Teacher scaffolding for knowledge building in the educational research classroom

Abstract

Knowledge Building is an educational model characterized by its emphasis on the collective responsibility of students to improve collective ideas. Previous studies have demonstrated the benefits of Knowledge Building in science education. This study implements this pedagogy in the field of educational research and pursues two objectives: i) to analyze the quality level of student contributions when participating in a collaborative space to enhance ideas, and ii) to analyze the scaffolding employed by teachers during the implementation. A mixed-method design (qualitative and quantitative) was employed to collect data. The participants consisted of 59 undergraduate social education students enrolled in an action-research course. Data on the quality of discourse were collected from the entries or notes created by students on the Knowledge Forum platform, while data on teacher scaffolding as perceived by the students was obtained through interviews. The results of this study demonstrate that most student contributions are of high quality, although participation shows a slightly uneven distribution. Furthermore, this study broadens our understanding of the teaching scaffolds that support students' knowledge construction in educational research and offers teaching scaffolds that can be applied in various constructivist learning contexts aimed at promoting student autonomy to collaborate in knowledge creation.