2016 IEEE 16th International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies
A pilot study of students’ perceptions of collaborative knowledge building in 21st
century learning with their knowledge building behaviors
Pei-Shan Tsai
Department of Science Communication
National Pingtung University
Pingtung, Taiwan
sandra.pstsai@gmail.com
Yen-Yuan Chen
Graduate Institute of Medical Education & Bioethics
National Taiwan University
Taipei, Taiwan
chen.yenyuan@gmail.com
Jyh-Chong Liang
Graduate Institute of Digital Learning and Education
National Taiwan University of Science and Technology
Taipei, Taiwan
aljc@mail.ntust.edu.tw
Abstract—This study investigates the relationships between
students’ perceptions and their online behaviors after they
were engaged in collaborative knowledge building activities for
social studies. One hundred and seventy seven Singapore
primary three and primary four students participated in this
study and the results show that when interpreting students’
collaborative knowledge building, their perceptions about
knowledge play an important role. Students who possess a
questioning attitude about the knowledge from text books or
experts are likely to search for more available audio-visual
resources.
Keywords-knowledge building, idea work, quantitative
indicators
I. INTRODUCTION
The Knowledge building Community (KBC) is a
pedagogical model that promotes collaborative knowledge
construction as the main method for learning [1]. Students in
a KBC are usually engaged in creating their ideas in online
forums and they collectively improve each other’s their ideas.
The KBC under girded by social constructivist perspectives
[2]. Many studies have investigated the students’ perceptions
of knowledge building activities [3]. For example, the study
of [2] indicated that students in a KBC perceive themselves
as more engaged in self-directed learning with technology,
collaborative learning with technology, doing more idea
work, and knowledge co-construction than those in the
traditional classes. In addition, based on the principals
2161-377X/16 $31.00 © 2016 IEEE
DOI 10.1109/ICALT.2016.7
Ching Sing Chai
National Institute of Education
Nanyang Technological University
Singapore
chingsing.chai@nie.edu.sg
Min-Hsien Lee
Center for Teacher Education and Institute of Education
National Sun Yat-sen University
Kaohsiung, Taiwan
leemh@mail.nsysu.edu.tw
Chin-Chung Tsai
Graduate Institute of Digital Learning and Education
National Taiwan University of Science and Technology
Taipei, Taiwan
cctsai@mail.ntust.edu.tw
proposed by [4], the study of [5] has developed an online
platform entitled the Idea Garden that emulates the
Knowledge Forum [6]. The Idea Garden provides
meaningful learning indexes for students and teachers based
on the five dimensions of, active, intentional, collaborative,
authentic and constructive learning [7]. The indexes for the
dimensions were created based on the idea added, total ideas,
idea replied, and picture and video added by students.
Some researchers claimed that knowledge building is a
valuable model to enhance 21st century learning [2]. The
framework of 21st century learning is about the essential
skills students should have to succeed in life in the 21st
century, including the life and career skills, learning and
innovation skills, and information, media and technology
skills [8]. Reference [9] has developed a survey to explore
the students’ perceptions of 21st century learning practices. In
this study, we are interested in exploring the relationship
between students’ perceptions of collaborative knowledge
building as a form of 21st century learning, and their online
knowledge building behaviors. Moreover, the relationships
among students’ perceptions and their knowledge building
behaviors which were provided by meaningful learning
indexes in Idea Garden were also investigated. The research
questions in this study are:
• What are the students’ perceptions of collaborative
knowledge building?
• What are the students’ knowledge building
behaviors using the quantitative indicators?
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 • What are the relationships among students’
perceptions of collaborative knowledge building and
their knowledge building behaviors?
II. METHOD
A. Participants
The participants of this study included 177 primary three
and primary four students (age 9-10 years; consisting of 88
girls and 89 boys) from one of the schools in Singapore. The
participants had used the Idea Garden for collaborative
knowledge building for at least one year in their social
studies classes, as shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1. Example of using the Idea Garden in social studies class.
B. Instrument
This study developed an instrument to assess the
students’ perceptions of collaborative knowledge building.
The instrument adapted the items from the study of [8] and
added new scales from the studies of [2, 9] to address the
special features of collaborative knowledge building. The
items were subject to two education professors’ critique and
subsequently the school teachers also reviewed the items. A
total of 40 items representing the seven subscales were
constructed. The survey was presented in a five-point Likert
scale, ranging from 1 for strongly disagree to 5 for strongly
agree. Descriptions of the scales are as follow:
• Peer working with idea (PI) scale measures students’
perception of engagement in working on ideas together
with peers.
