By: Julie Forman

Julie Forman comes from Aotearoa, New Zealand, and has taught for 20 years both there and internationally. She likes providing a hands-on, inquiry-based learning environment that passes on her passion for learning together and caring for the environment. She currently lives and teaches at an international school in Indonesia, with her husband and two children, and is exploring again her love of writing. She enjoys living in another culture, as well as the amazing wildlife and new experiences, in Indonesia, such as bathing elephants, trekking in the jungle and encountering orangutans in the wild.

Understanding collective knowledge building as effective learning

During a 3 month, online professional development opportunity exploring making learning visible (1), I learned how to move students beyond collaboration into collective knowledge building (2). I noted dramatic improvements in my students’ skills in communicating, socially interacting, reflecting on their learning and applying metacognitive thinking. Significant growth in their knowledge, and motivation towards deeper inquiry, was also clearly evident. This convinced me that collective knowledge building needs to become a part of any effective learning programme and the way to make this happen is by instigating a change in the culture of the classroom.

How is collective knowledge building different from collaboration?

Collaboration often involves a teacher-assigned group of students working together on a teacher-assigned task to achieve stipulated goals. The focus is task or goal completion, with the expectation that knowledge gain will result. The focus of collective knowledge building is quite different. It involves individuals engaging in ways that drive knowledge building with an emphasis on the creation of new knowledge (3). The process, as well as the kinds of learning generated, are important in collective knowledge building. Collaboration is a necessary part of collective knowledge building. However, collective knowledge building will not necessarily be the result of all collaboration.

Strategies for developing a culture of collective knowledge building

There were several strategies I identified as being key to helping me develop and maintain a culture of collective knowledge building. Over time, I saw these strategies work successfully with several different classes of young, 6-8 year old students:

1.    Set the right social and emotional learning tone so everyone feels safe.

●   Working collaboratively is all about social learning.

●   A shared class belief that everyone has something significant to contribute to the learning is essential.

●   Explicitly develop this tone through class discussions, reflections and practical activities.

●   Expect and encourage an evolving awareness that different learning styles, personality traits and individual skills, as well as knowledge, are important to building learning together.

●   Teach learners how to support and value group members who may not normally work best in a group, may not have as well developed social skills or may be more introverted.

●   Provide encouragement and extend students’ learning boundaries while allowing them to contribute in their own individual way.

 2.    Use questions more intentionally to encourage deep social and collaborative thinking, aid students in their wonderings and reflections, and increase knowledge building skills awareness.These are some examples:

●   “How does it feel when you are learning really well?”

●   “How does it feel to help someone else learn something new?”

●   “Who are the people you know you learn well with?”

●   “How do you know those people help you learn well?”

●   “What do people in a group do to help each other learn well?”

●   “What and who helped you build new learning in this activity?”

3.    From students’ responses, design a list of specific behaviours to guide students’ collaboration in different contexts. These are some examples:

●   We will listen respectfully to others ideas (look at the speaker, take turns speaking and listening).

●   We will include all group members (find ways for everyone to contribute, ask questions).

●   We will encourage different types of thinking (it’s okay to sit, watch and think before sharing ideas, it’s okay to be hands-on and quiet, it’s okay to like to talk).

●   We will share our knowledge and skills to help build everyone’s learning.

●   We will focus on learning together and stay open-minded to new ideas.

4.    Set up and use learning groups to explicitly practice knowledge building as often as possible.

●   Unlike ability or interest groups, learning groups are made up of students who learn well together.

●   Learning groups need to specifically focus on building learning together rather than simply task completion.

●   Experiment with different self-, teacher- and randomly chosen learning groups of different numbers (2-6 students). This allows students to work with a variety of personality types and group combinations to learn who they learn best with. This takes time and reflection but is an essential facet to taking learners beyond simple collaboration into collective knowledge building.

●   Set more open-ended tasks and activities that encourage students to use a variety of skills to contribute in different ways and take their thinking beyond obvious learning outcomes.

●   Value the new and unexpected learning tangents that individuals and groups go down, as these often lead to exceptional learning experiences and collective knowledge building.

5.    Observe students in a more purposeful, indepth way and more frequently. This is the most effective tool a teacher can use to build essential knowledge about their class.

●    ‘Sit back’ more, and be consciously less directive and more observant.

●   Watch students learn, taking note of specific behaviours, language and actions that promote collective learning, as well as the knowledge gained.

●   Be more intentional in sharing observations about learning with the class, e.g. “I noticed...How do you think that might have helped build the learning of the group?” This increases students’ awareness of the collective knowledge being built throughout the learning process.

●   Intentionally set up learning tasks where students are not reliant on teacher help so they can be observed and support one another to learn.

●   Note particularly the students who need more support with working collaboratively and implement effective ways to integrate them and bring out their best.

6.    Videotape students working in learning groups for the purpose of making the learning more visible.

●   Take short pieces of video (1-3 minutes) of different groups working, at different points in their collective learning process.

●   Use the videos for class self-reflection and learning about collaborative learning behaviors and skills, including body language, verbal prompts and actions.

●   Use the videos to identify and encourage effective learning; what it looks like and how it happens.

●   Use the videos to make comparisons (e.g. how the groups were chosen and group sizes) so students gain awareness of how and why they learn best when working with different individuals in learning groups.

7.    Reflect together with the class more often and more intentionally.

●   Reflection makes the learning journey more visible and understandable so is an essential part of collective knowledge building.

●   Discuss social aspects of how groups worked together, focusing especially on positive skills being used but also problem solving together as needed.

●   Discuss how the knowledge was built upon by different group members to build students’ awareness of what collective knowledge building can achieve.

●   Questions used during reflections are powerful tools to help students become more aware of who they learn best with and why.

●   Discuss the process but also the product (the learning) and the way the two work together.

These seven strategies enabled my students to become more than simply collaborative learners and I am confident they can do the same for other teachers. Students become excited to see themselves as valuable contributors to the collective learning of the class. They become increasingly accurate in identifying who they learn best with and more open-minded about working with a variety of different classmates. They become more aware of how new knowledge and understanding is built on and what this looks like in practical terms. They become eager to support one another and build knowledge together. When they are supported to develop a classroom culture in which collective knowledge building is valued, students can become not just knowledge gainers but knowledge creators, as they co-construct their learning journey together.

 References:

(1)  Making Learning Visible - Project Zero at the Harvard Graduate School of Education

(2)  Krechevsky, M. (2012): Changing our Skin: Creating Collective Knowledge in American Classrooms, The New Educator, 8:1, 12-37

(3)  Chen, B., & Hong, H.-Y. (2016). Schools as knowledge-building organizations: Thirty years of design research. Educational Psychologist, 51(2), 266-288