Knowledge Built From Everyone
By Matthew Kwan
As part of the educational technology concentration of my teacher training at Queen’s University back in Canada, my professor, Dr Richard Reeve, introduced us to the pedagogical concept of knowledge building (KB). The thought of having an idea-centred classroom instead of one based on teacher-led activities really excited me as an educator. Knowledge building remained really theoretical in my brain however, so when the opportunity presented itself to come to Singapore to get a more concrete understanding of the concept, I knew I had to take it. My time spent here at the Centre for Research in Pedagogy and Practice (CRPP) has been an excellent experience. I’ve made a lot of connections that I’m sure will endure even after I return home. I’ve learned to analyze data in ways I had not done before and read many papers that deepened my understanding of knowledge building while showing me real-life examples of KB in action. The reading and analyzing that I did was all nicely put into perspective by an event that took place during my final week of the alternative practicum.
The Key Event
The Knowledge Building Community Network Learning (KBCNL) event started off strong on the afternoon of March 18, 2024. The seats in the I-Space room of the National Institute of Education (NIE) were quickly filled up. With such high spirits in the air, the only worry I had was whether there would be enough Old Chang Kee left for me to try a (in)famous curry puff when snack time came around.
In all seriousness however, KBCNL was about much more than delicious snacks. The event was genuinely insightful and made me think about my own teaching practice in ways that I had not before. Teachers from both Singapore and China shared ways that they built KB culture in their schools and incorporated its principles into their lessons. Mostly, I was fascinated by the ways some of these teachers engaged their students in KB without the use of technology.
One thing I had never heard about before the event was the “KB Cloud Approach”, as elaborated on by Ms Liyana Saine and Ms Linda Shah from Oasis Primary School, where students would essentially create an offline version of Knowledge Forum (KF). Instead of typing on a computer, students would write their ideas using different coloured pens so that their thoughts could be tracked. Their peers would then add (+), (-), or (?), followed by a comment on each post to mimic build-ons on KF. Importantly, a rule was established that “no comment” or “I don’t know” comments were not allowed in the cloud. Their examples of this approach showed students crossing out their initial responses and writing something new, indicating a progression in their knowledge and the presence of a culture where students are not discouraged by “failures”. Finally, students came to a conclusion as a group, showing a valuable display of community knowledge. In my time as a student teacher in Canada, I’ve had the opportunity to work with young students who had great creative ideas, but who would struggle to navigate computer software. Therefore, this low/no tech approach was quite eye-opening for me, as it was something that had not crossed my mind before. Similarly, Teacher Sulo and Teacher Thein shared their experiences using no-tech KB approaches to teach students as young as kindergarten. Their students were able to identify authentic problems by walking around their neighborhood to explore different issues related to water. Since the problems were authentic to the students, they took ownership of their learning and were heard talking about water and pipes even after the project finished. An intuitive criticism of KB brought up by my classmates back home was that it would not work with the youngest students. My classmates thought there was no way that kindergarten and lower primary school students could take collective cognitive responsibility. This event showed clear evidence that my classmates (and I) underestimated the ability of young children.
On the technology side of things, Mr Andy Ng shared about how something as simple as a word cloud helped his students focus their learning. He stated that creating the word cloud took just one press of a button, a couple seconds total, yet it allowed his students to see what was prominent in their discourse and to create interesting questions that also fit with curricular expectations. Us teachers, we are very aware that time is often like a bar of soap that keeps slipping out of our hands. If a one-second word cloud can help us identify students’ “desire lines of inquiry”, it has great value.
I did not know what to expect of this event, or of my alternative practicum in general, but it proved to be extremely educational. A person can read all they want and develop a great theoretical framework in their minds, but to actually see these real-life examples, elaborated on by practicing teachers, really helped to solidify and consolidate all the knowledge that I’ve gained. I’m not sure when the next time I’ll be in Singapore is, but I’ll be sure to come to another KBCNL if the stars align again.