Advancing elementary students’ reading comprehension scores through knowledge building

This study employs Knowledge Building pedagogy and Knowledge Forum technology to advance reading literacies in a third-grade elementary reading class in Taiwan. We hypothesized that sustained engagement in idea-centered discussions surrounding reading materials would lead to higher levels of reading comprehension (i.e., interpretation, and integration). Using a quasi-experiment design, we collected: (a) students’ online Knowledge Building behaviors, (b) group reading discussions, and (c) students’ reading comprehension assessment. Our findings reveal that the experimental group (Knowledge Building) outperformed the control group (direct instruction) on the comprehension assessment. Additionally, we found that the Knowledge Building intervention supported the development of students’ higher-level reading comprehension.