Advancing collaborative discourse through knowledge synthesis

Productive collaborative discourse requires students to continuously advance ideas, often through the creation, modification, and integration of digital artifacts in a communal space. Without these processes, ideas remain isolated, fragmented, and unable to advance shared understanding. To support such discourse processes, this study proposes a knowledge synthesis (KS) intervention to facilitate a process of creating knowledge syntheses from ideas represented in digital artifacts and then leveraging these knowledge syntheses, represented in new digital artifacts, to deepen student collaboration. To examine the enactment of this intervention in a graduate-level course, we asked: What were the key characteristics of students’ knowledge synthesis artifacts? How did student groups use the synthesis artifacts during their discourse? To what extent did the synthesis artifacts facilitate collaborative discourse? We analyzed multiple data sources—including student-created synthesis artifacts, perception data, classroom video recordings, and co-constructed group artifacts—using a combination of descriptive, content, and interaction analyses. Findings revealed diverse approaches to knowledge synthesis and showed that synthesis artifacts facilitated discourse progression, fostered a range of knowledge practices, and supported the evolution of group artifacts. By promoting knowledge synthesis and examining its role in collaborative discourse, this study contributes to computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) by advancing the theoretical understanding of knowledge synthesis and offering pedagogical strategies for supporting this practice in classrooms.