Knowledge Building for Climate Change Education: A case study of a Maldivian teacher
Keywords:
climate change education; idea generation; idea improvement; knowledge buildingAbstract
This study proposes the Knowledge Building (KB) pedagogy as a collaborative method for climate change education. Few studies have explored how teachers new to KB have used the approach involving students who are also new to KB in classrooms. This study explores how a grade seven science teacher used the KB approach for the first time to support student learning about climate change, specifically focusing on facilitating idea generation and the revision and refinement of ideas. The teacher implemented KB in two rounds with her class of 20 students. A qualitative case study design was employed to collect the data. Data was collected from classroom observations, teacher interviews, student interviews, and teacher reflections; it was coded, and categories were derived from the emergent data. The results show that the teacher attempted to facilitate the students’ idea generation, revision and refinement of those ideas as a collaborative process. While brainstorming and reflective comparisons fostered the idea-generation process, structural guidance facilitated revising and refining ideas. This educational method is essential for teaching about complex issues like climate change because it enables students to apply their existing knowledge to explore better solutions. While this research contributes to the ongoing research works on understanding how teachers new to the approach apply knowledge building in practice, particularly in facilitating idea generation and idea improvement, teachers should assume the role of facilitators, work together with students as partners, and provide extra guidance required during the process, especially when they are unfamiliar with KB or similar approaches.
https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.24.10.7
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