In-service teachers’ knowledge building during face-to-face collaborative learning

Teaching is inherently a knowledge-building (KB) endeavor. This research engaged groups of in-service teachers in collaborative concept mapping activities to foster their KB and used a multi-method approach to empirically investigate KB. Four teacher groups were identified: two high-performing, collectively oriented groups engaging in argumentation (Group 2) and agreement (Group 3); and two low-performing, individually oriented groups engaging in questioning (Group 4) and disagreement (Group 1). The differences between the groups resulted from three key factors: group argumentation, sense of collective responsibility, and engagement in metacognition. This research proposed instructional strategies and analytical implications for teachers’ KB practices.