| Can electronic discussion improve scientific discourse among students, support knowledge integration, and enhance students' conceptual understanding? This study investigates these questions using an environment called the Multimedia Forum Kiosk (MFK).;When students are in the process of learning science, they draw on their intuitions, learn to distinguish between conflicting accounts, and integrate alternative explanations for scientific phenomena. Effective science instruction cultivates initial understanding, introduces alternate models more consistent with normative models, and supports a dynamic process of knowledge integration that links separate ideas into a cohesive web of connections.;I hypothesize that electronic discussion can contribute to knowledge integration in science by providing a new social context for learning that prompts students to articulate their ideas and makes ideas visible for teacher inspection. Through peer-to-peer interactions like asking questions, requesting clarification, revising interpretations, or elaborating ideas, students learn both the limits and utility of different models to explain scientific phenomena. These on-line social interactions support knowledge integration by helping to broaden students' initial repertoire of models, demonstrating personal utility for particular ideas, and encouraging students to refine their understanding of science.;Does discussion in MFK achieve these goals? Electronic discussion in MFK affords greater opportunities to discuss science concepts compared to face-to-face discussion. Electronic discussion is also more gender equitable. MFK helps students progress in their ability to elaborate, explain, and ask pertinent questions, and provides a diversity of scientific models articulated by peers. Factors in the social context such as comment attribution, community social norms, and peer collaboration, enabled high participation and knowledge integration.;This research (1) characterizes design features that promote productive discussion and high student participation, (2) follows students' collective and individual progress in the integration of concepts about heat, temperature, and heat energy, and (3) delineates aspects of the social context that contribute to knowledge integration and demonstrates the unique role electronic discussion can play. It offers specific recommendations for the design of productive electronic discussion based on a comparison of three different discussion formats, enriches our understanding of the knowledge integration process through collaborative discourse, and provides implications for the design of future collaborative learning environments. |
