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The purpose of this study was to propose a mixed-methods approach to analyzing shared epistemic agency in jigsaw instruction from multiple temporal perspectives, and to evaluate its effectiveness by examining actual datasets. We employed a combination of socio-semantic network analysis (SSNA) and in-depth dialogical discourse analysis as a mixed-methods approach, and analyzed discourse transcripts by university students engaged in jigsaw instruction. First, we graphically depicted a quantitative measure of shared epistemic agency at the group level and identified pivotal points of discourse where students might engage in an epistemic action toward alleviating a lack of knowledge. Then, we conducted dialogical discourse analysis of the segments around the pivotal points to describe students' collaboration practices. SSNA represented the quantitative nature of shared epistemic agency with 60% accuracy and provided a new way to look at it as a distribution of pivotal points for alleviating a lack of knowledge across all processes of jigsaw group activities. The dialogical discourse analysis of the discourse segments identified by SSNA further described dialogical patterns in the shared epistemic agency and each student's contribution to them..

This study proposes a new methodological approach to evaluate students’ knowledge‐building discourse. First, we discuss the knowledge–creation metaphor of learning. In the metaphor, theories mention that learners should consider their collective knowledge objects or artifacts that materialize as a result of their collaborative discourse. Second, we argue the necessity of developing new analytics to evaluate student learning. We describe how students’ ideas and their conceptual artifacts can be examined in discourse analysis. Third, we demonstrate the application of our analytics to real discourse data. We conducted a new type of social network analysis of discourse to examine how students continuously improve their ideas. Further, we conducted another network analysis of discourse, called the Epistemic Network Analysis, by coding students’ epistemic actions as conceptual artifacts to create and examine their ideas.

Knowledge building as defined in this study is emergent collaborative learning on ill-structured tasks. Although discourses in collaborative learning have been analyzed with traditional qualitative approaches in the learning sciences field, it is difficult to capture the group dynamics. Hence, we are trying to establish a methodology for discourse analysis in collaborative learning from the perspective of complex network science. In order to conduct this study effectively, we are currently developing an application platform, called Knowledge Building Discourse Explorer (KBDeX). The goal of this project is not only to facilitate productive communication between researchers who are concerned with research on knowledge building or emergent collaborative learning, but also to encourage students to explore their own group dynamics by themselves. KBDeX is an analysis platform to visualize network structures of discourse based on the bipartite graph of words × discourse units. KBDeX can visualize them into three different network structures of: (1) students, (2) discourse units, and (3) selected words. The users can explore these three networks with its coefficients and analyze the discourse across phases or in a and stepwise way. Using discourse which has been already analyzed with a traditional qualitative approach, we will demonstrate the beneficial attributes of the KBDeX platform.

The purpose of this study is to refine Japanese elementary science activity structures by using a CSCL approach to transform the classroom into a knowledgebuilding community. We report design studies on two science lessons in two consecutive years and describe the progressive refinement of the activity structures. Through comparisons of student activities on-and off-line, it was found that the implementation of a CSCL environment facilitated students' idea-centered activity. The task requirement for students to engage in collective and reciprocal activities reflecting on their own ideas was also effective if it required students to use their conceptual understanding for producing something concrete.

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