Schools as Knowledge-Building Organizations: Thirty Years of Design Research

Abstract

In this article we review the Knowledge-Building literature, unpacking its conceptual framework, principle-based pedagogy, distinctive features, and issues regarding scalability and sustainability. The Knowledge-Building goal is to reframe education as a knowledge-creating enterprise, engaging students from the earliest years of schooling. Despite a 30-year program of research and development and recognition that there is a close fit between Knowledge Building and efforts to meet knowledge society needs, Knowledge Building is frequently reinterpreted along the general lines of bringing constructivist learning into schooling rather than means to reframing education as a knowledge-creating enterprise. This article aims to clarify Knowledge-Building goals and to make the opportunities afforded by Knowledge Building more accessible.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We acknowledge the reviewers and the editor for their critical and constructive feedback. We also thank students, teachers, and researchers who have contributed to this line of research.

Notes

¹ In the school setting, KB has been most actively applied in science, for several reasons. Explanation building has been widely recognized as an important enterprise in science learning (Carey & Smith, 1993). In contrast, treating mathematics, for example, as an explanation-building enterprise, although possible (Moss & Beatty, 2006), demands a more substantial reconstruction of the curriculum. Nonetheless, examples of KB pedagogy exist across curricula (Scardamalia & Egnatoff, 2010).