Making Use of a Knowledge Building Community to Develop Professional Socialisation

University of Wollongong

Keywords: Knowledge Building Community (KBC), problem-based learning, community learning, school-based learning, preservice teacher education, teaching and learning.

Article style and source: Peer Reviewed. Original ultiBASE publication.

Contents

• Abstract
• Introduction
• The Purpose of the Knowledge Building Community Project
• Background
• The Concept of a Knowledge Building Community
• The KBC Mode
• Preliminary Research Associated with the KBC Project
• Participants and Procedure
• Discussion of Preliminary Findings
• Concluding Remarks
• References

Abstract

In this paper we describe how we trialled a new model of teacher education known as the Knowledge Building Community Project at the University of Wollongong. The purpose of this project is to explore the viability of a Knowledge Building Community (KBC) as an alternative model for preservice teacher education. This model is made up of three components or sources for learning which should interact together as a basis for continuous learning: (1) Community learning, (2) School-based Learning and (3) Problem-based Learning. Guiding the collection of data are three research questions that explore whether these three sources for learning were operating as intended. Preliminary research indicates how the students have extended their views concerning teaching from those resembling "motherhood statements" to an understanding that teaching is a far more multifaceted and challenging role.

Introduction

This paper reports on a pilot study in teacher education that commenced in March 1999 at the University of Wollongong. The project started with 22 students from our first year (primary) intake. After 5 weeks of induction to the course the students were assigned to teams of 5-6 at one of the 4 schools involved in the project. Classroom teachers at these schools acted as professional mentors and educational informants about the culture of schools.

The New South Wales Department of Education and Training (DET), the Dean of the Faculty of Education and the NSW Teachers Federation all support the project. Financial support was provided via an ESDF grant, the DET and the Faculty. Julie Kiggins (the co-author of this paper) is a Ph.D. student and has been studying the development and implementation of this project. top

The Purpose of the Knowledge Building Community Project

The purpose of this study was to explore the viability of a Knowledge Building Community (KBC) as an alternative model for preservice teacher education..

The KBC Project was designed to achieve these changes by:

Because it was a pilot study, the program was limited to 22 preservice teachers who were part of the 1999 first year primary education cohort enrolled at the University of Wollongong. top

Background

Two recurrent themes that emerge from studies that seek to follow-up graduates of teacher education courses are that many students report that they leave university with feelings of being under-prepared for life in classrooms and confused by what confronts them when they arrive at schools. Secondly, the schools, which employ recent graduates, report that a majority is unaware of how school and classroom cultures operate. Beginning teachers are often unable to see the relationships between what they’ve studied at university and how it can be translated into classroom practice that produces effective student learning (MACQT, 1998). Research by Armour and Booth (1999) has supported these themes as they reported that most schools who worked with final year primary education students felt that they needed more experience with the day to day operation of schools, and how the daily work of teachers relates to the culture of schools and classrooms

We suggest that this situation arose because, in the past, teacher education courses have presented a fragmented view of learning because of the specialised nature of the subjects that make up the degree. This situation can hinder the development of professional socialisation of preservice teachers and Hoban (1999) claims that there are three reasons for this:

The literature about socialisation to the professions supports our view (Weedman, 1998) asserts that "professional socialisation is a complex and variable form of learning, highly collaborative in nature."(p.1) It involves the transmission of social constructs, language, belief systems and symbolic lives that are unique to the profession (Schön, 1983). Brown and Duguid (1993) argue that this type of learning makes use of knowledge that must be "stolen". They state that the most important knowledge is that which cannot be taught and students must find ways to steal it from their educational environment. Bourdieu and Wacquant (1992) call such knowledge habitus -conditioning, a feel for the game, a disposition, the durable systems of schemata of perception, apprehension, and action that result from the institution of the social and the individual. top

The Concept of a Knowledge Building Community

As a response to the concerns raised about teacher education and the literature about professional socialisation and practice (Brown & Duguid, 1993; Schön, 1987) we decided to develop a curriculum that focused on the creation of a Knowledge Building Community. A Knowledge Building Community (KBC) is a learning environment that supports the continuous social construction of knowledge (Vygotsky, 1978). Wernet (1995) states that the construction of meaning is a vital and central component in community practice. In a KBC individuals share knowledge for the advancement of the community. Bereiter and Scardamalia (1993) state that a knowledge building community is a term for a collection of principles. In the University of Wollongong (UOW) KBC these principles derive from three sources: Community learning, School-based learning and Problem-based learning.

