Reflective Analysis on Knowledge-Building Community: Case of a Graduate Course

This study focused on investigating design issues associated with establishing a classroom-based Knowledge-Building Community. Three design issues for establishing a KBC were investigated: (1) How to coordinate the efforts of individuals effectively in building collective knowledge, (2) How to support self-directed, knowledge-creation processes of individuals, (3) How to facilitate students` ownership of a Knowledge-Building Community. An instructional team designed a graduate course, Alternate Views of Teaching and Learning (Altviews), to foster a Classroom-Based Knowledge-Building Community toward studying alternative methods of teaching and learning. Instructional activities (interventions) for making effective distribution of individuals efforts, facilitating self-directed learning, and promoting the ownership of the KBC were embedded into the Altviews course. The course had three main phases: the Guided Reading Phase, the Sort and Sequence Phase, and the On-line Research Group Phase. The course was supported by Construe, a type of groupware, and Web Board conferencing software. The purpose of this article is to provide instructional designers with insights or guidelines for designing a Knowledge-Building Community in classroom settings by describing the graduate course designed with Knowledge-Building Community approach and reflecting on the course in terms of fostering a Knowledge-Building Community. In this article, the design featuresof the Altviews course, reflection on the Altivews course and emerging issues in building a Knowledge-Building Community were described. Also, implications for the design of Knowledge-Building Community were suggested.