Cultivating a Community of Learners in K–12 Classrooms

Bielaczyc, Katerine; Kapur, Manu; Collins, Allan

doi:10.4324/9780203837290.ch13

Cited by 15 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 0 publications

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“…A core characteristic of a learning community is the diversity of expertise among its members, who are valued for their contributions and are given support for personal growth and development (Bielaczyc, Kapur, and Collins 2013). The culture of a learning community encourages all participants to express their unique voices, as they bring their personal background and heritage into the discussion.…”

Section: Breaking the Boundaries Between Learners (The Pedagogical Pementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Technology-enhanced resources and activities should be developed to assist learners in deepening their understanding of the ideas within each of several disciplinary domains and for comparing and connecting ideas between the disciplines (Boix-Mansilla 2010). Breaking Boundaries between Learners: The design should promote a learning culture in which learners are motivated to develop their personal voice, form an opinion, feel comfortable to express ideas, respect other ways of thinking, negotiate ideas freely with learners at all levels of expertise and appreciate the potential of collaborative learning to enhance their own understanding (Bielaczyc, Kapur, and Collins 2013). Breaking Boundaries between Organisational Levels of Hierarchy: The design should support productive technology-enhanced interactions between learners at different levels of expertise; specifically, it should make visible and model expert thinking for novices, while coaching them as they gain higher levels of understanding (Collins 2006).…”

Section: Implications For Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Several types of such collaborative knowledge-building activities (Bielaczyc, Kapur, and Collins 2013) were designed for the LINKS courses. For instance, one type of activity in the graduate level course utilised a pre-designed Google Docs file, which was simultaneously edited by all students in class, in order to answer the Theme Lens questions collaboratively (based on a previous activity in which disciplinary resources were discussed online in the community).…”

Section: Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…(1) From the curricular perspective, the model seeks to address the compartmentalisation challenge by technology-enhanced features, designed to promote interdisciplinary understanding and focusing on a cross-cutting theme to help learners integrate knowledge from several disciplinary lenses; (2) From the pedagogical perspective, the model seeks to address the traditional pedagogy challenge by adopting a learning community approach (Bielaczyc, Kapur, and Collins 2013), in which a technological infrastructure is used for promoting a learning culture that enables participants to synthesise different views, solve problems and collaboratively advance knowledge using the wealth and diversity of ideas that community members contribute; (3) From the organisational perspective, the model seeks to address the organisational hierarchy challenge by breaking the traditional boundaries between graduate and undergraduate students, while using technology-enhanced features that implement a cognitive apprenticeship approach (Collins 2006) to promote productive interactions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Boundary breaking for interdisciplinary learning

Kidron

Kali

2015

Research in Learning Technology

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The purpose of this work is to contribute to the body of knowledge on processes by which students develop interdisciplinary understanding of contents, as well as to suggest technology-enhanced means for supporting them in these processes in the context of higher education. In doing so, we suggest a rethinking of three traditional practices that tend to characterise typical higher education instruction:(1) compartmentalisation of disciplines; (2) traditional pedagogy; and (3) traditional hierarchies based on levels of expertise. Our high-level conjecture was that meaningful dialogue with peers and experts supports both the deepening of ideas in one knowledge domain and the formation of connections between ideas from several domains, both of which are required for the development of interdisciplinary understanding. We developed the Boundary Breaking for Interdisciplinary Learning (BBIL) model, which harnesses technology to break boundaries between disciplines, learners and organisational levels of hierarchy. Findings indicate that 36 undergraduate students who participated in an interdisciplinary online course that implemented the BBIL model have significantly improved their interdisciplinary understanding of the course contents. This study illustrates how innovative use of available, free and low-cost technology can produce a 'positive disruption' in higher education instruction.Keywords: interdisciplinary learning; interdisciplinary understanding; learning community; cognitive apprenticeship; technology-enhanced learning; instructional design; higher education; online education Introduction The 21st century and the 'knowledge revolution' pose challenges that demand different ways of thinking and the development of new skills. One of the critical skills is the ability to think and integrate knowledge across disciplines and to understand the relations between fields of knowledge (Frodeman 2010). Developing such an interdisciplinary understanding requires a learning process through which learners integrate insights and modes of thinking from a number of disciplines to advance their understanding of a topic which is beyond the scope of a single discipline. Boix-Mansilla (2010) refers to such a learning process as interdisciplinary learning. But when we turn to higher education institutions, as key players in preparing young people to cope with the challenges that this century poses, we find that although there are theories and pedagogical approaches that have the potential to promote interdisciplinary learning, it seems that current academic organisational structures are typically geared towards instruction that compartmentalises disciplines, instead of providing students with the *Corresponding author. Email: adi.kidron@edtech.haifa.ac.il Responsible Editor: Carlo Perrotta, University of Leeds, United Kingdom. (page number not for citation purpose) tools for integrating knowledge (Salomon 1991). In fact, it is argued (e.g. by Christensen et al. 2011) that colleges and universities are in the midst of a complex cri...

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Section: Breaking the Boundaries Between Learners (The Pedagogical Pementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Implications For Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Boundary breaking for interdisciplinary learning

Kidron

Kali

2015

Research in Learning Technology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…It is not necessary that each member assimilate everything that the community knows, but each should know who within the community has relevant expertise to address any problem." 19 Can a learning community of librarians, publishers, and others in the information supply chain who face digital content challenges together be forged?…”

Section: Serials -18(2) July 2005mentioning

confidence: 99%