Community Learning (CL):

This first learning source of the KBC project sees a major shift from the traditional teacher education model. This learning source requires the development of a "community of learners". This community is made up of the preservice teachers, the school-based teachers and the facilitators on campus. It is the expectation that this community will establish a sense of trust among each other as they work together in small groups. Group-based learning is the foundation for problem-based learning, yet it allows for what Thorley and Gregory (1994), describe as a challenge to teaching and learning which is heightened when the human interaction is involved in group activity.

School-based learning (SBL):

Schools are more than a conglomeration of buildings and people. They have a culture which has evolved as a response to wider cultural values (Bullough, 1987). Koetsier and Wubbels (1995), state that having completed their teacher training beginning teachers experience "reality shock", when faced with the demands of the teaching practice. The gap between their ideals and the reality of everyday school life is the primary cause for this bewilderment. The second principle or learning source of the KBC project’s structure is therefore aimed at developing a rudimentary understanding of school-based culture, and how schools do business. This motive of the KBC project has at its basis the aim of reducing "reality shock" by increasing a preservice teacher’s understanding of a teacher’s "real" role in the classroom and the school. It is expected that the preservice teachers whilst in their allocated schools will through immersion in the school culture learn what it is that teachers and school’s do on a daily basis.

Problem-based learning (PBL):

The third learning source saw the lecture-tutorial model of teacher education replaced with a curriculum that was supported by problem-based learning. A curriculum that uses problem-based learning encourages and motivates students to ‘learn to learn’ (Duch, 1995). Above all PBL challenges students to take charge of their education (White, 1996). PBL is characterised by instruction which involves students working in small groups to solve ‘real world’ problems, (Duch, 1995). In the process students develop skills of negotiation, communication, and collaboration (Aldred, Aldred, Walsh & Dick, 1997). Thus the need to establish a community was paramount.

The role of PBL in the KBC Project

PBL was developed primarily by medical schools, where it was seen to be ‘tailor made’ for medicine because it provided advantages for both acquisition of knowledge and development of problem solving skills in patient care (Barrows & Tamblyn, 1980). However when PBL is adopted into preservice teacher education courses it usually occurs as a component that happens in conjunction with traditionally taught classes. Hughes, Sears and Clarke (1998), claim that this generates a great deal of stress for students as they try to simultaneously cope with the rigors of two very different forms of instruction and practical constraints such as scheduling.

Hughes reports that at the University of New Brunswick (UNB), Canada, a small team have just completed their fourth-year of PBL in the specialised Social Studies program for pre-service teachers (Hughes, personal communication, 1998). At the conclusion of four years of PBL in Social Studies the team at UNB have identified several issues:

The Problems Designed for the KBC Project.

For the KBC Project we attempted to develop problems that linked as closely as possible to the contexts and settings of primary schools. This was a deliberate attempt to use the social world of the school to provide "a highly dynamic, versatile scaffolding" (Brown & Duguid, 1993, p.12). The KBC model developed problems to support school-based learning. The first problem focused on developing an understanding of how teachers of lower primary classes (years 1 to 3) organised the human and physical resources available to the school to teach reading and writing. The second focused on how teachers of the same years varied their lessons to cater for the individual differences among the children in their classes.

Although learning can occur from each of the three learning sources described above, the most effective type of learning environment occurs when they combine together. Hence, it is the interaction among these three sources (CL, SBL & PBL) that establishes the deep learning process of knowledge building. This process is ongoing, iterative, sometimes ill defined, and results in sustained, lifelong learning. top

The KBC Model:

The KBC model was created within the constraints associated with our situation. The model had two parts. The first part of the course ran for 5 weeks and was designed to prepare students to work in a learning community consisting of 4 discrete cohort groups. Two groups contained six members and two contained five. Fifty hours of course work was designed to provide learning experiences that would allow members of each cohort group to learn to be effective members within their group as well as effective members of other groups. Another goal of the first part of the course was to prepare students to be what we called a ‘teaching associate’. We saw the role of a ‘teaching associate’ as one that supported the classroom teacher’s work, making a significant contribution to the functioning of a teacher’s class. For example a teaching associate may help teachers to; prepare lessons, mark written work, read to children, have children read to them, assist with excursions, conduct sports training, or any task that the school based teacher felt was in the capability of a first year student teacher.