• Knowledge creation efficacy (KCE) scale measures
students’ confidence to create ideas or extend existing
knowledge during learning process.
• Certainty of knowledge (CK) scale measures
students’ belief about whether knowledge is certain or
evolving.
• Critical thinking (CRIT) scale measures students’
awareness to the assessments of their learning process,
such as making decisions, analyzing tasks, and evaluating
arguments.
• Knowledge sources (KS) scale assesses students’
belief about where knowledge comes from, either from
external sources or constructed by self.
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• Problem solving (PS) scale measures students’
agreement that they deal with authentic problems in the
classes.
• Knowledge development (KD) scale investigates
students’ view about how knowledge progress.
C. Data Collection and Analysis
After one year of knowledge building activities, the
students’ perceptions were investigated. The quantitative
survey was factor analyzed to establish its construct validity,
and the reliability coefficients were computed. In conducting
the exploratory factor analysis (EFA), this study utilized
principal component analysis with varimax rotation. Factors
with eigenvalue greater than one were retained. In addition,
the cut-off points for item loadings were set at 0.50. Data
from students’ online behaviors were also tracked through
the meaningful learning indexes for the correlation analysis.
III. RESULTS
A. Exploratory Factor Analysis
The results derived from the factor analysis method
revealed seven factors, namely peer working with idea (PI),
knowledge creation efficacy (KCE), certainty of knowledge
(CR), critical thinking (CRIT), knowledge sources (KS),
problem solving (PS), and knowledge development (KD),
which accounted for 68.89% of the total variance explained.
The initial 40 items were reduced to 34 items. The
reliability coefficients of the seven factors are 0.94, 0.92,
0.84, 0.85, 0.81, 0.78 and 0.69, respectively. The alpha
coefficient for the complete items is 0.94. The results of
coefficients showed that the scales were sufficiently reliable
for investigating students’ perceptions of collaborative
knowledge building.
B. Indicators for Meaningful Learning
The students’ knowledge building behaviors in the Idea
Garden were transformed into five quantitative indicators in
four dimensions, which are suggested by the study of [5], as
shown in Table 1.
TABLE I. DESCRIPTIVE RESULTS OF THE QUANTITATIVE INDICATORS
Quantitative indicators Mean SD
I1. Idea read 727.70 1324.36
I2. Total ideas 9.15 12.72
I3. Idea added 4.66 4.70
I4. Idea replied 4.49 9.35
I5. Picture and video added 1.44 3.43
C. Correlation between Students’ Perceptions and
Indicators as Knowledge Building Behaviors
This study further used correlation analyses between the
seven scales of survey and eight indicators as knowledge
building behaviors. According to Table 2, the students’
scores on the KS scale were significantly correlated with
their behaviors on the I3 (r = -0.17, p < 0.05) and I5 (r = - commitment. The findings also indicate that it is necessary to
0.23, p < 0.01) indicators. re-conceptualize the learning indexes, perhaps building
More interesting, the students’ scores on the KD scale multiple indicators for each dimensions of meaningful
were significantly correlated with their behaviors on the I5 (r learning, for example tracking the use of scaffolds for
= 0.15, p < 0.05) indicator. intentional learning and collaborative learning. Such effort
would lead to further elaboration of data mining that could
TABLE II. CORRELATION BETWEEN STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS AND
produce useful indicators for the knowledge building and 21st
BEHAVIORS
century learning.
Scales I1 I2 I3 I4 I5
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
PI -0.05 -0.10 -0.13 -0.08 0.07
This study was funded by the research grant NRF2015-
KCE 0.02 0.01 -0.06 0.04 0.01
EDU001-EL023
CK 0.08 0.00 -0.05 0.03 -0.12
CRIT 0.07 0.05 -0.02 0.08 0.07
KS -0.02 -0.10 -0.17* -0.04 -0.23** REFERENCES
PS 0.05 -0.03 -0.08 0.00 0.06
KD -0.08 -0.11 -0.09 -0.10 0.15* [1] M. Scardamalia and C. Bereiter, “A brief history of knowledge
building,” Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology, vol 36, Fall
* p < 0.05; ** p < 0.01
2010. Retrieved from
http://www.cjlt.ca/index.php/cjlt/article/view/574
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