Transfer and Scaling of Knowledge Building Practices: a Journey from Diffusion Approach to Situative Knowledge Creation Community Approach

This paper reports a 12-year journey of bringing knowledge building practices into Singaporean classrooms and scaling up related pedagogical practices to more classrooms. It started with a linear diffusion approach, through a researcher (the author) who introduced the pedagogy to selected classrooms. In the mid-term, a collaborative learning approach was adopted which involved both researchers and teachers in co-designing lessons. The current approach can be regarded as a situative knowledge building community in which the teachers assume agency, not only in enhancing effectiveness of pedagogical practices in their classrooms, but also in spreading the practices to other classrooms and schools. The researchers facilitate teacher learning by helping the teachers to reflect and intentionally create knowledge artifacts that capture their advancement in understanding of their knowledge building practices. This journey has implications for the field of research on transfer and scaling of innovation. Rather than restricting to a categorical choice of specific approaches, it suggests an evolving trajectory that is dependent on the contextual conditions of the recipient sites and therefore, a need for an amalgamation of approaches at different phases of the journey.