CSCL-Based Pre-Service Teacher Program as Knowledge Building

The study reports two design experiments on the pre-service teacher program to advance their understanding of learning as knowledge building. We designed the course with a CSCL tool. In the first year, we did not have information on students’ characteristics. Analyses of students’ final essays and their discourse activities on the CSCL showed: (1) that we failed to improve students’ understanding at our expected level, (2) that collaborative students reached a deeper understanding than isolated students, and (3) that students’ beliefs of didactic instruction resisted the new perspective on learning we introduced. In the second year, we designed the course to overcome students’ resistance and to facilitate more frequent collaboration among them by: (1) making the course project-based, (2) having students in a small group use a computer for their collaboration between groups, and (3) involving them in collaborative problem-solving as learners. Results in the second year, compared with those in the first year, showed a crucial improvement of students’ conceptual understanding.