During the second part of the course, which ran for 9 weeks, students attended their host school for 2 days per week and attended university for the other 3 days. When they were in schools they had two main roles. One was to be an effective teaching associate and the other was to be what we called ‘an educational researcher’. The role of an educational researcher was to ‘live’ within the school community and gather data that helped them solve the specific problems posed in the problem-based learning component of the KBC model. Thus teachers and allied professionals need to act as ‘informants’ about their profession and the culture of the school.

The school-based experience was jointly co-ordinated by a lecturer and a school mentor teacher. They met twice with the students each week. The first weekly meeting happened on the first day students visit the school and was devoted to planning school experiences. The second weekly meeting was a debriefing about the school-based experiences.

During the time the students were back at the university they were expected to engage in two broad kinds of activity, namely: cohort group / lecturer meetings and collaborative problem solving. Cohort-lecturers meetings took 2-4 hours per week and collaborative problem solving 16-18 hours per week. Collaborative problem solving engaged the cohort group for the rest of their study time each week. It of course varied from student to student but the problems and tasks were designed so students would spend at least 16-18 hours per week engaged in the planning, reading, discussing, researching, presenting, and generally being immersed in academic study. top

Preliminary Research Associated with the KBC Project

The purpose of the preliminary study was to gather data that would indicate how the three sources of learning of the KBC were operating. The research questions posed were:

• What evidence did we have that indicated that a learning community was being formed?
• How did the students perceive their first experience with PBL?
• What insights did the students gain about teaching when they were immersing in their school settings?

Participants and Procedure

The research reported in this paper relates to the 1999 KBC project conducted at the UOW. Qualitative research methods were utilised due to the predominant human interactions associated with the KBC project. Twenty-two students were enrolled in the KBC and all the students involved in the KBC project were informed of the research and asked to participate. Participation was voluntary; all students were given the right to refuse or withdraw from the research. The data was derived from several sources: (i) interviews, both formal and informal (ii) e-mail correspondence, (iii) observation of students in their KBC homeroom on campus and at one of the nominated school sites. Member checks were employed to increase the reliability and trustworthiness of the data.

The data collection spanned the fourteen weeks of the first semester. Observations began in conjunction with the project and interviews were conducted prior to the students entering their chosen school site (weeks 1 and 4). Once students had started their in-school experience data was collected on a weekly basis. When the students began in their schools the time they spent on campus was less and it was at this point where e-mail correspondence with the students was employed. Students involved in this form of data collection reported that they preferred this method rather than audiotaped interviews. The students stated that questions that were sent electronically allowed them time to think about their responses.

Transcripts and e-mail correspondence were analysed for emerging themes. Similar views and ideas were grouped together under the relevant source of learning i.e. CL, PBL or SBL. top

Discussion of Preliminary Findings

Preliminary findings are discussed under headings that relate to the research questions.

Community learning

Before problem-based learning (PBL) and school-based learning (SBL) could be attempted it was necessary to build a learning community. The KBC project was designed so that community learning would support the students as they embarked upon the other two sources of learning. Thus the establishment of a community atmosphere was initiated from the first day of session. Team building workshops and activities were designed to engage students in learning experiences that allowed members to learn to work effectively with all members of the KBC cohort. It was the intention that the students would develop teamwork skills as they acquired problem-solving skills.

In order to enhance the community learning atmosphere the students were housed in a special ‘home room’. This room was the physical space in which the students and the four lecturers who mediated their learning met for all the activities that were at the core of PBL.

An asynchronous forum (Discus) was also created to support community discussion. This allowed for individual discussion, intergroup, and intragroup discussion as well as lecturer input. Students could choose to access the forum either from the homeroom computers, campus computer laboratories or from their home computers. Skye and Kerrie echoed Siobhan’s earlier comments via the discussion space.

From the above student quotes several themes have emerged. For the students involved it would appear that friendship, and community support has assisted in their learning. Because they have felt comfortable in their environment they have learnt through participation in face to face and via electronic conversation, and KBC class activities. Further they were making use of the communication technology to express opinions. Most students preferred the community discussion space as opposed to e-mail because everybody could contribute and follow all of the threads of the conversations.

School-based learning

This source of learning was to provide students with an opportunity to better understand the culture of schools, teaching and classrooms. It was intended that students could achieve this through observing and interviewing teachers providing support for teachers and teaching individual and small groups of students. In the space of three weeks of in-school experience the students involved in the KBC project were beginning to understand that teaching was a much more multifaceted and complex role than they first thought. Linda discussed her views through e-mail correspondence and said:

Siobhan became the most prolific user of the communication technology and made regular contributions to the asynchronous forum and via e-mail to various trusted informants. Below is a copy of one of her late evening e-mails to one of our researchers.

