Establishment of a Professional Development Network for Knowledge Building in Schools

This project is funded by the Education Bureau and it aimed at supporting schools on developing and scaling up knowledge building pedagogy, sustaining teacher professional growth, and improving student learning through a knowledge building teacher network (KBTN).

Since September 2008, this project becomes part of the University-School Support Project (USP) under the School-based support services (SBSS) titled "Professional Development Network for Knowledge Building in Schools". The project leaders are Prof. Nancy Law and Dr. Carol Chan, Associate Professor of Faculty of Education. The USP project has started in September 2008 and is expected to be completed in August 2011. A team of expert knowledge-building teachers are seconded to EDB to assist participating teachers in implementing the knowledge building approach together with the project team from CITE, HKU. Six half-time seconded teachers (STs) and more than 60 participating teachers from 25 schools (11 primary schools, 13 secondary schools, 1 special school) have been recruited for this academic year. Knowledge Forum®, which is hosted at CITE (http://kf.cite.hku.hk), is used by teachers and students in the project to facilitate their collaborative knowledge building activities.

Objectives of the project:

• To motivate teachers and students to work collaboratively on developing knowledge building;
• To develop repertories of pedagogies and assessment strategies that facilitate knowledge building;
• To develop a model of teacher network that promotes teacher professional development and quality student learning.
• To equip students with holistic abilities of inquiry, reading to learn, generic skills, teamwork, IT skills, and life-wide learning, etc.
• To foster students’ active learning and higher-order thinking
• To enhance learning and teaching effectiveness

Activities in the year 2007/08:

• Weekly ST meetings
  • Sharing among STs as well as scaffolding for knowledge building and professional development among the STs.
  • A total of 21ST meetings were conducted since August 2008.
• Mentoring
  • Regular school visits for on-site professional support to mentees and other forms of contact such as emails and phone calls.
  • On average, each ST has paid 12 visits to the participating schools and frontline teachers that he/she was mentoring.
• Teacher development workshops
  • Sharing of experience in knowledge building implementation, designing pedagogy and assessment for knowledge building, and trouble-shooting common problems.
  • A total of 3 workshops were organized at CITE since September 2008.
• International collaboration (KB International Project- KBIP)
  • In school year 2007-2008, three schools have established connections with schools overseas for international collaborative knowledge building activities
  • 10 students from two KBIP schools have participated in the Tomorrow’s Innovators session in the IKIT Summer Institute in Toronto, 5-8 August 2008
  • In the 4 days period, students engaged in knowledge building activities with children from Quebec, as well as domain experts on the topic of how environment affect quality of water.
  • In school year 2008-2009, six schools have established connections with schools overseas for international collaborative knowledge building activities
  • Five student video conference sessions have been organized for these classrooms to discuss with their international counterparts face to face.
• Dissemination
  • Introducing to local and overseas education professionals about the KBTN project and the implementation of knowledge building in local schools.
  • Dissemination was held in June at the CITERS 2008. The network teachers and students shared their experience on knowledge building and demonstrated their knowledge forum databases.

Seminars/Workshops/Conference in 2007/08

Name of Event	Date	Venue	No. of Participants	Brief Description
CITERS 2008 — Plenary presentation, Theme: "Knowledge Building"	7 June 2008	Rayson Huang Theatre, HKU		Keynote speech by Prof. Marlene Scardamalia on Advances in knowledge building theory; teachers introducing classroom examples; students presenting their KF® databases.
CITERS 2008 — KBTN Teacher Workshop	7 June 2008	CITE, HKU	65	To design curriculum units for knowledge building implementation in the next academic year
Knowledge Building Teacher Development Workshop (0) — Induction	23 August 2008	CITE, HKU	85	An introductory workshop for knowledge building teachers.
Knowledge Building Teacher Development Workshop (1) — Knowledge Building Principles	27 September 2008	CITE, HKU	62	A workshop on knowledge building principles for knowledge building teachers.
Knowledge Building Teacher Development Workshop (2) — Curriculum Planning	15 November 2008	CITE, HKU	39	A workshop on curriculum planning for knowledge building teachers
Knowledge Building Teacher Development Workshop (3) — To motivate & deepen student discussion	10 January 2009	CITE, HKU	38	A workshop on knowledge building principles and ways to help students
CITERS 2009 — KBTN Plenary presentation: University-school partnership and international networking for quality education	7 March 2009	Rayson Huang Theatre, HKU		Keynote speech by Dr. Mireia MONTANE TUCA from Spain, and local KB participating teachers’ and students’ sharing
CITERS 2009 — KBTN Open Workshop	7 March 2009	CITE, HKU	60	KBTN participating students’ sharing of their Knowledge Forum® work.