Knowledge diffusion* in a grade 4-5 classroom during a unit on civil engineering: An analysis of a classroom community in terms of its changing resources and practices

Abstract

This study was designed to investigate the adoption of different types of knowledge, resources (facts and objects), and tool-and concept-related practices in a Grade 4-5 classroom studying a unit on civil engineering. Based on the detailed analysis of videotaped student-student interactions and fieldnotes, this article documents how a classroom was transformed as a tool (glue gun) and associated practices came to be shared by the members of the classroom community. The data suggest that the process of learning a tool-related practice was a trajectory from limited peripheral participation to full participation in the practice as newcomers learned by working at the elbows of their more competent peers. This process always involved transformations associated with the embodiment of practices in individuals. The adoption of a tool also transformed the very setting in which students learned. The transformation of the classroom community in terms of resources (factual knowledge) and intellectual practices is illustrated by means of two comparison cases. An actor network theory is used to account for the near effortless student-centered adoption of resources and tool-related practices and for the effort-consuming teacher-centered change of a concept-related practice. The strength of the actor network approach lies in its ability to account for unsuccessful adoption of resources and practices.