The above quotes from the KBC students are indicative of the increasing awareness that students were describing and reporting. It would appear that in a very short space of time the students through their immersion into the school culture were able to appreciate and witness the complexity and multitude of a teacher’s role. Also they could use a variety of modes of communication to express these ideas. Students were also increasing their awareness that teaching requires skills and practice. Importantly however students were gaining an insight and understanding that being a teacher is a commitment and a profession that requires lifelong learning.

Problem-based learning

The third of the three learning sources was critical for students to extend their understanding of the professional role of teachers. Students needed to be aware of their role in PBL and the preparation phase engaged the students in several workshop and assessment tasks where they worked in small self-directed groups in order to solve open-ended problems. The experience with these tasks helped students realise that PBL required a great deal of honest and open communication in order to establish a common understanding of the coherent social practice needed to successfully complete a task. However, as Lave and Wenger (1991) assert the community does not necessarily have to be warm and effusive; instead it can be diffuse, fragmented and contentious. This was the case with several groups involved in this study and the following e-mail from Jodi illustrates this point.

We admit that our inexperience in developing the problems that the students were to solve whilst in schools contributed to some confusion and generated intellectual unrest. The silence that befell the room with the issuing of the first problem package was an indication that we needed to rethink our approach when we prepared the second problem. The students were reticent to voice their real opinions about the problem in class and the comments below were from class discussions held at the culmination of the first problem (which had a literacy focus) illustrate this point.

However they were quite forthright in voicing their concerns through the asynchronous discussion forum and via e-mail. They were prepared to say that the problem was too big and lasted for too long they felt that it overshadowed and dominated their life! (This was also our feeling by the end of the first problem!) Siobhan although a competent student who produced a high quality assessment task for problem one felt tired and drained towards the culmination of the first problem and this is what she contributed via e-mail:

The combination of several new factors for the students i.e. the role of a teacher associate combined with the problem assessment task prompted us to undertake two courses of action. The students were given a week's break between the end of the first and the issuing of the second problem. And the second problem was modified so that we covered less material but to a greater depth and Jodi’s final e-mail about the second problem illustrates this point.

We directly observed their development of understanding about PBL when the students were handed their second problem package. This issue did not get greeted with silence instead students launched immediately into conversations related to the planning and presentation. Thus we had learnt from our mistakes. top

Concluding Remarks

The KBC project has been a new learning experience for students and lecturers and we admit that we still have a great to learn about PBL. We feel that the KBC concept supported by the three learning sources of community learning and school-based learning experiences has contributed to the professional socialisation of students by addressing 4 issues. Firstly, it has helped them to define the profession in which they will work and to realise that they are responsible for the development of the knowledge and skills needed to become a member of the teaching profession. Secondly, they have a better understanding of the professional life of teachers and the nature of ‘teachers’ work’. Thirdly, they have come to realise that there is a body of knowledge that is needed for their education into the profession, and finally they have developed a sense of professional identity.

The fundamental objective of the KBC model of teacher education was to equip students with skills and information that would transfer from university/school to his/her professional life. The preliminary data collection was intended to inform the facilitating team whether the three sources of learning were in fact operating as intended. From the data gathered it would appear that the community and school-based learning sources have been the most influential on student learning thus far. From these two sources the students have reported an increasing awareness about teaching and the role of a teacher. They have also provided an insight into the benefits and advantages of community learning from the perspective of first year students.

Whilst the PBL source caused some initial intellectual unrest it is still too early to ascertain its true role or influence in the KBC project. When the students return to mainstream classes in session two they will then have a comparison. Once the students have a comparison they will be able to determine for themselves the method they prefer i.e. the ‘traditional’ lecture-tutorial based mode or that of PBL. We acknowledge that tutors, teachers and students were new to PBL and it requires time, patience and willingness to accept risk and uncertainty. In particular we needed to be aware that as tutors new to PBL it was often tempting to give students key variables, or too much information.

However, at the conclusion to the first session of the KBC project we believe it to be worthwhile and that the preliminary research shows it has the potential to make a difference in preservice teacher education. top

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About the Authors:

Copyright © Brian Ferry & Julia Kiggins 1999. For uses other than personal research or study, as permitted under the Copyright Laws of your country, permission must be negotiated with the author. Any further publication permitted by the author must include full acknowledgement of first publication in ultiBASE (http://ultibase.rmit.edu.au). Please contact the Editor of ultiBASE for assistance with acknowledgement of subsequent publication.