What is Knowledge Building?
"One of the things I love about Knowledge Building is the way it gives students the opportunity to learn as a collective. Students aren't exposed to just one viewpoint on topics but instead see 10-15 different views each day and may stumble on questions they would have never asked on their own."
Adam Barnard - Teacher, Upper Grand District School Board
Knowledge Building is an invitation to be curious. Introduced by Marlene Scardamalia and Carl Bereiter, Knowledge Building infuses a culture of knowledge creation into formal education that they viewed as so common in the world beyond the classroom. They saw a disconnect between what knowledge creating organizations do with knowledge and ideas in their daily life and how schools operate. Knowledge Building is an attempt to bridge those two worlds.
Think for a moment about how learning works in most schools. The formal school model often places the teacher as the 'expert' in most things related to classroom learning. Student-generated ideas and questions often take a backseat during classroom instruction in favour of skills, tasks and knowledge acquisition as directed by the teacher and the curriculum. Instead, Scardamalia and Bereiter recognized that ideas and questions could be placed at the centre of a child's learning environment much like how innovation-driven organizations places questions, ideas and idea improvement at their centre. From there, students learn core curriculum knowledge as a natural outcome when working with knowledge and ideas. Furthermore, students develop skills that go beyond the curriculum such as creativity as they work with ideas, collaboration and communication when sharing knowledge and ideas, and critical thinking when working with and solving authentic problems.
Watch below as two teachers talk about the importance of student-driven curiosity that makes Knowledge Building work.
To aid in the transition toward an idea-centred classroom, Scardamalia and Bereiter created the 12 principles of Knowledge Building that form the foundation of how students can work with knowledge and ideas. By using the power of a community, students assume the cognitive leadership surrounding their questions and ideas that use productive social interaction as the means to deepen inquiry often reaching beyond the expectations laid out in the curriculum.
Those wishing to take a deeper dive on the foundations of Knowledge Building and the origins of the twelve principles of Knowledge Building can click here.
How Does Knowledge Building Work?
Knowledge Building works when a community of students use their curiosity to create knowledge and work with ideas with continual efforts to improve them. Ultimately, creating knowledge and improving ideas become the prized outcomes of working as a Knowledge Building community. Students are responsible for finding where their knowledge creations intersect with the creations of others with the explicit goal of building upon and improving knowledge for the benefit of all members of the community.
Watch science teacher Glenn Wagner describe how natural the process of Knowledge Building is and the argument for its inclusion in classroom practice.
Starting Knowledge Building in the Classroom
To help teachers implement Knowledge Building, the Four Actions for Knowledge Builders was developed for students and teachers to help apply the principles of Knowledge Building in a classroom-ready, accessible format.
Using these actions, students take charge at the highest levels for learning: creating goals, asking questions, generating knowledge around their questions, creating and improving ideas and monitoring their own progress around their goals.
This all takes place within a supportive, like-minded community - a Knowledge Building community- where students support each other academically and socially toward achieving their groups goals. The role of the teacher is transformed into one of guide, cheer-leader and co-learner to help students work with knowledge and ideas that really matter to them.