Examining the knowledge-building process and its relation to epistemic and conceptual understanding

Abstract

This study examines the role of a computer-supported knowledge-building environment in fostering students’ scientific and epistemic inquiry. Specifically, we characterized students’ epistemic inquiry on Knowledge Forum and their relationships with epistemic and conceptual understanding, and examined how knowledge-building experience supported their scientific epistemologies. The design involved asking students to work as a community of scientists and mirroring their knowledge-building process with their views of science. Participants were 102 fifth-grade students in four Hong Kong classrooms. Quantitative analysis showed that knowledge-building group outperformed comparison groups on epistemic and conceptual understanding; analysis of discourse showed that students’ epistemic cognition, forum engagement and reflection contributed to conceptual understanding. Qualitative analyses showed how progressive inquiry and theory building scaffolded their epistemologies of science