Using KF features to support KB

The fundamental aim of knowledge building is to create and improve knowledge through collaboration. Learning therefore occurs as the result of collective effort while simultaneously advancing individual growth, and all acquired knowledge is available at any given time. The Knowledge Forum encourages knowledge building communities in the educational context to think outside the classroom and initiate contributions toward public knowledge through sharing ideas, criticisms and suggestions in a single, public space. The following is a table of how certain functions of the KF might facilitate the social aspects of knowledge building.

Stages in the development of a KB Community	Characteristics of Social Interactions	Related Online Behaviour & Use of KF Features
Open exploration and sharing of ideas	Building a sense of community and maintaining group identity Allowing clearly stated goals and functions of the community Understanding participation of and interaction between different members, making appropriate adjustments to entire community discussion if necessary	Read notes contributed by others most fervently and provide the most constructive and critical add-on discussions/annotations Learning outcome shows that group members can mobilize personal strengths to make use of the features of KF to work on the progression of ideas, so as to sustain and spark knowledge innovation
Progressive inquiry orientation	Identifying key issues to be investigated Allowing members to clearly express aims and intentions behind every opinion Monitoring discussion progress Communicating changes within the community Treating ideas and theories as improvable conceptual artifacts Making references and sharing information from sources outside of the community	Effective use of "scaffold" feature to support critical evaluation and cognitive categorization of one's own input as well as helping others to search and read them Journal entries reveal serious efforts in self-monitoring and deep reflection on the goals, process (including collaboration) and progression in learning Most effective use of keywords, reference and annotate functions to support scholarly exchanges through KF
Socio-metacognitive orientation	Exploring significant problems and seek deep understanding Synthesizing different ideas and building theories Creating historical accounts Evaluating the knowledge building progress Sharing findings with the wider community	Learning outcome demonstrates collective cognitive advancement, a serious investigation from multiple perspectives, and the eagerness and culture of members to embark on collaborative knowledge building Able to demonstrate the various attributes of the knowledge building principles, and also able to perform self-evaluation and peer assessment regularly and then improve the study plan, so as to achieve new syntheses of and better understanding towards the discussion issues
A communal “habit of mind”	Extending knowledge building outside one’s own group Transferring knowledge building into other situations	Can set up interesting questions to study from everyday life and able to pervasively engage in knowledge building for authentic problems Able to read and relate to other groups's discussion notes, and compare and contrast the ideas of the group with those of others, so that expertise can be distributed within and between communities

Successful pedagogies for inquiry and knowledge building

Using KF features to support KB