Research trends in technology-enhanced knowledge building pedagogies: a review of selected empirical research from 2006 to 2015

Abstract

To understand the research trends in technology-enhanced knowledge building pedagogies, empirical studies published in selected international journals from 2006 to 2015 were analyzed systematically in this study. The Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) was used as the literature source for the review, and a total of 55 empirical studies were finally identified as the review targets. With the coding scheme developed in this study, a series of content analyses on the selected empirical studies were conducted. It was found that, in the period of 2006–2015, the most frequently researched subject domain in the reviewed studies was science. Regarding the instructional design, most of the reviewed studies only used knowledge building pedagogies rather than integrate knowledge building pedagogies with domain-specific instructional strategies. Most of the reviewed studies used “Knowledge Forum®” as the main research platform, and others used Wiki and general discussion forums. Besides, during 2006 to 2015, more and more studies highlighted using the knowledge building principles in designing online scaffolds. Regarding the participants, most reviewed studies were conducted in K-12 and university learning contexts, suggesting the future research may pay more attention to other sample groups, for example, teachers or adults. In most of the reviewed studies, both qualitative and quantitative research methods were used and the duration of knowledge building learning activities was one semester. More importantly, most of the reviewed studies merely focused on learning process or learning outcomes derived from knowledge building. To provide more integrated insights into knowledge building pedagogies, future research should explore not only the learning process but also the learning outcomes.