Designing Computer-Supported Knowledge Building to Promote Conceptual Change Among High-School Students in Hong Kong

Abstract

This chapter explores how the design of knowledge-building inquiry promotes conceptual change in chemistry among high-school students in Hong Kong. The participants included 40 students who engaged in knowledge-building inquiry mediated by computer-supported Knowledge Forum database and a comparison class of 39 students who were instructed with conventional teaching approach. The instructional design emphasized students’ epistemic agency, inquiry, and metacognition that consisted of four pedagogical components: developing collaborative classroom culture and scientific discourse, engaging in problem-centered inquiry, deepening the knowledge-building discourse, and aligning assessment for collective learning. Overall, the knowledge-building class experienced greater conceptual change in electrochemistry with sustained effects in public examination than the comparison class. Content analyses of student-generated questions on Knowledge Forum revealed that students made deeper inquiry over time, and reflection journals characterized the changes of individual and collective knowledge advances. Students’ inquiry and reflection on Knowledge Forum were correlated with both conceptual change and chemistry achievement. Implications of knowledge-building inquiry augmented with reflective assessment for promoting conceptual change are discussed.