The 2 nd Factor: Group leader structure

1. Trial 2: Electromagnetic Induction (EMI) Same group of 20 Form 6 students Trial 1: Electromagnetic induction (EMI) 20 Form 6 students Describe and explain teacher’squestion without using technical terms. Main task for this stage: Introduce an application of EMI Which appliance? Info. Students give comments to other groups Students present what they find about EMI Students re-answer the questions with appropriate phrases Task Ends Task Ends Promoting higher level of knowledge building outcome: design issuesBy Nancy Law, Allan Yuen, Johnny Yuen and Elaine Wonglcp@cite.hku.hkCentre for Information Technology in School and Teacher Education, University of Hong Kong The 1st factor: Nature of the task for KB It is generally known that open-ended enquiry tasks rather than close-ended ones are necessary for knowledge building. However, reflecting on the level of KB activities exhibited in different task designs over the past year, we found that there is more to task design than just openness and appeal to students. Tasks that can be accomplished by simply putting some information together would be far less productive than ones that will require real engagement with the ideas, demanding that contributions must link with concepts and ideas already held. Case Study: • The 2nd Factor: Group leader structure • In our previous experience in conducting KB activities, we found that group leaders play a substantial role in affecting the outcome of KB activities. There could be a variety of ways to organize groups: • Single group leader • Multiple group leaders • Group members take turns to be the leader • And different ways of preparing group leaders for their tasks and setting up expectations for their roles. • We still have not conducted systematic enquiry on this, but in one of our participating schools…… The 3rd Factor: Project Discussion vs. Theme Discussion Unstructured, thematic discussion Staged, guided discussion • freedom of exploration • teachers propose a topic and students decide aspects of that topic that they are interested to talk about • aspects of the topic are discussed simultaneously • both the breath and depth of discussion can occur at the same time • the in-depth investigation process • interconnected stages • outputs from earlier stages are the input of later stages • achieve certain stage at certain time The design of learning activities has been a major area of research in education. When the focus of education moves from learning to knowledge building, are there design factors that affect the depth of knowledge building that students could reach? Theoretically, the depth of engagement of the students and the kind of facilitation/scaffolding that teacher could provide are key factors. Could certain kinds of learning task facilitate deeper engagement? Does the structure of the discussion tasks or the time duration of the learning task matter? As students are generally working in groups, would particular group structures/organizations affect the ease with which student groups develop into autonomous knowledge building team? Do team leaders matter? Would team leaders with specific training/knowledge building experience contribute to deeper levels of knowledge building of the entire team? There were 14 students participating in the Peer Tutoring Project 2002:  And in subsequent KB activities, these students became group leaders:               ……… Results Under the 12 KB principles analysis, 5 groups scored 18 points or above (out of 36 points) according to a 4 point scoring scale. In 4 groups out of the 5 high scoring groups, their leaders were award-winners in the Peer Tutoring Project. These groups were characterized by outstanding performance in contributing real ideas and authentic problems, idea diversity, collective responsibility, democratizing knowledge and knowledge building discourse, under the 12 KB principles analysis. ATK analysis • Summary • some apparent differences in terms of idea interaction • - more exploration & relating of ideas in unstructured discussions • - more evaluation of ideas in guided staged discussions • Findings inconclusive, need further research References Brown, A. L. (1992). Design Experiments: Theoretical and Methodological Challenges in Creating Complex Interventions in Classroom Settings. The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 2(2), 141-178.   Scardamalia, M., & Bereiter, C. (1999). Schools as knowledge building organizations. In D. Keating & C. Hertzman (Eds.), Today’s children, tomorrow’s society: The developmental health and wealth of nations (pp. 274-289). New York: Guilford. Bielaczyc, K. (1997). Designing Social Infrastructure: The Challenge of Building Computer-Supported Learning Communities. Proceedings of the Computer Supported Collaborative Learning Conference, 1997.