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

van Aalst, Jan

Phase 3: evaluation of learning (2 weeks) As knowledge advancement is an important outcome of knowledge creation, each group was asked to create a collaborative summary note for the problems on which progress had been made by the end of Phase 2. The students began their review face-to-face within their own group and class, and then created coauthored notes in Knowledge Forum; in the best examples, the coauthors then edited the notes to gradually improve them. The note format was similar to a brief scientific research report, with the groups asked to (a) state the problem on which they were reporting, (b) explain the problem's background, with links to their work in Phase 1, (c) describe what they did to investigate the problem, (d) report the main findings, and (e) explain the significance of the findings and outline opportunities for further inquiry. The instructions also indicated that a student could be coauthor of several summary notes. The notes were designed as self-assessments of group accomplishment but were not used by the teacher for formal assessment. To guide their work, the students were provided a rubric showing several dimensions of the task (writing quality, identification of collaborators, organization, findings, and implications) with levels of performance for each (van Aalst et al. 2005) .