Distinguishing knowledge-sharing, knowledge-construction, and knowledge-creation discourses

van Aalst, Jan

One of the most important roles of the teacher in this process is to facilitate the development of an innovation ecology. Important progress has been made in this direction by the development of a system of principles that describe the socio-cognitive and socio-technological dynamics of knowledge creation, including collective cognitive responsibility for knowledge advancement, real ideas/authentic problems, epistemic agency, improvable ideas, rise-above, and constructive use of authoritative sources (Scardamalia 2002) . These principles provide a technical vocabulary that students, teachers, and researchers can use to reflect on the extent to which there is evidence of a knowledge-creation discourse. Initial studies show that elementary and secondary school students are capable of engaging in the dynamics described by these principles (Niu and van Aalst in press; Zhang et al. 2007 Zhang et al. , 2009 ). However, more work is needed to characterize the innovation ecology, such as by determining the social practices that make collaboration possible, the overall school culture, and the community's experience at knowledge creation and its long-term goals (Bielaczyc 2006; Truong 2008) . Knowledge creation requires discourse for maintaining social relations, setting goals, deepening inquiry, and lending support to ideas that are already understood by some in the community. For example, van Aalst (2006) discusses how a Grade 6 student referred to the scientist Francis Bacon to support an explanation he had proposed earlier that had not been accepted by the community. This move was directed less at improving understanding than at improving the impact of the student's own ideas. Similarly, students who wish to further a line of inquiry need the ability to argue the case for doing so. These types of moves cannot be understood by examining short-term goals such as the problem students are currently attempting to understand, but require the consideration of higher level and longer term goals such as the diffusion of new insight throughout the community and progressive problem solving (Hmelo-Silver 2003) . In groups that work together for short periods, there is less need for such moves.