Summary: I use past knowledge-making entries to introduce recently presented research by Aviv, Ehrlich and Ravid (2003) on the effect of structuring knowledge-making efforts which occur in online learning groups .

Several months ago I began what turned into a series of knowledge-making entries. I started with knowledge logs (or klogs) for individuals and then explored the possibilities of advancing the cause of knowledge-making in online and in naturally occurring [as in families, neighborhoods, school classrooms, church/temple/mosque membership, etc.] groups. .

As introduction to this piece I note my implicit belief that knowledge-making is a constant process in individual and group existence. for any individual or any group, the way to the next period of equilibrium within a particular situation almost always involves some form of problem-solving, knowledge gathering and consequent redesign of individual or group behavior in that situation. As a result the life of individuals and the shared life of groups is punctuated by an unending series of such knowledge-making/problem-solving episodes.

In the entry Blogs and Klogs

I focused my attention on the impact of weblog use on individual knowledge-making.

In the second entry , The Bounded Group Knowledge-Making Hypothesis, I reasoned that knowledge-making by a group of kloggers who have accepted certain rules of operation will be quite accelerated when compared to the knowledge-making of individuals working alone and without klogs or with only one of the two augmenting conditions.

In the third entry I asked a slightly different question. How can we make naturally occurring groups more effective? I then argued in Knowledge- Making for Naturally Constituted Groups --still do-- that we must build our knowledge enhancement strategy for society around realistic assumptions. I argue that if our program is to enhance social conditions, writ large, then we must design processes for the broader reality. In my experience of that broader reality, it would be naive to design for social situations requiring 100, 75 or 50% competent web technologists. A realistic approach must be built upon a program that assumes not only that most groups will have a small minority of klogging knowledge-makers but that each group will have a relatively small portion that are effective group knowledge-makers in broader nontechnical sense.

In these entries the HOW of the knowledge-making process I left to a later effort. My intent was to divert and minimize energy expenditure on a) unlikely group knowledge-making scenarios to b)the likely and typical structure of group learning scenarios.

In this entry I pass on a research-based recounting of the enabling effects of bounding (structuring) within-group learning. In this group learning situation the bounding of activities and behaviors of learners in an online, discussion-based class lead to considerable enhancement of behaviors reflecting a high level of critical,socially negotiated and summative thinking skills.

In the article Network Analysis of Cooperative Learning three researchers compare the structure/nonstucture-based learning effects in two online discussion group classes.

Abstract:

We contrast two cooperative asynchronous learning groups - one structured, the other non-structured. The outcome was measured by content analysis. The cohesion and role structures were analyzed by Social Network Analysis.
The structured group constructed knowledge at high levels of critical thinking, developed a mesh of interconnected cliques, and students undertook bridging and leading roles. The non-structured group constructed knowledge at low level of cognitive activities, few cliques were constructed, and most of the students undertook the simple role of teacher followers. This provides empirical support for the idea that structuring cooperative learning groups develop cohesion and role structures that are associated with knowledge construction at high levels of critical thinking.

Among the structuring elements that were used in the more effective class were:

Formal Debate

Each participant committed to active participation with a reward for doing so.

Moral Dimension of Student Product: Students were assigned to an advisory committee advising a business on the negative impact of business activity on public health.

Student activity within advisory committee constrained within a series of production stages.

First stage: identify facts, debate solutions and propose a synthesis.

Next three steps: Test the solutions against a prescribed set of principles.

Final Stage: Provide an [executive] summary [presumably with recommended actions and accompanying rationale].

While the structuring was of online behavior... these same structuring ideas could, I believe, be applied to mixed groups (those having online participants and those not using the internet) and to nontechnical group. In any of these cases the bounding would tend to focus , connect, motivate and energize cohesive action which will simultaneously provide considerable scope for individual learning.