Building students’ collaborative knowledge work competence in upper secondary classrooms

Upper secondary education should provide students with relevant competence for further studies and lifelong development: students are expected to learn collaborative knowledge work practices in order to be able to succeed in knowledge-based and digitalized society. This requires that teachers utilize pedagogies that support the learning of such abilities. This study investigates upper secondary students’ learning of knowledge work and online inquiry competence in the context of pedagogical intervention implemented in five teaching groups. Survey data from students and interview data from teachers were collected after the intervention. Students evaluated their learning of online inquiry (searching for information and evaluating knowledge sources) quite high. Students reported that the ways of working in the group project were novel to them, but they had mixed opinions of the challenge and usefulness of the task. The results show that there is variation in how important upper secondary students consider the practicing of collaborative knowledge work and online inquiry skills. Teachers perceived the pedagogical intervention materials – syllabus, teaching materials, guidelines, project report template and digital workspace – as applicable in the curriculum of Mother tongue and literature course. Still, they reported that it was challenging to strictly follow ready-made pedagogical design; in ordinary situation, they would have more freedom to adjust their teaching in relation to students’ learning needs and progress. The findings suggest that pedagogical interventions and materials can pave the way for the use of optimal pedagogies in upper secondary classrooms to build students’ knowledge work competence and further improve student learning.