Collaborative knowledge building as a foundation for organising learning scenarios

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Collaborative knowledge building as a foundation
for organising learning scenarios

• Professor Barbara Wasson
• University of Bergen, Norway

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DoCTA Project

• Funded by ITU Programme (Ministry of Education)
• University of Bergen InterMedia, Department of
  Information Science Media Studies Department
  of Applied Education
• University of Oslo InterMedia, Department of
  Teacher Education and School Development
  Institute for Educational Research
• 6 Senior researchers, 7 teachers
• More than 50 publications
• 15 Masters dissertations
• 3 Ph.D. students

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genetikk

• Aims to investigate how the pedagogical
  design of an ICT-mediated collaborative learning
  environment enables students to talk science and
  how this mediates learning

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genetikk

• Geographically distributed classes were engaged
  in collaborative knowledge building activities
  related to gene technology over a three week
  period
• Curriculum from natural science, religion
  ethics (KRL) and Norwegian (grade 10)
• Progressive Inquiry Learning (Muukkonen et al.,
  1999 ) new knowledge is not simply assimilated
  but jointly constructed through solving problems
  and building mutual understanding
• The design of the scenario was a collaborative
  effort between researchers and teachers from the
  schools

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genetikk

• Geographically distributed classes were engaged
  in collaborative knowledge building activities
  related to gene technology over a three week
  period
• Curriculum from natural science, religion
  ethics (KRL) and Norwegian (grade 10)
• Progressive Inquiry Learning (Muukkonen et al.,
  1999 ) new knowledge is not simply assimilated
  but jointly constructed through solving problems
  and building mutual understanding
• The design of the scenario was a collaborative
  effort between researchers and teachers from the
  schools

6
genetikk

• Geographically distributed classes were engaged
  in collaborative knowledge building activities
  related to gene technology over a three week
  period
• Curriculum from natural science, religion
  ethics (KRL) and Norwegian (grade 10)
• Progressive Inquiry Learning (Muukkonen et al.,
  1999 ) new knowledge is not simply assimilated
  but jointly constructed through solving problems
  and building mutual understanding
• The design of the scenario was a collaborative
  effort between researchers and teachers from the
  schools

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Progressive Inquiry Learning
(Muukkonen et al., 1999)
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Operationalise the Theory
Progressive Inquiry Learning
operationalised
Collaborative knowledge building scenario
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Co-located /Distributed Setting
School B, Oslo
School A, Bergen
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Didactic Design

• Topics
• Products
• Assignments
• Evaluation criteria

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Didactic Design

• Topics (genetics ethical aspects)
• Products
• Assignments
• Evaluation criteria

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Didactic Design

• Topics (genetics ethical aspects)
• Products (questions texts in skoleavia, test)
• Assignments
• Evaluation criteria

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Didactic Design

• Topics (genetics ethical aspects)
• Products (questions texts in skoleavia, test)
• Assignments (focused writing, choosing science
  ethical questions, inquiry, composing scientific
  explanations and texts on ethical questions)
• Evaluation criteria

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Didactic Design

• Topics (genetics ethical aspects)
• Products (questions texts in skoleavia, test)
• Assignments (focused writing, choosing science
  ethical questions, inquiry, composing scientific
  explanations and texts on ethical questions)
• Evaluation criteria (content form)

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Activities

• Trigger video
• Focused writing
• Brainstorming / generation of questions
• Choose science questions for further work
• Find share information about the science
  questions
• Compose texts about the scientific questions
• Science test
• Choose ethical questions for further work
• Find information about the ethical questions
• Compose texts around the ethical questions

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Activities

• Trigger video
• Focused writing
• Brainstorming / generation of questions
• Choose science questions for further work
• Find share information about the science
  questions
• Compose texts about the scientific questions
• Science test
• Choose ethical questions for further work
• Find information about the ethical questions
• Compose texts around the ethical questions

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Activities

• Trigger video
• Focused writing
• Brainstorming / generation of questions
• Choose science questions for further work
• Find share information about the science
  questions
• Compose texts about the scientific questions
• Science test
• Choose ethical questions for further work
• Find information about the ethical questions
• Compose texts around the ethical questions

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Activities

• Trigger video
• Focused writing
• Brainstorming / generation of questions
• Choose science questions for further work
• Find share information about the science
  questions
• Compose texts about the scientific questions
• Science test
• Choose ethical questions for further work
• Find information about the ethical questions
• Compose texts around the ethical questions

Examples of Scientific Questions What happens
in a cloning process? In what way are cloned
humans alike? Is genetically modified food
healthier? Can we genetically modify all food?
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Activities

• Trigger video
• Focused writing
• Brainstorming / generation of questions
• Choose science questions for further work
• Find share information about the science
  questions
• Compose texts about the scientific questions
• Science test
• Choose ethical questions for further work
• Find information about the ethical questions
• Compose texts around the ethical questions

