comps reading - Higher Level of Agency for Children in Knowledge Building: A Chellenge for the Design of New Knowledge Media

Written by Marlene Scardamalia and Carl Bereiter, though there's no ZPD mentioned in the title, this paper does talk about Vygotsky's theory and ZPD (Zone of Proximal Development). ZPD is not exclusive to children's learning, that is, both adults and children have ZPD where more knowledgeable others play essential role. However, according to our authors, there is a difference in executive control that is most salient in question-answer dialogue.

"Adults learners typically ask questions based on their perceived knowledge needs, whereas with school children, questions are typically asked by the teacher, based on the teachers' perception of the children's needs"

In the paper, the authors, based on evidence that children can produce and recognize educationally productive questions and can adapt them to their knowledge needs, introduced CSILE (Computer Supported Intentional Learning Environments), a computer supported knowledge medium that aims to design environments for students to use questions to guide their learning, so that they can higher their level of agency in learning.

CSILE is a networked system that gives students simultaneous access to a database that is composed of text and graphical notes that the students produce themselves and a means of searching and commenting on one another's contributions. Three models of teaching are described:

1. task model: student as doer or worker, students as the agent
2. knowledge-based model: Vygotsky's thinking
3. similar to knowledge-based model, with more emphasis on students to take over: both LOGO and CSILE employ this model; more of Piaget's thinking

The authors asked a key question: who is in charge of the zone of proximal development? To answer this question, we first need to know "what gos on in the ZPD." Two kinds of development need to be taken into account:

1. growth in the competencies directly involved in the activity
2. growth toward children's takeover of executive functions

As to who is in charge of ZPD, generally there are three different viewpoints: 1) mutual takeover; 2) learner takeover; and 3) more capable peers takeover. CSILE not only aims to scaffold learners to acquire the executive control in ZPD but also to achieve the goal of knowledge transforming, instead of mere knowledge telling.

Followed by the theoretical explanation, the authors introduced CSILE as to the interface and how to use it. To address whether or not children ask educationally productive questions in CSILE, the authors analyzed questions, be it their representation formats or questions type. In general, text-based questions facilitate bottom-up process, while knowledge-based questions help top-down process. Questions can also be categorized to basic info questions (uneducated guessing) and wonderment questions. Basic questions such as what are fossil fuels have a text-based quality and get quite directly at the kinds of information normally conveyed in basic text-based or encyclopedia treatments of a topic. Uneducated guessing questions are usually yes-no questions that have similar motivation to obtain basic orienting information, except that they take the form if shots in the dark at possible answers. As for wonderment questions, they reflect curiosity, puzzlement, skepticism, or a knowledge-based speculation, in contrast to a grouping for basic orienting information. Some examples of wonderment questions could be "Is everything either a fuel or needs a fuel?" "Can you make different fossil fuels by mixing other fossil fuels?" What kind of questions students are capable of asking depends on whether they have prior knowledge on that topic.

comps reading - Adaptation and Understanding: A Case (CSILE) for New Cultures of Schooling (excerpt)

This paper first dealt with the relationship between "adaptation" and "understandning" in classroom context, pointing out that the extant system/design/context of schooling constraints learners' understanding, due to the following factors:

Classroom work, even when it is meaningful in its underlying intent, is often characterized by arbitrariness in the standards and procedures that most immediately confront the student. Arbitrariness is only one of a number of factors that can undermine the urge to understand. Other conditions of school life that we place in this category include: product orientation, incomprehensible texts and explanations (unintelligibility), limited time for reflection coupled with competitive knowledge display (lack of opportunity for reflection), emphasis on reproducing authoritative statements of facts combined with disadvantages of producing interpretive accounts (emphasis on reproduction of information), overload, discontinuity of much of schoolwork with prior knowledge (remoteness from experienced reality), busywork, and powerlessness and low probability of success (P.150-154, Scardamalia & Bereiter, 1996).

Learners, in order to adapt the extant schooling and meet with the expected/scheduled performance, need to cut off time spent on understnadning so that to accelerate productivity. That's why the authors relate low understandning with adaptation. To address such issue, CSILE (Computer-supported intentional environment) system is developed. "Collective Knowledge" is the center of this system. Here are some characteristics regarding CSILE, mentioned in the paper:

CSILE (Computer-supported intentional learning environment) helps to make understanding adaptive in classroom. It is viewed as a discourse medium; providing a single, communal database into which students may enter various kinds of text and graphic notes. They can retrieve notes by others, comment on them, link notes to one another (like “concept map” in Knowledge Forum?) or create group discussion notes. CSILE0mediated discourse can be carried on in any or all academic areas, limited only by the availability of machine time. In CSILE’s communal database, collective knowledge—as contrasted with school exercises, activities, or private interests—is the center of attention (P.155-156, Scardamalia & Bereiter, 1996).

The strategy we (CSILE researchers Scardamalia & Bereiter) have used to address issues particular to the role of understanding is to present students with material that is, by age-adjusted standards (readability levels, problem-solving difficulty), more demanding than typically dealt with successfully at their age. We also looked for depth of explanations in students’ written reports. We would expect CSILE students to have beliefs about learning that reflect mature views of understanding. In summary, CSILE students consistently outperform control students in ways that suggest more understanding. The longer students spend working with CSILE, the better the results (P.158-159, Scardamalia & Bereiter, 1996).