Knowledge Building International Project (KBIP): Designs for Deep Understanding

1. Knowledge Building International Project (KBIP): Designs for Deep Understanding Thérèse Laferrière, Christian Perreault, Pier-Ann Boutin, Christine Hamel, Laval University, Quebec, Canada Nancy Law & Johnny Yuen, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Mireia Montané, Collegi de Llicenciats, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain Oscar Hernandez Lopez, University IberoAmericana, Puebla, Mexico Pere Boluda, Escola Sant Pau, Tarragona, Catalonia, Spain Marta Blancafort, Escola Projecte, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain Blended session Online participants

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3. 2010-2011 Edition: Focus onwater quality, a sustainability issue 3

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5. Background • The Knowledge-building International Project (KBIP) provides an opportunity for teachers • 1) to engage school learners in collaborative inquiries on sustainable development issues under the guidance of the KB principles and the support of Knowledge Forum • 2) to codesign classroom-based knowledge-building communities; and • 3) to foster deep understanding of problems.

6. Design Research • University-school partnerships have been at the basis of this innovation. In three out of four partnerships, the local government has also played an important role. • The Knowledge Building International Project (KBIP) is an outgrowth of the Knowledge Society Network (KSN). The idea was born during the Knowledge Building Summer Institute 2007, the annual face-to-face meeting of the KSN members.

7. Design Research • The summer institutes that followed were critical for renewing the commitment toward the project, identifying gains, making adjustments, and planning next iterations. Changes were made to the local/international socio-technical designs on the basis of emerging results. • Changes primarily regarded the teaching of the knowledge building principles (timing and feedback to teachers), the matching of classrooms, and the management of databases.

8. Design Research informed by the KB principles Democratizing knowledge Community knowledge/collective responsibility Real ideas/authentic problems Improvable ideas Idea diversity Epistemic agency Constructive use of authoritative sources Knowledge building discourse Rise above Symmetric knowledge advance Pervasive knowledge building Embedded, concurrent, transformative assessment

9. Participants

10. Catalonia, Spain COMconèixer http://www.xtec.cat/ofinternacional/COMconeixer/ 10

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14. LIVE

15. KBIP in Hong Kong:KB without boundaries KBTN Project Team

16. History HK KB Teacher Network established since 2006 KBIP students & teacher collaborations has been practiced ever since! Past topics for KBIP collaboration… Local ecology Water quality Problems of the earth Little inventors/professors Local Culture, Festivals

17. 2007

18. 2008 Tomorrow’s Innovators@IKIT-SI

19. 2009 Tomorrow’s Innovators IKIT-SI@Majorca

20. Shatin Tsung Tsin School & Beijing Zhongguancun No. 1 PrimaryKB: Empowering Millennium Kids

21. Mexico 06/28/11

22. Universidad Iberoamericana Puebla, México KBIP Designs for Deep Understanding

23. Puebla: • 150 Students: 2 schools • (H.S. 120 Puebla, 30 Tlaxcala) • 5 teachers: • 3 Puebla, 2 Tlaxcala • 2 Univ. Researchers: O. H y A. D. KF: Web based collaborative platform for extending and deeping classroom discourse. Scaffolds to support writtten discourse Analytical measures

24. Twelve Knowledge Building Principles Use of Knowledge Forum Software Multi-user web based videoconferencing system (VIA) Videoconferences with teachers and students from Catalonia, Quebec and other countries.

25. Emerging Knowledge Building communities to focus on specific questions of collective interest. Deep understanding Pervasive knowledge

26. It is not easy to engage teachers and students in KB projects as part of curriculum Discurse ‡ Actions Meaning of words Scafolds in spanish: • Categoría Andamio (Scafold) • Compilación de N. Resumen Incremental (R.A) Compromiso epistémico ‡ Gestión epistémica (epistemic agency)

27. Anyway we have had rich experiences Colaborative learning Extended learning community Deep understanding

28. Extended to other teachers/levels/schools • UIA-P uebla/UABarcelona • Primary schools in S.L.P. Col. San Francisco Javier/Quebec/Catalonia • ¡ ¡Thanks!

29. Colombia

30. Québec, Canada

31. Remote Networked Schools (RNS) & PROTIC

32. PROTIC • Students learn in a 1-1 laptop environment. 32

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34. Students’Research Questions 1. How does the pH level in the water of the St. Lawrence River affect the biodiversity level in the area? 2. Why are there more fish on the south shore of the St. Lawrence river in Quebec compared to the north shore? 34

35. Example of a student’s contribution in the KF Example of student note in KF with types of contribution highlighted ( inference, synthesis etc.) inference synthesis of learning

36. Next steps KBIP allowed PROTIC students to deepen their understanding of sustainable development problems while developing their language skills, technological skills, citizenship skills and entrepreneurial skills. Moving forward, the project aims to allow students to continue their process of collaborative inquiry, deepening their understanding of new research questions and improving their quality of explanations.

37. KBIP in Quebec, Canada http://kbip.fse.ulaval.ca 37

38. A RNS classroom and one from Burkina Faso 38

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40. Monitoring the authentic questioning process and the level of explanation Data analysisKBIP Quebec 2009-2011

41. Data 2009-2010, 2010-2011

43. Use of scaffolds 2009-2010

45. Grid inspired by Hakkarainen (2003), Chan & co, 2007, Depth of explanation in KF discourse as evidence of depth of understanding

47. Deep understanding as measured by depth of explanation

48. Deep understanding Cognitive and conversational analyses conducted by Turcotte, Hamel and Laferrière (2011) revealed that students who wrote better explanations on the Knowledge Forum scored higher on post-activity interviews even when they scored lower on the pre-activity interviews. Active use (1 hour a day) produced the greatest improvement of student explanation skills, and that confirmed teachers’ impressions and field observations.

49. Coordination and support • Since Fall 2007, graduate students and professor Laferrière have participated in the coordination of university-school partnerships (the drivers of innovation). • We use email (Google Groups discussion/email system) and videoconferencing (iVisit, Via and Skype) to communicate with teachers on a regular basis. • Different modes of organization of the KF spaces between participant classes were explored over the years with the aim of satisfying the needs of the classes and facilitating collaboration between groups by making each class’ discourse visible to other classes. 06/28/11

50. Coordination and support • We adopted progressively a national database for all the participants in Quebec – thus breaking the barriers of the school boards’ databases. Teachers were invited to join it, but it was not mandatory. In 2010-2011, almost all classes worked in the (inter)national database. • Since French is the primary language, we provide support for translation to English, Italian and Spanish, when needed (no Cantonese so far!). • In 2010-2011, the task was divided among 2 graduate students for the 2 levels of coordination : national and international. 06/28/11