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Activities

• Trigger video
• Focused writing
• Brainstorming / generation of questions
• Choose science questions for further work
• Find share information about the science
  questions
• Compose texts about the scientific questions
• Science test
• Choose ethical questions for further work
• Find information about the ethical questions
• Compose texts around the ethical questions

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Activities

• Trigger video
• Focused writing
• Brainstorming / generation of questions
• Choose science questions for further work
• Find share information about the science
  questions
• Compose texts about the scientific questions
• Science test
• Choose ethical questions for further work
• Find information about the ethical questions
• Compose texts around the ethical questions

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Activities

• Trigger video
• Focused writing
• Brainstorming / generation of questions
• Choose science questions for further work
• Find share information about the science
  questions
• Compose texts about the scientific questions
• Science test
• Choose ethical questions for further work
• Find information about the ethical questions
• Compose texts around the ethical questions

Examples of Ethical Questions What risks with
cloning can we accept? What would the future be
like if everyone was perfect? Is it ok that to
know that one is carrying a gene that will result
in a deadly illness?
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Activities

• Trigger video
• Focused writing
• Brainstorming / generation of questions
• Choose science questions for further work
• Find share information about the science
  questions
• Compose texts about the scientific questions
• Science test
• Choose ethical questions for further work
• Find information about the ethical questions
• Compose texts around the ethical questions

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Activities

• Trigger video
• Focused writing
• Brainstorming / generation of questions
• Choose science questions for further work
• Find share information about the science
  questions
• Compose texts about the scientific questions
• Science test
• Choose ethical questions for further work
• Find information about the ethical questions
• Compose texts around the ethical questions

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Inquiry Set (basic categories)

• Problem Comment
• My working theory Summary
• Reliable knowledge Process Comment
• Uncertain knowledge

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Major Finding

• Too few students use higher order skills as part
  of their learning activities. This confirms the
  findings reported in many international studies.
  Students and teachers have a tendency to place
  more importance on solving the task than on the
  domain concepts to be learned.
• Students need to employ higher order skills
  when dealing with knowledge building in complex
  and conceptually-oriented environments in order
  to go beyond fact finding. This is an important
  area for future research.

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Findings

• We find the same tendency as shown in the PISA
  study (Lie et al.) that students do not have good
  enough learning strategies. When meeting new
  ICT-supported learning situations, students need
  time and training in their integrated use before
  their learning strategies become effective.
• The teacher is extremely important in supporting,
  stimulating and motivating the students to
  integrate previous knowledge with the new
  knowledge they are learning through the genetikk
  tasks.

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Findings

• We find the same tendency as shown in the PISA
  study (Lie et al.) that students do not have good
  enough learning strategies. When meeting new
  ICT-supported learning situations, students need
  time and training in their integrated use before
  their learning strategies become effective.
• The teacher is extremely important in supporting,
  stimulating and motivating the students to
  integrate previous knowledge with the new
  knowledge they are learning through the genetikk
  tasks.

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Findings

• Prompting categories triggered some of the
  students to a more critical and analytic stance
  towards the learning resources and how they
  reason about ethical issues in the domain of gene
  technology.
• The students that engage themselves in the task
  at a deep level show evidence of the necessary
  skills needed to critically examine the
  relationship between information and the
  argumentation which is part of the problem
  solving process.

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Findings

• Prompting categories triggered some of the
  students to a more critical and analytic stance
  towards the learning resources and how they
  reason about ethical issues in the domain of gene
  technology.
• The students that engage themselves in the task
  at a deep level show evidence of the necessary
  skills needed to critically examine the
  relationship between information and the
  argumentation which is part of the problem
  solving process.

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Findings

• Scientific categories can help students to
  discuss what kind of knowledge thats relevant in
  a particular task or problem. This meta-awareness
  could, over time, be part of the development of
  the students higher order skills. This will
  depend on how these skills and knowledge are
  cultivated in the particular environment and in
  the knowledge domain.
• Students have little problem in the practical use
  of ICT-tools as long as the tools and network
  function as they should.

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Findings

• Scientific categories can help students to
  discuss what kind of knowledge thats relevant in
  a particular task or problem. This meta-awareness
  could, over time, be part of the development of
  the students higher order skills. This will
  depend on how these skills and knowledge are
  cultivated in the particular environment and in
  the knowledge domain.
• Students have little problem in the practical use
  of ICT-tools as long as the tools and network
  function as they should.

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References

• Muukkonen, H., Hakkarainen, K., Lakkala, M.
  (1999). Collaborative Technology for Facilitating
  Progressive Inquiry Future Learning Environment
  Tools. In Hoadley, C Roschelle, J. (Eds.)
  Proceedings for Computer Support for
  Collaborative Learning. Designing New Media for a
  New Millenium. Stanford University.