On the 30th of January 2020, Haig Girls Primary school hosted the Knowledge Building Project Lead Network which brought 14 principals and teachers from different schools together. The session sought to bring them up to date on the ongoing analyses in projects and the future plans that researchers from the Office of Education Research at the National Institute of Education are involved in.

With the current changes in our education system, such as the gradual removal of mid-year examinations and full-school subject-based banding, there is a need for differentiated instructions as the gap between the academically strong and weak students may be accentuated and the former having to bear the responsibility of helping out their weaker peers. Dr. Teo Chew Lee emphasised the role of Knowledge Building (KB) in helping to close this gap, by ensuring that all groups of students feel valued. She emphasised that regardless of their abilities, KB can support both groups of students to reach out and advance knowledge, since this action is driven by students’ interests.

Furthermore, KB principles would promote the development of 21st century skills to help students develop more holistically as autonomous learners and thinkers. The development of both hard and soft skills, through the use of KB, would allow these students to thrive in an emergent knowledge society, such as Singapore.

Outline of Activities

Assessing Deep Learning: Analysing Theory Improvement in KB classrooms

Dr. Aloysius Ong shared his latest analyses on the indicators of idea-improvement in Singapore’s KB classrooms. The data were based on students’ notes on the Knowledge Forum, an educational software that is used in Knowledge Building communities to share and build on ideas, where the quality of build-on threads (i.e. a cluster of notes) and the quality of the individual note (based on the approach taken towards the problem) were analysed.

Dr. Ong explaining his analyses of theory improvement in a KB classroom

Designing an Impactful Knowledge Building Classroom

Dr. Ong then went on to discuss how the Curriculum-Idea-Learning Analytics (CiA) supported teachers in designing and reflecting on lessons and in designing and enacting the interactions to make them more idea-centric. Aloysius explained that the CiA can be used to create a Word Cloud to compare words used by students in their posts on the Knowledge Forum with keywords extracted from the curriculum. Teachers could then select keywords that students have not used and incorporate them into their lesson design to better promote students’ understanding of the topic. The CiA could also allow the teacher to select specific words and pick up notes written by students to identify promising ideas and link them to broader topics that students can visualise as part of a bigger picture of how topics can be intertwined.

Uncovering the Interactions in Classrooms that Support Deep Learning Mediated by Learning Analytics

Ms. Wong Hau Shian then shared her exploration into the interactions in two KB classrooms using Learning Analytics. She had analysed video recordings from a Primary and Secondary school classroom over two months to compare the interactions among students and teachers across time. Her analysis revealed that primary school teachers took on a higher role of cognitive responsibility whereas secondary school students were given more autonomy in the learning process.

Ms. Wong explaining her analyses on the interactions within a KB classroom

A more in-depth analysis of the data collected from the primary school and secondary school revealed that they showed similarities in the usage of KF across all modes of engagement that was most dominantly used for discussions (specifically teacher talk, student classwork and whole-class activities). Furthermore, KF was used extensively at a class level with students interacting among themselves on the online platform by building on and commenting on their peers’ posts.

The schools, however, differed in terms of the interaction between modes of engagement and KF utilisation. On one hand, when using KF, student classwork accounted for about half the student classwork compared to teacher talk and whole-class activities. On the other hand, teacher talk dominated as the mode of engagement when KF was not in use. Regardless of KF usage, teacher talk remains the main mode of engagement compared to student classwork and whole-class activities. When comparing results from primary and secondary school settings, findings indicate that secondary school students were given more autonomy to work on their own with lesser interventions from the teacher over time while teachers in primary schools generally maintained control over class activities.

Therefore, when students were given the opportunity to utilise KF, they were given greater responsibility and autonomy for higher-level thinking. Students took the chance to participate more readily in class discussions and make their own thinking visible through written and type-written artifacts. This process of theory improvement gave students more responsibilities for their learning and closely aligns with the Singapore Teaching Practices and by extension, the building of the 21st century competencies and skills.

Future Research

Before ending the session, Dr. Teo Chew Lee briefly touched on the future research projects that the team will embark on, specifically the research project aimed at uncovering the process and outcome of computer-supported-collaborative learning using multimodal learning analytics. Multimodal research is considered one of the ways that can surface concrete evidence and challenge some of the current beliefs. This would involve using different methods, such as neuroscience methodologies and socio-emotional measures, to better understand how KB can improve the learning process not limited to a behavioural level but also at a neuronal level.

In conclusion, this sharing session provided an exciting and engaging space for the exchange of ideas and knowledge between practitioners and researchers by bringing together the KB community to facilitate a deeper understanding of the KB practices as a means for transformative learning. This session had not only re-energised both teachers who practiced KB, but also kindled interest in the principals to venture into future KB research so as to advance the collective knowledge and push the boundaries of our education system.