The Knowledge Building Community Network Learning, titled ‘Bridging research and practice in Knowledge Building: Drawing insights from neuroscience and psychology research’ was held on the 15th of September, hosted by Center of Research in Pedagogy and Practice (CRPP/NIE). More than 50 teachers and researchers from Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Singapore came together for an afternoon of cross-community discussion of KB practice and an interactive talk on cognitive development and Knowledge Building.
This article is also posted on the NIE website.
KB stories from across the world
The session started with Ms Jiang Yu, a KB teacher from ShenZhen SongHe Primary School, sharing her KB science lesson titled ‘Sink or Float’ with her fifth-grade students. This is Ms Jiang’s first attempt in KB. She shared how she created opportunities for students to engage in ideas and questions that they were genuinely interested to explore. She used KF and the KB scaffolds to support her students in identifying promising research problems and to build knowledge on buoyancy, gravity and density. She highlighted how KB impacted her students and she observed them developing mindset of a scientist, one that constantly inquire and improve ideas.
Ms Jiang shared her Knowledge Building story where she promoted collective knowledge advancement in her 5th grade class.
KB and Art
Ms Catherine, a KB teacher from Teck Whye Secondary school shared her KB story titled ‘Enabling Student Agency in Art Education’. Catherine’s story offered insights of KB in Art. She described how her NT students took increasingly higher level of agency in art lessons as she adopted strategies guided by the Knowledge Building principles. She focused on (i) centrality of student voices and choices, (ii) culture of building on and (iii) culture of rising above which provided opportunities for students to generate and improve on their competencies in Art.
Catherine designed three activities, of which students first learn to respond to other’s work through online discussions.
Catherine started her students in replicating professional sculpture with complex design. This process of replication involved students studying the artist’s original work and students generating ideas about the artist’s thoughts (which was recorded on an online mapping too, Coggle). When students encountered problem in replicating the artist’s original work using clay, she promoted peer sharing and self-directed learning by getting them to help each other improve their replications. She observed immediate improvement in the clay model built by students. Students were collectively reflecting, discovering new possibilities, and improving their second attempt.
The second of three activities allow students to build on each other’s responses and ideas.
Guided by the knowledge building principles, Catherine allowed her students’ voices to be heard, encouraging them to continuously build on to each other and rise above.
The Psychology and Neuroscience of Knowledge Building
Nastassja shared how human brains develop across ages
Following this, Nastassja and Timothy, researchers from the Centre for Lifelong Learning and Individualized Cognition (CLIC), co-led the second half of KBCNL, to explore the micro-level measures of knowledge building competencies, what neuroscience says about the impact of KB on students. Nastassja shared on how the human brain develops from childhood to adulthood and she highlighted the importance of the learning environment and the needs of the individual, which can influence changes in the brain. A lively discussion with the participants ensued on KF regarding this topic.
Teachers were engaged on what brain development meant for teaching and learning using the ‘KB Metaspace 2021’ view on KF.
Timothy then continued the session to engage participants in exploring and understanding how students’ executive functions are used when students engage in KF and KB discussion. Timothy shared a video of students in a KB classroom who were asked to reflect on their discussion. He explained how the interactions can help the students exercise and develop cognitive flexibility. Timothy shared practical advice on how teachers could promote development of cognitive flexibility in students by using the KB scaffolds and analytics tools on KF to get students to appreciate the diverse forms of thinking and discussion that are possible. These strategies may encourage students to develop habits of mind. Timothy closed the session with a discussion on the inter-relatedness of the executive functions and KB practice, supported by the KB metaspace 2021.
Summary of how cognitive flexibility may be observed in the KB classroom and strategies for teachers.
Teachers continued supporting and discussing their understanding of executive functions and the impact on Knowledge Building practice.
We greatly encourage teachers to get on the ‘KB metaspace 2021’ and build their KB stories and explore KB practice! The ‘KB metaspace 2021’ is a community space on the Knowledge Forum designed to support teachers from different schools in cross-community sharing and reflection of KB practice for professional development.
If you are interested to join the KB metaspace and/or the next KBC Network Learning session, we encourage you to use the following link so that we can keep you updated!