Developing productive discourse through collective inquiry of knowledge-building principles

Abstract

This study investigates how secondary school students inquired into knowledgebuilding principles and engaged in meta-talk for productive knowledge building. The study involved a class of Grade 10 students in Hong Kong, working on collective inquiry in Art and Design using Knowledge Forum^® (KF), and reflecting on their discourse, using knowledgebuilding principles. A key design involved students writing on KF inquiring into knowledgebuilding principles and meta-talk on the processes. Results indicated that the students engaged in productive online discourse on both domain and discourse understanding progressively. Classroom analyses suggested how students engaged in meta-talk and inquiry into principles with corresponding change in the knowledge about discourse. The implications of scaffolding students’ inquiry of principles in a knowledge-building environment are discussed.