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Fostering a collaborative and creative climate in a college class through idea-centered knowledge-building

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Abstract

This study explored the effects of student engagement in a knowledge-building (KB) environment on their collaborative learning process and the perceived creative climate of that environment. The participants were 30 college students who undertook a living technology course in which KB were employed. The main data sources include students’ online discourse and a creative climate questionnaire. The findings indicate that the students became progressively more collaborative and productive over time, and they also tended to perceive the climate of the learning environment as highly supportive of knowledge creation. Implications for designing creative learning environments are discussed.

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Acknowledgments

Support for writing this article was provided, in part, from Taiwan’s National Science Council (NSC) grants NSC #99-2511-S-004-002-MY3 and NSC #101-2628-S-004-001-MY3. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author only and do not reflect the opinions of the NSC. We own special thanks to the students for their participation in this study and the research opportunities enabled by their work.

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  1. National Chengchi University, No. 64, Sec. 2, Zhinan Rd., Wenshan District, Taipei, 11605, Taiwan, ROC

    Huang-Yao Hong & Yu-Hui Chang

  2. National Institute of Education, Singapore, Singapore

    Chin Sing Chai

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  1. Huang-Yao Hong
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  2. Yu-Hui Chang
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Correspondence to Huang-Yao Hong.

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Hong, HY., Chang, YH. & Chai, C.S. Fostering a collaborative and creative climate in a college class through idea-centered knowledge-building. Instr Sci 42, 389–407 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11251-013-9289-y

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