Building and regulating cognitive, linguistic, and interactional aspects of knowledge between the individual and the group

Abstract

Research traditions studying knowledge conceive of it differently and place boundaries between knowledge types in different places. A first challenge is elaborating a framework that distinguishes between the co-elaboration of knowledge types (cognitive, linguistic, social, technological…), yet shows their connections. A second challenge is distinguishing co-elaboration of knowledge from self and social regulation of knowledge elaboration. Knowing what knowledge you are regulating may facilitate knowledge regulation. Meeting the first challenge allows us to combine research from different traditions in order to broaden understanding. Meeting the second helps determine how to support the regulation of knowledge elaboration. As a first step towards meeting these challenges, we propose 1) the logical space of knowledge elaboration and its regulation and 2) a multi-theoretical, interdisciplinary model called Multi-grain collaborative knowledge construction that concerns how individuals and groups co-elaborate knowledge during group interactions. We instantiate this model with two illustrations (physics learning and collaborative game learning) and their corresponding logical spaces of elaboration and regulation. Results reveal how knowledge regulation occurs through action and not just verbalization, that regulation interventions are multifunctional, that meta knowledge about learning can help regulation, that knowledge acquired during development is more difficult to regulate. A roadmap is proposed for furthering the distinction between knowledge elaboration and regulation.