Knowledge Building: Ontario Continues to Move Forward in Education

The province of Ontario continues to move forward in education. We have left behind the idea of best practices and the assumption that we have nothing left to learn. The release of the new Social Studies, History and Geography curriculum marks a shift to inquiry and student-led learning. Play-based learning has returned to kindergarten. We are moving to classrooms as places of knowledge building.

" In KB/KC classrooms, students work to identify problems of understanding, create theories, carry out research and investigations in order to refine their theories over time, revise their problems and strategies, and share and monitor the progress of the community towards its goals of advancing knowledge." http://knowledge-building.org/

To support this shift, the LNS has created a Knowledge Building site where educators can see what knowledge building classrooms look like, learn about knowledge building practices and access the pedagogy.

On the site you will find a number of videos from my school where students, my former vice-principal and I share how learning happens in a knowledge building classroom. Elements of integrative thinking such as the ladder of inference and causal modeling are discussed. Students share how they have come to value and listen to each other more carefully because of how we learn. Some of our inquiry practices are presented. The culmination of our work last year - meaningful feedback - is also there.  You will also find video from other Ontario classrooms and educators who illustrate various elements of knowledge building. The site will continue to be updated. Feel free to join and contribute to the discussions on knowledge building.