ABSTRACT
The purpose of the present study was to analyze the epistemological nature of elementary school students’ process of knowledge-seeking inquiry in the Computer-Supported Intentional Learning Environments (CSILE) (Scardamalia & Bereiter, 1991). The problem addressed in the study was whether school children could achieve certain fundamental aspects of scientific inquiry, such as engaging in a sustained question-driven process of inquiry, invoking explanation-driven processes of understanding, working collaboratively to improve constructed explanations, and participating in progressive discourse. The problem was studied by analyzing the epistemological characteristics of knowledge produced by one Finnish and two Canadian CSILE classes.
