Knowledge building among school students working in a networked computer supported learning environment

The National Curriculum for Science in England requires science teachers to teach about scientific enquiry, and contains details of the expectations of practical investigations connected with this teaching. Although such investigations are intended to be open-ended and to lead to a range of possible outcomes, the dual role of practical work as it functions as a warrant for belief can often lead to investigations serving both roles in an unsatisfactory fashion. This study describes an investigation into the use of online discussion forums (both asynchronous and synchronous) to support Year 9 students (aged 13/14 years) in two English schools as they conducted science investigations. These investigations were carefully chosen to provide ample scope for students to produce scientific explanations for simple phenomena (the behaviour of a prototype toy and the digestion of cooked egg white by biological washing powder) without the need to focus on replicating accepted scientific theories. Whilst working on their investigations, students made use of online resources designed to enable them to communicate with other members of the group and to share ideas whilst outside the science classroom. These online resources were structured through the application of activity theory, the focus being directed towards three aspects of the online interactions: Subject-Community-Object (knowledge-building); Rules-Community-Object (sociology of science); Tools-Community-Object (epistemology of science). Analysis of the logfiles of online discussions was conducted by identification of critical incidents in order to focus attention on interactions between students which merited deeper investigation, making use of taxonomic frameworks derived from literatures associated with studies of the nature of science. Further explication of critical incidents was sought through critical incident recall using group interviews with students, providing them with an opportunity to contribute to the construction of meaning relating to their discussions. The outcomes of this analysis suggest that students employ a range of tacit tools and rules when engaging in knowledge-building, and that the process of critical incident identification and recall used in the research may be employed as a valuable pedagogical tool when online discussion is used with students.