Knowledge Building
The project takes its inspiration from the knowledge-building theory and practice of Marlene Scardamalia and Carl Bereiter at the Institute for Knowledge Innovation (IKIT), Toronto University (www.ikit.org). Their approach seems to us to incorporate the best practice of ‘pupils doing science’ – experimenting and collaboratively building knowledge which is new to the students and, at times, new to the wider community.
The IKIT schema has the advantage of sophisticated knowledgeware – Knowledge Forum (KF) – which is used collaboratively both by learners and teachers to record and illustrate knowledge building in process, as a group of learners moves toward a consensual solution to problems they themselves have formulated (in areas for investigation chosen by the class teacher).
Knowledge Forum supports learning in the essentially scientific process of recording observations, forming hypotheses, making a visible record of their theoretical explanations of phenomena, assembling evidence for or against the initial hypotheses, and arriving at knowledge which is, in some sense, new.
The IKIT schema has the advantage of sophisticated knowledgeware – Knowledge Forum (KF) – which is used collaboratively both by learners and teachers to record and illustrate knowledge building in process, as a group of learners moves toward a consensual solution to problems they themselves have formulated (in areas for investigation chosen by the class teacher).
Knowledge Forum supports learning in the essentially scientific process of recording observations, forming hypotheses, making a visible record of their theoretical explanations of phenomena, assembling evidence for or against the initial hypotheses, and arriving at knowledge which is, in some sense, new.