Scaffolding Primary Students’ Epistemological Beliefs using Knowledge Building Pedagogy

Abstract

Knowledge building requires students to identify complex real-world problems, continuously adjust their strategies to address them, and make collective progress within the community’s knowledge advancement. In knowledge building environments, students’ epistemological beliefs reflect their conceptualization of the nature of knowledge creation. This study focuses on the development of students’ epistemological beliefs during the collaborative knowledge building process. Employing a coding schema grounded in Popper’s World 3 theory, we analyzed the epistemological belief changes of 28 elementary school students before and after collective knowledge building activities. The results indicate that collective knowledge building significantly enhanced students’ epistemological beliefs. During the process of collaborative inquiry, students who initially held World 2 beliefs transformed towards more advanced World 3–based epistemological beliefs through their participation in the development of communal knowledge. This study provides an in-depth analysis of students’ knowledge building processes, aiming to contribute to the theoretical advancement of knowledge building and its instructional practices.