Collaborative knowledge building
as a foundation for
organising learning scenarios
Professor Barbara Wasson
University of Bergen, Norway
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
genetikk
Aims to investigate
how the pedagogical
design of an ICTmediated collaborative
learning environment
enables students to
talk science and how
this mediates learning
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
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
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
Progressive Inquiry Learning
(Muukkonen et al., 1999)
Operationalise the Theory
Progressive Inquiry Learning
operationalised
Collaborative knowledge
building scenario
operationalised
Categories in FLE2
Co-located /Distributed Setting
School B, Oslo
School A, Bergen
Didactic Design
• Topics
• Products
• Assignments
• Evaluation criteria
Didactic Design
• Topics (genetics & ethical aspects)
• Products
• Assignments
• Evaluation criteria
Didactic Design
• Topics (genetics & ethical aspects)
• Products (questions & texts in skoleavia, test)
• Assignments
• Evaluation criteria
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
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)
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
Activities
• Trigger video
• Focused writing
Context
• 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
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
Activities
• Trigger video
• Focused writing
• Brainstorming / generation of questions
• Choose science questions for further work
Problem
• Find & share
information
about Questions:
the science questions
Examples
of Scientific
• Compose texts about the scientific questions
What happens in a cloning process?
• Science test
In what way are cloned humans alike?
• Choose ethical questions for further work
Is genetically
food healthier?
• Find information
aboutmodified
the ethical
questions
• Compose texts
around
the ethical
Can we
genetically
modify allquestions
food?
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
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
Inquiry
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
Activities
• Trigger videoExamples of Ethical Questions:
• Focused writing
What risks with cloning can we accept?
• Brainstorming / generation of questions
Whatquestions
would the future
be like ifwork
everyone
• Choose science
for further
was perfect?
• Find & share information about the science questions
Is it ok that to know that one is carrying a
• Compose texts
about the scientific questions
gene that will result in a deadly illness?
• Science test
• Choose ethical questions for further work
• Find information about the ethical questions
• Compose texts around the ethical questions
Problem
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
Inquiry
Activities
• Trigger video
• Focused writing
Context
• Brainstorming / generation of questions
• Choose science questions for further work
Problem
• Find & share information about the science questions
Inquiry
• 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
Problem
Inquiry
Inquiry Set (basic categories)
–
–
–
–
Problem
My working theory
Reliable knowledge
Uncertain knowledge
– Comment
– Summary
– Process Comment
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Findings
• Scientific categories can help students to discuss what
kind of knowledge that’s relevant in a particular task or
problem. This meta-awareness could, over time, be part
of the development of the student’s 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 ICTtools as long as the tools and network function as they
should.
Findings
• Scientific categories can help students to discuss what
kind of knowledge that’s relevant in a particular task or
problem. This meta-awareness could, over time, be part
of the development of the student’s 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 ICTtools as long as the tools and network function as they
should.
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.