Investigating Social Network Models in Knowledge Building Teacher Communities

This proposed researched aims to examine online Knowledge Building Communities (KBC) for teacher professional development. KBC is a community, which is composed of a group of individuals working collaboratively to create collective knowledge rather than construction of a specific product or completion of a task. There is a commitment among the members of KBC to invest its resources in the collective pursuit of understanding (Hewitt, Brett, Scardamalia, Frecker, & Webb, 1995). In this research, I will focus on professional development in a KBC in order to define ideal conditions and constraints that constitute an optimal Knowledge Building professional development. In order to do this, I will examine a variety of network models of the participants and the ideas that are emerged in online KBC. Furthermore, the evolution of these models and the factors that affect the formation and evolution of them will be scrutinized. Accordingly, the results will be used to inform the development of the network models framework.

Faculty Supervisor:

Marlene Scardamalia

Student:

Derya KICI

Partner:

Discipline:

Education

Sector:

University:

University of Toronto

Program:

Globalink