Collaborative Knowledge Construction in Online Vocational Teacher Education

The purpose of this paper is to build a picture of knowledge construction models in online education. The study describes the knowledge construction process of a group of vocational teacher education students in an online learning environment. In the online studies, a model of progressive inquiry was applied. The students worked in small groups throughout the learning process. The phenomenon in question has not been previously researched very widely. The student group was heterogenic, so the learning strategies were also individual. The students had varied backgrounds with Master’s level or PhD degrees on very different fields. The field of specialisation also has its effect on the preferred learning strategies. The vocational teacher education programme consists of 60 credits and it can be completed within one academic year. The research consists of three phases, in accordance with the hybrid model introduced by Schwarz-Barcott and Kim (2000). During the theoretical phase, information regarding knowledge construction was sought in literature and practical teaching work. In the empirical phase, a narrative approach was applied to compile information regarding the collaborative knowledge construction and knowledge processing of the teacher students during the online discussions of their online teacher education study programme. The narrators are 20 writers in a UAS (University of Applied Sciences) environment in Southern Finland. The material has been collected during the academic year 2007-2008. In the analytical phase, knowledge construction in e-learning is described as a synthesis of the theoretical and the empirical material. The results gained in the analytical phase suggest that the collaborative knowledge processing in the online discussions is affected by a knowledge construction theory that will be introduced in this article. The knowledge construction process is dependent on various factors, such as cultural and social matters, learning strategies and features of the learning environment. Another crucial aspect revealed by the analysis is that the complexity of the learning content should be faced already at the beginning of the studies. At this point the need for guidance is also at its greatest. The results of this study are preliminary and at this point we have only concentrated on knowledge construction in online discussions. The applications of e-learning are however increasingly versatile and deepening pedagogical understanding in different online educational contexts will require further research. Our purpose is to extend the knowledge construction study towards social media applications during next academic year.