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2 references
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- Vol 3 TE: App C
knowledge buildingobjective knowledgeconceptual artefactsepistemic agencycollective responsibilitytheory improvementcommunal idea developmentBook Evidence summaryAt a glance
Bereiter argues that education needs a conception of mind and knowledge suited to societies in which creating and improving knowledge is central.
Key ideas
He distinguishes learning, understood as change in an individual's mental state, from knowledge building, understood as deliberate work on ideas that exist as public, improvable objects. Drawing on Popper's account of objective knowledge, the book treats theories, explanations, designs, and problems as conceptual artefacts communities can criticise and advance. Schools often remain focused on tasks, coverage, and individual achievement, whereas knowledge-building communities take collective responsibility for improving understanding. Technology can support this work but does not create the culture by itself.
Why it matters
For educators, the book recommends sustained work on authentic problems, visible communal ideas, explanation and theory improvement, epistemic agency, and assessment of progress in the quality and coherence of knowledge.
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- Vol 6 RE: Chapter 10
knowledge creationknowledge buildingepistemic agencycollective responsibilityconceptual objectsconstructive criticismshared problemstheory improvementBook chapter Evidence summaryAt a glance
Bereiter and Scardamalia compare knowledge building in education with knowledge creation in organisations.
Key ideas
Both involve purposeful creation and improvement of ideas, but they face different hills to climb. Education must move beyond treating knowledge as something students privately acquire and establish communities in which even young learners have epistemic agency and collective responsibility for advancing explanations. Organisational research must move beyond describing knowledge sharing or innovation outcomes and explain how sustained work with conceptual objects produces genuinely new knowledge. The authors argue that learning may result from knowledge building, but individual learning is not its defining objective; the public improvement of ideas is.
Why it matters
For educators, the chapter clarifies why discussion or collaboration alone is insufficient: students need shared problems, improvable theories, evidence, constructive criticism, and tools that preserve the history of communal idea development.
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Edition abbreviations
- TE
- Teacher Edition
- PE
- Practice Edition
- RE
- Research Edition
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