Students' Voice: Reflections on KB Symposium 2018

Zachery

“I think that Knowledge Forum is not just a platform where we use for history and music only. It is a perfect platform where it can be used in many subjects. For example, Literature. I am amazed at how Knowledge Building can help us grow in Literature by building on each other ideas and understanding of certain phases or character analysis. Personally, I hope to see Knowledge Forum and Knowledge Building in polytechnics and working place. For example, this is a good opportunity for adults to discuss, build on and improve on their ideas. This wil help the project to become better and stronger.

 I have been to 2 KB symposium. Everytime I attend, I learnt and shared new things. For example, this year we used the idea of nature to relate to our presentation. Nature always represent growth and nature also means authentic. We come to this idea after building and sharing knowledge with each other. We hoped to share to the audience that Knowledge building in a classroom is something refreshing, just like how nature works.

 I think that the entire experience was incredible. It is very different to present in front of so many teachers from so many different schools. But I think we done well in terms of project our voice and responses to questions from the audience. I think this is because of our Knowledge Building lessons makes us always ready to think and respond in a deep and fast manner. “

Syafiqah

“The symposium was quite foreign and new experience for me. I have never presented in front to so many people. This sharing helps me to become even more confident. I was actually amazed at how my friends and myself are able to response to the questions from the audience swiftly. I feel that I am thankful we are the only students who shared so in depth throughout the symposium. Our sharing is not just about our experience but also our thoughts on why Mr Melvin Chan designed the Knowledge Building lessons in this format. This gives us a voice. I was actually happy that we have this chance to share our thoughts and ideas.

This symposium shows to me that Knowledge Building really builds a classroom that is student lead and not teacher lead. Besides our school, other schools’ sharing also show that. I hope that other schools can used this too. Students actually get to learn more and also learn from each other. My personal experience in Teck Whye Secondary School History lessons shows to me that there will always be friends who can clear my wrong understanding in Knowledge Forum and entries that we can take reference from. I think this is what a classroom should look like. “

Marsya

“This was my first time participating in a Knowledge Forum Symposium. I realised that this symposium was for everyone, not just teachers but also students. This symposium shows to me that knowledge is best created when we work together as a group or even better, as a class. I love the part where other teachers are amazed at Teck Whye Secondary School Knowledge Building lessons, especially when we share our thoughts and Mr Melvin Chan shared the framework and process of creating Knowledge Building classrooms. I look forward to us sharing more next year with new ideas and improvise current ideas.

I would describe Knowledge Building and Knowledge Forum as a lifesaver. Besides saving us from less exciting lessons, Knowledge building trains us to be ready for the future. We learn how to work together by sharing information, asking questions and giving diverse ideas. We also learn how to think and reflect. These are the lifesaving skills that we need in the future.”

Kishen

“I was particularly encouraged when a few teachers complimented us for the symposium. Some of the compliments include: All of you are so confident, Going through 9 months is so tough and yet all of you persevere and emerge stronger in your knowledge of History, Music and Citizenship, and Great job! Love to see how you shared your views and thoughts of how KB can be applied in the future.

I would love to connect with the international schools, just like how we connected with the Canadian schools next year. I think that this is what Knowledge Building is all about. Working with more international schools will help us learn more about other culture and maybe this can help us create a better solution as a world.

For my juniors, I would recommend all of you to join this symposium as presenter. It will increase your confidence as a student. It will also make you proud to be a Teck Whye student where other teachers are learning from us.”

Knowledge Building and Its Impact on Motivation

How does knowledge building environment impact lower achievers’ motivation to engage in learning of science?

Abstract

Motivation is defined as an inner psychological process that provides direction and vigour for one’s behaviour (Reeve, 1996). When relatedness, optimal challenges and autonomy are met, motivation to learn is enhanced. Motivation is key in supporting self-directed learning by enhancing student’s initiation of self-regulated and deep-level learning strategies in the face of challenge. Motivation is especially important for lower achievers who generally have low efficacy in learning. In this blog post, principle-based Knowledge Building (KB) practice in a computer-supported-collaborative-learning environment is adopted in an effort to motivate lower achievers in science lesson. We focus on translating two KB principles, i.e. real ideas, authentic problems and idea diversity (Scardamalia, 2002) in designing the classroom. 

---

Understanding how learning happens is essential for understanding the kind of learning environment that motivates students to achieve positive learning outcomes. Learning is an active process where learners assimilate information and relate new knowledge to their prior knowledge. It requires learners to actively synthesize information rather than simply memorize and regurgitate it. Learners benefit when exposed to diverse viewpoints from people with varied backgrounds and most importantly, learning flourishes in a social environment. We put together a model of KB Design (Figure below) to explain the components that should be considered in a knowledge building classroom and the dimension of motivations that it would impact. 

Underpinning principles for design: In this case, we adopted two KB principles (real ideas and authentic problems and idea diversity) which translate to characteristics of learning tasks and activities, namely autonomy, optimal challenges and relatedness. For example, in determining the trigger activity, the phenomenon selected is not meant to define the problem to be solved but more so for students to have a chance to exercise their autonomy by working through diverse ideas.

Collaboration has been shown to be beneficial for motivation and learning under numerous circumstances (e.g. Deutsch & Krauss, 1960). At its best, collaborative learning combines the many advantages of individual and social processes, which can contribute to group members’ engagement and motivation, ultimately resulting in better performance (Jones & Isroff, 2005). In low achievers, we look at how each principle of KB chosen can help them in achieving the outcome of motivation through supporting key features of a KB classroom such as autonomy, optimal challenges and relatedness. This increased motivation is due to the students modulating their self-efficacy and orienting their goals towards mastery goals. The increased motivation is evident with reference to the survey results which showed students enjoyed participating in a collaborative effort to construct knowledge online as well as the postings which showed students wanting to find out more and wanting to bridge their learning gaps.

There is a need to consider how to intrinsically motivate the students in developing soft skills like inventive thinking which will pull the learners through in the long run. Advocating for the Knowledge Building is important but it must be done at multi-levels in the future which include policy-makers and school leaders.

It will be good if there are pre and post-test on the inquiry topic in the next action research to be undertaken to elicit and measure the idea improvement and change in motivation level through a Knowledge Building exercise in lower achieving students.