Framework for Exchanges and Inquiry

Use of this framework is intended to highlight the interplay between knowledge, inquiry, and ideas about possible social actions.
In the simplest case (see other variants), one person begins an exchange by making a

Knowledge claim

then other participants formulate responses to this knowledge claim using one or both of the following pair of prompts:

Actions that follow from the Knowledge: What change could people pursue if they accept the Knowledge claim?

Questions for further Inquiry: What more do you want to know in order to—

• clarify what people could do (thus feeding back -> Actions).
• clarify which people are interested in that action (thus feeding back -> Actions).
• understand more (and revise/refine the knowledge claim, thus feeding back -> Knowledge claim).

Questions invite inquiry, which may elicit further Knowledge claims or develop through notes and drafts into a more detailed Summary or Substantive Statement on a topic or set of resources (including bibliographies).



All contributors should provide References to cited publications and links to other Resources.

Instructions

Alternative Starting Points for Exchanges

• People introduce not only a knowledge claim, but also their ideas about Actions and Questions for further inquiry.
• People introduce a proposed Action, then they or other participants ‚Äúbackfill‚Äù by identifying what knowledge claim(s) this Action is based on.
• People introduce a Question for inquiry, then they or other participants backfill by identifying the Action or Knowledge claim that this question clarifies.
• An instructor or facilitator of exchanges contributes a Scenario, then other participants extract Knowledge claims from this and use it as a basis for proposing Actions and identifying Questions for further inquiry.
• Ditto after people present a Summary of Substantive statement on a topic (or their notes and drafts).

Subsequent Phases of the Exchange

(These phases may overlap.)

• Brainstorming before participants identify specific issues and directions they are interested to focus on.
• KAQ worksheet for participants to think carefully through the K-A-Q connections (and identify ways or methods to investigate each Q).
  • These worksheets may be completed off-line (or in interaction only with the instructor/facilitator) before being exposed to the other participants.
  • The simplest contribution to an exchange is to add an Action or Question to a Knowledge Claim made by another participant.
• Probing each others’ thinking (as well as one’s own) by asking about
  • Knowledge claims: “How do you Know that? -- What's the evidence (e.g., from a Scenario used to initiate an exchange), assumptions, and reasoning?”
  • Actions: ‚ÄúWhat knowledge claim(s) does this Action follow from?‚Äù ‚ÄúWhat problem raised in the Scenario does that Action relate to?‚Äù ‚ÄúWhich people or group would be pursuing this Action?‚Äù ‚ÄúWhich people or group would this Action seek to change?‚Äú
  • Questions: ‚ÄúHow will you investigate this question?‚Äù ‚ÄúWill your method of research best enable you to find this out?‚Äú
    • If your thinking needs to be clarified or spelled out, go back and revise accordingly.
    • If there is a knowledge claim stated or implied in your response or in anyone else's that warrants an exchange of its own, state the claim explicitly and succinctly. You may compose the initial version of the new page or indicate in parentheses that a new page is needed. In the latter case, you or someone else can compose the initial version of the new page later. Similarly, indicate if you think a topic warrants a Summary or Substantive statement.
• Periodic summary of new developments by the instructor/facilitator (without which it may be difficult for participants to keep track of each others’ contributions).
• Inquiry or investigation so as to find answers for some of the questions.
• Individual or collaborative development of Summaries and Substantive Statements.
  • Don't be intimidated by the label ‚ÄúSubstantive Statement‚Äù -- this may start as notes or a draft, which only later gets revised into a well-organized and referenced information on the topic.
  • If these are shared at an early stage as notes, then more than one participant can contribute to their development into a polished form (following the model of wikipedia|wikipedia entries).
• Presentations of the outcomes of inquiry.

Instructions for exchanges on a listserv, threaded discussion, or face2face setting

• To help others refer back, identify the page and the specific Knowledge claim, proposed Action, or Question to which you are responding.
• Indicate what kind of response you are making. (Using the prefixes k., a., q., s. helps make this clear.)

Instructions for exchanges on a wiki

• Use the sandbox to experiment and refer to further instructions on using wikispaces.
• Identify your contributions by placing in parentheses your wikispaces username or your real name or guest.
• When you make your first contribution, add yourself to the contributors page (optional).
• If your contribution is probing someone else's thinking (see above), indent this directly below the point you are probing.
• If you have an answer to a question, you may include it EITHER indented after the question (if it is short) OR as a new Knowledge claim (which allows others to respond to your claim) OR as a Summary/Substantive Statement (if you have notes on a topic or have developed them into a well-referenced guide to this topic). The 2nd & 3rd kind of answer require a new page.
• When you create a new page, give it an abbreviated name of 25 characters or fewer that conveys your Knowledge claim. If you develop your thinking first on a personal, unlinked wikipage, then rename this page when you ‚Äúgo public.‚Äù Add the page to the Index of Pages related to the set of exchanges or unit in a course. Identify yourself at the bottom of the page as the originator of the page.
• When you have more detailed findings on a topic, make a link to a new page on which you present a Summary or Substantive statement OR to a file that you upload to the wiki.
• When you refer to an existing or new Knowledge claim or to a topic of a Summary or Substantive Statement, make a link to it.

(original page by - pjt )