Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Knowledge Building



Earlier this month I went down to Wanaka to attend and present my initial findings from my first year trialing Knowledge Forum and Knowledge Building at the Knowledge Building Symposium. There are a number of us from across various curriculum levels that are part of the TRLI project. It was brilliant to be with like minded people and to hear their experiences.

This is a link to a Prezi on my findings.

My Reflection

The Knowledge Building ideas and principles I found very easy to integrate into my teaching, I think for the most parts elements were already there. I did focus on the: 'community of learners' and 'knowledge belong to the community', 'all ideas are improvable'. These areas were easy for the students to grasp and gave us a platform to launch from.

Using the Basic Mode in Knowledge Forum was more complicated, not as pretty and students did struggle at times to engage initially. However as we jumped into the use of it, students managed to understand and get to grips with what was happening. They did like the fact they could go into clusters based on their interest and deepen their understanding of their chosen topic. 

Student essays I found managed to reach a high level based on the understanding and discussion they had. It enabled them more readily to reach a more abstract (SOLO) level of understanding and link more clearly to the directors intention.

Overall I have enjoyed the process and am looking forward to next year.



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