forum, these would be scaffolds , such as "My Theory"), and check them out. If the assumptions can be confirmed, the student also experiences success.
Sustained versus single pass knowledge
In contrast to free discussions in the classroom, the communication can be saved in the Knowledge Forum and is easily retrievable for later questions or for refreshment, and can be discussed and revised again. In fact, students are more likely to revert to old information and add new ideas.
Public versus person-to-person communication
In contrast to the conventional structure of conversation - face-to-face - the written communication in the Knowledge Forum is not explicitly addressed to anyone. This fact is the focus of knowledge formation in the sense of "To whom it may concern ...".
Opportunity for reflection versus one-second wait time
Teachers typically wait a second for a student to answer before calling someone else or answering the question themselves. In an asynchronous medium, students can take their time to formulate their response and are not inhibited by social or emotional barriers.
In summary, after a knowledge building pedagogy, the students themselves take responsibility for solving knowledge questions. The teacher is simply supposed to help the students grow into this responsibility.
Practical implications
In 1983 the authors developed the computer program CSILE (Computer Supported Intentional Learning Environments). This should break through the conservative information structures in the class system, in which the teacher represents the mouthpiece of all information, and enable a new form of cooperative work. Questions, criticism, assumptions and the like could be communicated through CSILE on a platform accessible to all. Instead of directing the flow of information through a moderator (the teacher), the students could now discuss a topic by email. This exchange resulted in a hypertext that represented the collective knowledge. In this computer system, Scardamalia provided so-called scaffolds or epistemic markers - such as "My theory is ...", "I want to understand ...", "New information" etc. This enabled the meta-discourses to be advanced and the exchange to be given a clearer line . The questions "How?" and why?" form the basis of a functioning knowledge building path according to Scardamalia and Bereiter. The successor program to CSILE - Knowledge Forum - follows the rules of Knowledge Building even more precisely. It offers a working platform for various "communities" (classrooms, service, health organizations, business, ...) to work with the socio-cognitive practices mentioned above, which are fundamental for knowledge- and innovation-building communities. This knowledge forum is subject to constant revision due to the further development of theories, experiences and newly emerging problems and questions. This is an expanding knowledge environment that supports knowledge creation at all educational levels, but can also be used in non-technical areas. In addition to threads for mutual exchange, the Knowledge Forum also serves as a database. Views and notes can be used to add short explanations, diagrams and maps that give the written information a visual structure. In the school context, of course, not only the Knowledge Forum should be used. The users read books and magazines, hold small group discussions or deal with the topic in class, experiments are carried out - every means should be used for a deeper learning process. However, the main work should take place in the Knowledge Forum - the state of knowledge is "materialized", takes shape and continues to develop in the community. Here the result of all offline activities appears through the common effort to build knowledge. Knowledge building in this format aims to achieve a "collective zone of proximal development". The task of research is to identify this potential and find ways to realize it.
The authors also report on successful applications of the premises and applications of knowledge building in the school context.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b M. Scardamalia, C. Bereiter: Knowledge building: Theory, pedagogy, and technology. In: K. Sawyer (Ed.): The Cambridge handbook of the learning sciences. Cambridge University Press, New York 2006, pp. 97-115.
- ^ M. Scardamalia: Collective Cognitive Responsibility for the Advancement of Knowledge. (PDF; 291 kB) In: B. Smith (Ed.): Liberal Education in a Knowledge Society. Open Court, Chicago 2002, pp. 67-98.
- ^ M. Scardamalia, C. Bereiter: Schools as knowledge-building organizations. In: D. Keating (Ed.): Developmental health and the wealth of nations: Social, biological, and educational dynamics. Guilford Press, New York 1999, pp. 274-289.
- ↑ Moskaliuk, J. (2011). Knowledge building in organizations. knowledge.blitz (46). [1]
- ↑ M. Scardamalia, C. Bereiter: Computer Support for Knowledge-Building Communities. In: The Journal of the Learning Sciences. (3) 1994, pp. 265-283.
- ↑ M. Scardamalia, C. Bereiter: Higher Levels of Agency for Children in Knowledge Building: A Challenge for the Design of New Knowledge Media. In: The Journal of the Learning Sciences. (1) 1991, pp. 37-68.
- ↑ Abstracts under Archived Copy ( Memento of the original from May 19, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
