Elementary School Children Exchange Information About Environment: Reading, Writing And Knowledge Organization

In the most common school practice students (and teachers) are seen as consumers (and transmitters) of culture. A factor of dis-equilibrium in such a system is introduced when students (and teachers) become involved in the production, accumulation, and circulation of ideas that can be eventually appropriated or critically rejected by other members of the community, as it is the case in the scientific community. An external audience constitutes a powerful "constraint" to the class practice: a) it questions the social value of the outcomes of the activities, to select what to make public, b) it requires argumentation, c) it creates awareness of alternative ways of pursuing the same goals, d) it demands confrontation with other standards of validity and of quality, and e) it makes one more responsible and proud of one's own achievements since they become shared resources. Based on these assumptions, we designed an educational context where the software Our World is a component. Educational research is making significant progress in the comprehension of the principles which can guide the teachers in the organization and management of communities of learners (Brown & Campione, 1996; Lamon Secules, Hackett, Bransford, Goldman, 1996; Ligorio & Caravita, 1994; Scardamalia, Bereiter, & Lamon, 1994; Salomon, 1993). Consistently with the socio-constructivist theories, these studies have confirmed that action strategies, thinking strategies and communication strategies depend on one another for their development and growth, and require a social context. Recursive elaboration is motivated by the circulation of products in a community where expertise is distributed and where products must be integrated in order to achieve a higher level of complexity.