The concept of knowledge building was pioneered by Scardamalia and Bereiter ⁽¹⁾ and can be defined as “the production and continual improvement of ideas of value to a community”. It incorporates the principles of collaborative intelligence as it is fundamentally collaborative in nature, encourages ‘standing on the shoulder of giants’ as well as incorporates peer to peer feedback as a critical tool for building on ideas and knowledge. 

The goal of knowledge building is the creation of new knowledge for the participants and moves motivation for learning to a more intrinsic focus. In the words of Chen “Knowledge Building students learn for their own sake but also to contribute to the knowledge of the community...  information cannot be only shared at the end of the unit such as is often done in Project-Based Learning but instead continuously so that everyone shares a breadth of understanding..…. making the individual’s learning visible to everyone else in the classroom for the benefit of all.” ⁽²⁾

A further introduction to the concept is contained in the below link where Scardamalia describes what a knowledge building classroom looks like. 

http://www.knowledge-building.org/academic-researchers/S03

The knowledge forum tool is one example of how technology can be used to facilitate knowledge building. It is essentially a database tool that allows for group collaboration,scaffolding of thinking and building on others knowledge/ideas. An introduction to the tool and an example of a grade 4 project using this kind of tool are contained in the links below 

http://www.knowledgeforum.com/Kforum/products.htm

http://ikit.org/kb_resources/?p=903#more-903

Knowledge building feels powerful as the learning is problem solving in a a real world and collaborative context . However, to realise the opportunity that it represents appears to require significant shifts in both education systems and society. 

Several authors have explored how knowledge building could exist in education systems and what changes might be required.

Ilon’s point of view is that knowledge building systems work best when there is a particular problem to be solved. Her vision is therefore summarised as “Since collective intelligence works best when a problem is tackled, give the school a problem. Maybe it can undertake a three year effort to improve the transportation system in the neighbourhood to be greener. Now, build a learning system around that problem. Now, figure out which subjects can be built into the learning system. Math? Physics? Civics? Science? Writing? …Then, the question is infrastructure. It now involves computers, cell phones, internet links, social networks as well as books, teachers and classrooms. Infrastructure is an outgrowth of collective learning environments rather than the starting point of formal schooling.”⁽³⁾

Scandamalia and Bereiter build a vision of schools as learning organisations, a concept defined by Peter Senge as “a group of people working together collectively to enhance their capacities to create results they really care about.” ⁽⁴⁾ “ In classrooms that adopt the collaborative knowledge-building approach, the basic job to be done shifts from learning in the conventional sense to the construction of collective knowledge. The nature of the work is essentially the same as that of a professional research group, with the students being the principal doers of the work. Thus, in the ideal case, there is a complete shift from students as clients to students as participants in a learning organization.” ⁽⁵⁾ This requires a considerable reframing of education as it is currently defined if students are to become true members of the organisation as distinct from clients.     

Further, Scandamalia and Bereiter also explore the changing role of a teacher in a knowledge building school and express the view that it requires teachers who have a pure interest in understanding how understanding grows. “An interest in understanding how understanding grows does not seem to be a feature of most people's curiosity. It is an acquired interest, and one that teacher education programs ought to be passionately dedicated to developing. Without it, we find, teachers tend to remain detached from students' knowledge- building efforts and to reduce knowledge-building activities to merely another set of schoolwork routines.”^{( 6)}

Whilst knowledge building feels like a compelling yet difficult to implement vision for education what interests me additionally is the societal change required to achieve this goal. For knowledge building to work, a certain amount of altruism in everyone is required. We need to move from the culture of the celebrated individual/expert/celebrity and reframe ourselves as contributors to a greater goal. 

TJ Dawe in his Ted Talk “ An experiment in collective intelligence” relates a very personal experience of being involved in a collective intelligence project and the attitudes and behaviours that he found he needed to change. To quote: “ There are ways to make the tools the internet age has given us propel us to greater creativity and productivity and empathy. We can choose to put our heads together, build on what we know and what others know.” ⁽⁷⁾ 

Perhaps then the role of education today is to create a new generation of learners whom not only know how to collaborate effectively but whom have a fundamental belief in the power of collaboration?

_{(1) Scardamalia, M., & Bereiter, C. (2003). Knowledge building. In J. W. Guthrie (ed.), Encyclopedia of education (2nd ed., Vol. 17, pp. 1370–1373). New York, NY: Macmillan Reference as quoted in Chen B., & Hong HY (2016) Schools as Knowledge-Building Organisations: Thirty Years of Design Research Educational Psychologist May 2016}

_{(2)  Chen B., & Hong HY (2016) Schools as Knowledge-Building Organisations: Thirty Years of Design Research Educational Psychologist May 2016}

_{(3) Ilon, L How Collective Intelligence Redefines Education}

_{(4)Fulmer, Robert M., Keys, J. Bernard. (1998). A Conversation with Peter Senge: New Developments in Organizational Learning Organizational Dynamics, 27 (2), 33-42.}

_{(5) Scardamalia, M., & Bereiter, C.Schools as knowledge building organizations. In D. Keating & C. Hertzman (Eds.), Today’s children, tomorrow’s society: The developmental health and wealth of nations (pp. 274-289). New York: Guilford}

_{(6) Ibid}

_{(7)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cj5LZBmiQu4}