Exploring the Knowledge-Building Process and Its Relation to Epistemic and Conceptual Understanding

• In Event: 16.059 - Poster Session 2
  In Poster Session: 16.059-4 - Student and Teacher Views on Learning Environments

Abstract

This study examines the role of a computer-supported knowledge-building environment in fostering students’ scientific and epistemic inquiry. Specifically, we characterized students’ epistemic inquiry on Knowledge Forum and their relationships with epistemic and conceptual understanding, and examined how knowledge-building experience supported their scientific epistemologies. The design involved asking students to work as a community of scientists and mirroring their knowledge-building process with their views of science. Participants were 102 fifth-grade students in four Hong Kong classrooms. Quantitative analysis showed that knowledge-building group outperformed comparison groups on epistemic and conceptual understanding; analysis of discourse showed that students’ epistemic cognition, forum engagement and reflection contributed to conceptual understanding. Qualitative analyses showed how progressive inquiry and theory building scaffolded their epistemologies of science.

Authors

• Feng Lin, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• Carol K. Chan, University of Hong Kong

• Jan van Aalst, The University of Hong Kong