Theme 3: Crossing Interprofessional, Intercultural, and Interpersonal Boundaries in Knowledge Building Shared Resources: Collaboration and New Technologies

Gender participation patterns in Knowledge Forum: An analysis of two graduate-level classes Olivia Robertson, Jim Hewitt, & Marlene Scardamalia OISE/University of Toronto, ON, Canada

Poster Abstract Recently published research by Hakkarainen and Palonen (2003) compared the Knowledge Forum participation patterns of males and females in two elementary school classrooms: one based upon a traditional task-based pedagogical model and one based upon a Knowledge Building Community (KBC) framework. The study found that male students dominated the discourse in the traditional classroom, while participation patterns in the KBC classroom favoured females. This poster reports on a study that conducts a similar analysis at the post-secondary level. A study of two graduate-level hybrid courses uncovered gender-specific trends in the Knowledge Forum behavior patterns of men and women. Implications for knowledge building are discussed. This poster is accompanied by an interactive activity, based loosely on Berman & Bruckman’s (Berman and Bruckman 2001)Turing Test game, in which conference participants read randomly-selected Knowledge Forum notes and try to guess the author’s gender.