Knowledge Building

Much of our second class was spend discussing the article "Knowledge Building: Theory, Pedagogy and Technology" by Scardamalia and Bereiter. This chapter suggests that the dominant form of pedagogy in the past was instructionism, in which the teacher transmits information to the students. This was replaced in the twentieth century by "action learning", in which students are led to explore topics of their own choosing in order to generate understandings. Now, they argue, a second massive shift is taking place. The rapid growth of knowledge in our ever-changing society requires that schools position students as "knowledge creators" or "knowledge builders".

One of the key ideas supporting the notion of "knowledge builders" is the distinction the authors make between knowledge about a topic, and knowledge of a topic. A student who knows a lot about bears, for example, has a knowledge of them. He or she would probably do well on a test, and may have spent a lot of time with a textbook. A student with knowledge "of" bears has probably been led to that understanding through a problem-based approach. They understand that there is more to discover, and they are able to apply their understanding to an authentic problem, such as how humankind might mitigate the effect of urban growth on bear habitats.

This led me to consider my own small corner of the teaching world as an IB English teacher. Am I leading students to have "knowledge of" English, or "knowledge about"? Our classes spend very little time on information about texts. There is just enough to allow us to place the text within an historical context. Most of the time is spent working on the interpretation of texts, and here the teacher is placed with the students as a co-discoverer of meaning. Students and teacher all understand that they are creating knowledge of that text together, and that different classes with different students will achieve different outcomes. Students who finish the program are generally quite well positioned to participate in knowledge building around literature. I think that we are in the "of" category.

But is this activity merely cultural transmission? There is an element of that to be sure. The 14 or 15 texts in the two year program are selected from countries around the world, from a variety of languages and from different genres, including, just recently, new literacies such as the graphic novel and even fan fiction. Does studying the texts lead to any measurable benefit? It does lead to more accomplished written and oral expression - we test for that. And it does equip students with the ability to interpret texts and, hopefully, because this is not tested, enjoy and appreciate them in the future. Stepping out of the program to question its validity is a challenge, however, since the people asking the questions are teachers themselves, and they enjoy nothing more than a quiet afternoon with a good novel.