Reconciling Dewey's Inquiry With the Knowledge-Building Communities Approach: Nature, Experience, and the Nature of Knowing

• In Event: Democratic Conditions for Learning

Abstract

In this paper I attempt to reconcile Dewey’s Inquiry approach with Scardamalia & Bereiter’s Knowledge Building Communities (KBC) approach. This examination responds to a recent article by Scardamalia & Bereiter wherein they suggest there is a similarity between the KBC focus on ever-advancing knowledge and Dewey’s concept of experience. This exploration coincides with moves by researchers to explore both the application of the KBC approach to nature education and the development of tools to document student experience. The current state of this exploration leans toward the realization that Dewey’s concept of experience rises above the KBC approach given the broader plane on which Dewey’s epistemology manifests as compared to the KBC theory of knowledge growth.

Author

• Richard J. Reeve, Queen's University