Strategies for Idea Improvement using an Idea-Centric Discourse Analysis

This paper investigated the differences between the online discourses of K12 and higher education students, in an effort to understand differences in knowledge building behaviors between them. The higher education students are represented by 13 in-service graduate teachers and K12 students include 20 eighth-graders. An idea-centric analysis was conducted, which showed that discourse in the K12 setting contained ideas less promising to the discourse community than those found in higher education discourse. By considering the differences in the build-on of notes and utilization of scaffolds in discourse, potential strategies were suggested to change the patterns of build-on and use of scaffolds in Knowledge Forum so as to improve the quality of ideas in knowledge building discourse. Teachers can focus resources on promising ideas and strategize the use of scaffolds to maintain engagement and idea improvement within knowledge building discourse for better understanding and attainment of knowledge building goals.