A principle-based approach to knowledge building: processes, challenges, and implications

Abstract

Collaborative and inquiry-based learning programs vary in the degree of prescription and specification along a continuum from procedure- to principle-based approaches. This symposium will engage researchers and practitioners in a dialogue about these approaches and analyze the enactment of Knowledge Building (Scardamalia & Bereiter, 2006) as a principle-based innovation in two specific contexts: a Canadian elementary school and a teacher network in Hong Kong. Each case will be first analyzed by researchers drawing on rich data collection and, then, reflected upon by practitioners from these two sites (i.e. teachers and principal), followed by questions and comments from symposium participants. Analyzing and discussing these two cases from both researchers' and practitioners' perspectives will help elaborate the possibility, benefits, processes, conditions, and challenges of principle-based innovation in comparison with procedure-based practices and designs. Implications of principle-based innovation to CSCL research and practice will be discussed.