Infrastructures and Innovation Networks for Knowledge Building

Knowledge Building (KB) as a distinct educational approach engages students in producing and improving ideas to solve authentic problems. It is synonymous with knowledge creation that is discussed in organizational settings (Bereiter & Scardamalia, 2014). Similar to a team of knowledge workers, students work as a collective to produce something new and of interest to the collective. Designs –- both pedagogical and technological –- are put in place to empower students’ epistemic agency, so that they could focus on improving ideas (vs. performing tasks), collaborate with each other (vs. focus on individual performance), see the big picture of their work (vs. finish small tasks assigned to them), and make high-level decisions (vs. outsourcing the decisions to an adult). In essence, the way students approach knowledge is very much in line with that in a research team, even though students (and the teacher) also need to meet curricular goals defined by relevant educational regimes.

Students in KB classrooms face the same challenge as knowledge workers when they have put extensive effort in an area leading to a complex idea landscape. Students need a better infrastructure for knowledge building in their community.

At a minimum, the notion of infrastructure interweaves theoretical, pedagogical, and technological ideas in Knowledge Building together and (re)focus the discussion on each student’s relations with the infrastructure. It reveals different relations between humans and infrastructures (such as contributing to collective work and celebrating individual growths) to be looked at, instead of being looked through; it brings out the relations held by different human agents (students, teachers) with knowledge infrastructures for dialogues; it connects challenges that are often dealt with in silos (such as UI design, teacher PD, student assessment) so that they could be looked at together and advanced in tandem.

We are actively prototyping in the lab and conducting workshops with international collaborators to advance knowledge building infrastructures.

Penn Knowledge Building Innovation Network

With support from Penn Global, the Knowledge Building Innovation Network (KBIN) was launched in 2023 to connect members of knowledge building’s global community to continuously innovate on infrastructures for learning and knowledge building. Check out the KBIN project website for details.

Publications

  1. Chen, B. (2024). A framework for infrastructuring sustainable innovations in education. Journal of the Learning Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1080/10508406.2024.2320159
  2. Chen, B., Zhu, X., & Díaz del Castillo, F. (2023). Integrating generative AI in knowledge building. Computers & Education: Artificial Intelligence. https://doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/e9q2m
  3. Chen, B., Scardamalia, M., Bereiter, C., Zhang, J., Park, H., Teo, C. L., Yuan, G., Lee, A. V., Hod, Y., Kashi, S., Cohen, E., Oshima, J., Oshima, R., Kawakubo, A. J., Kayagi, T., Yamashita, S., Kumazawa, R., Lu, J., Chan, C. K., … Bielaczyc, K. (2023). Infrastructuring for knowledge building. In C. Damșa, M. Borge, E. Koh, & M. Worsley (Eds.), Proceedings of the 16th international conference on computer-supported collaborative learning—CSCL 2023 (pp. 327–336). International Society of the Learning Sciences.
  4. Kashi, S., Hod, Y., Lee, A. V. Y., Yuan, G., Cohen, E., Bielaczyc, K., Chen, B., & Zhang, J. (2023). Infrastructuring for Knowledge Building: Advancing a framework for sustained innovation. Qwerty - Open and Interdisciplinary Journal of Technology, Culture and Education, 18(1), Article 1. https://doi.org/10.30557/QW000068
  5. Chen, B. (2022, August 25). Toward A Framework of Infrastructuring for Sustainable Educational Innovations. https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/svf4r
  6. Chen, B. (2021). Knowledge Infrastructures: Initial Thoughts [Blog Post], https://bodong.ch/blog/2021-10-knowledge-infrastructures/
  7. Chen, B. (2017). Fostering scientific understanding and epistemic beliefs through judgments of promisingness. Educational Technology Research and Development, 65(2), 255–277. doi:10.1007/s11423-016-9467-0
  8. Chen, B., Resendes, M., Chai, C.S., & Hong, H.-Y. (2017). Two tales of time: Uncovering the significance of sequential patterns among contribution types in knowledge-building discourse. Interactive Learning Environments, 25(2), 162–175. doi:10.1080/10494820.2016.1276081
  9. Chen, B., & Zhang, J. (2016). Analytics for knowledge creation: Towards epistemic agency and design-mode thinking. Journal of Learning Analytics, 3(2), 139–163. doi:10.18608/jla.2016.32.7
  10. Chen, B., & Hong, H.-Y. (2016). Schools as knowledge-building organizations: Thirty years of design research. Educational Psychologist, 51(2), 266-288. doi:10.1080/00461520.2016.1175306
  11. Hong, H.-Y., Chen, B., & Chai, C. S. (2016). Exploring the development of college students’ epistemic views during their knowledge building activities. Computers & Education, 98, 1–13. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2016.03.005
  12. Ma, L., Matsuzawa, Y., Chen, B., & Scardamalia, M. (2016). Community knowledge, collective Responsibility: The emergence of rotating leadership in three knowledge building communities. In C. K. Looi, J. L. Polman, U. Cress, & P. Reimann. (Eds.), Transforming Learning, Empowering Learners: The International Conference of the Learning Sciences (ICLS) 2016, Volume 1 (pp. 615-622). Singapore: The International Society of the Learning Sciences.
  13. Chen, B., Scardamalia, M., & Bereiter, C. (2015). Advancing knowledge building discourse through judgments of promising ideas. International Journal of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning, 10(4), 345-366. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11412-015-9225-z
  14. Ma, L., Matsuzawa, Y., Chen, B., & Scardamalia, M. (2016). Community knowledge, collective Responsibility: The emergence of rotating leadership in three knowledge building communities. In C. K. Looi, J. L. Polman, U. Cress, & P. Reimann. (Eds.), Transforming Learning, Empowering Learners: The International Conference of the Learning Sciences (ICLS) 2016, Volume 1 (pp. 615-622). Singapore: The International Society of the Learning Sciences.
  15. Chen, B., Ma, L., Matsuzawa, Y., & Scardamalia, M. (2015). The development of productive vocabulary in knowledge building: A longitudinal study. In O. Lindwall, P. Hakkinen, T. Koschman, P. Tchounikine, & S. Ludvigsen. (Eds.), Exploring the Material Conditions of Learning: The Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) Conference 2015, Volume 1 (pp. 443-450). Gothenburg, Sweden: The International Society of the Learning Sciences.