Knowledge Building - Principles of Knowledge Building

Principles of Knowledge Building

Scardamalia (2002) identifies twelve principles of Knowledge building as follows:

1. Real ideas and authentic problems. In the classroom as a Knowledge building community, learners are concerned with understanding, based on their real problems in the real world.
2. Improvable ideas. Students' ideas are regarded as improvable objects.
3. Idea diversity. In the classroom, the diversity of ideas raised by students is necessary.
4. Rise above. Through a sustained improvement of ideas and understanding, students create higher level concepts.
5. Epistemic agency. Students themselves find their way in order to advance.
6. Community knowledge, collective responsibility. Students' contribution to improving their collective knowledge in the classroom is the primary purpose of the Knowledge building classroom.
7. Democratizing knowledge. All individuals are invited to contribute to the knowledge advancement in the classroom.
8. Symmetric knowledge advancement. A goal for Knowledge building communities is to have individuals and organizations actively working to provide a reciprocal advance of their knowledge.
9. Pervasive Knowledge building. Students contribute to collective Knowledge building.
10. Constructive uses of authoritative sources. All members, including the teacher, sustain inquiry as a natural approach to support their understanding.
11. Knowledge building discourse. Students are engaged in discourse to share with each other, and to improve the knowledge advancement in the classroom.
12. Concurrent, embedded, and transformative assessment. Students take a global view of their understanding, then decide how to approach their assessments. They create and engage in assessments in a variety of ways.