Participation in Knowledge-Building Discourse - An Analysis of Online Discussions in Mainstream and Honours Social Studies Courses

Oct 15, 2026

Questions about the suitability of cognitively-oriented instructional approaches for students of different academic levels are frequently raised by teachers and researchers. This study examines student participation in knowledge-building discourse in two implementations of a short inquiry unit on environmental problems. Students from mainstream and honours tenth-grade social studies courses generated actions in Knowledge Forum®, including note counts and link percentages. A content analysis of collaborative discourse suggests moderate to strong evidence of knowledge building in Implementation 2 and offers guidance for making online work more directly focused on knowledge building.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages30

Reading Time1 h 16 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Knowledge building as a collaborative inquiry approach

Concerns about suitability across academic levels

Abstract

Study purpose and research design

Data sources and discourse analysis

Findings and recommendations

Niu Page 1 of 30 Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology / La revue canadienne de l’apprentissage et de la technologie, V35(1) Winter / hiver, 2009 Participation in Knowledge-Building Discourse: An Analysis of Online Discussions in Mainstream and Honours Social Studies Courses Hui Niu Jan van Aalst Authors Hui Niu is with the Canadian Council on Learning, Vancouver, BC. Correspondence regarding this article can be sent to: hniu@ccl-cca.ca Jan van Aalst is with the Faculty of Education, at The University of Hong Kong. Abstract Questions about the suitability of cognitively-oriented instructional approaches for students of different academic levels are frequently raised by teachers and researchers. This study examined student participation in knowledge-building discourse in two implementations of a short inquiry unit focusing on environmental problems. Participants in each implementation consisted of students taking a mainstream or an honours version of a tenth grade social studies course. We retrieved data about students’ actions in Knowledge Forum® (e.g. , the number of notes created and the percentage of notes with links), and conducted a content analysis of the discourse by each collaborative group. We suggest the findings provide cause for optimism about the use of knowledge-building discourse across academic levels: there was moderate to strong evidence of knowledge building in both classes by Implementation 2. We end with suggestions for focusing online work more directly on knowledge building. Résumé Les enseignants et les chercheurs soulèvent fréquemment des questions quant au caractère approprié des approches pédagogiques cognitives pour les élèves de différents niveaux scolaires. La présente étude a examiné la participation des étudiants à la coélaboration des connaissances lors de la formation, à deux reprises, d’une unité d’enquête de courte durée axée sur les problèmesenvironnementaux. Pour chacun des deux essais, les participants étaient des élèves qui suivaient un programme d’études de dixième année, soit général, soit spécialisé en sciences sociales. Nous avons récupéré des données sur les actions des élèves dans le Knowledge Forum (par exemple, le nombre de notes créées et [http://madlib.athabascau.ca/cjlt/index.php/cjlt/rt/printerFriendly/515/245](http://madlib.athabascau.ca/cjlt/index.php/cjlt/rt/printerFriendly/515/245) Niu Page 2 of 30 le pourcentage de notes avec des liens) et nous avons analysé le contenu du discours de chaque groupe de collaboration. Nous pensons que les résultats incitent à l’optimisme et qu’il est possible de parler de coélaboration des connaissances entre les niveaux scolaires : des données probantes moyennement rigoureuses ou rigoureuses montrant la coélaboration des connaissances ont été obtenues dans les deux classes lors du deuxième essai. Nous concluons avec des suggestions pour orienter plus directement les travaux en ligne sur la coélaboration de connaissances. Introduction In the last two decades there has been much interest in collaborative inquiry as an educational goal (National Research Council [NRC], 1996), and a number of technology-enhanced approaches to collaborative inquiry have emerged. Some examples are CoVis Collaboratory Notebook (Edelson, Pea, & Gomez, 1996), Learning by Design (Kolodner et al. , 2003), and Web-based Inquiry Science Environment (WISE; Linn & Hsi, 2000) . Knowledge building shares certain features with these approaches, including emphasis on collaboration, metacognition, distributed expertise, and use of computer-supported inquiry. As elaborated below in the section entitled “knowledge building,” its distinctiveness follows from the commitment to make processes of expertise and innovation prominent in school. In a class operating as a knowledge-building community, students are agents of their own learning, work toward goals of collective knowledge advances, and treat ideas

FAQs

What does the study investigate about knowledge-building discourse?

The study examines student participation in knowledge-building discourse using two implementations of a short environmental inquiry unit across different academic course levels.

How was student participation measured in Knowledge Forum®?

Data were retrieved about students’ actions, including the number of notes created and the percentage of notes with links.

What overall conclusion does the study reach about knowledge-building across academic levels?

Findings provide optimism: moderate to strong evidence of knowledge building was found in both classes by Implementation 2, and suggestions are provided to focus online work more directly on knowledge building.

Oct 15, 2026

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