Can Schools Enter a Knowledge Society

A familiar question is how can schools prepare students for the 21st century? But this question produces answers little different from those that would have been produced at the dawn of the 20th century. One answer is didactic instruction focused on traditional subject matter. The other is what has variously been called progressive, childcentered, open, or activity-centered education. Each has merit, but neither prepares students for 21st-century knowledge work. The idea of a knowledge building community presents a third alternative--an alternative that encompasses the other two. In these communities knowledge creation is built into the social fabric of the community, and into the technologies that support knowledge work. Thus progressive problem solving becomes as integral to schooling as it is to knowledge-based professions and knowledge-creating organizations.