Supporting communities of learners in the elementary classroom: the common knowledge learning environment

We report on a multi-year design study of a technology environment called Common Knowledge (CK), designed to support learning communities in K-12 classrooms. Students represent their ideas in the form of notes, add their ideas to a collective knowledge base, and use this knowledge base as a resource for their subsequent inquiries. CK supports teachers’ orchestration of inquiry in blended learning environments, scaffolding the learning community as it progresses through a complex inquiry script. A community knowledge base is dynamically visualized on the classroom’s interactive whiteboard, serving as a persistent visual reference that allows teachers to gauge the progress of the class, identify patterns, gaps or conflicts, and engage the students in extemporaneous or planned discussions of their ideas. We present enactments of two design iterations in which CK was integrated within broader elementary science units where the curriculum was guided by a theoretical framework called Knowledge Community and Inquiry (KCI). For each version, we analyzed the role of CK in scaffolding student inquiry, with a focus on teachers’ facilitation of productive whole-class discussions. Analysis of teachers’ orchestration patterns revealed a “3R” orchestration cycle (Reflect–Refocus–Release) that teachers used repeatedly within a single class session, to guide reflective community discussion and refocus students’ inquiry. We also identified four distinct teacher discourse orientations, finding that these were invoked in different proportions depending on the orchestrational needs of the inquiry script. Synthesizing our findings, we discuss the role of CK within a classroom activity system for learning communities.