#114: From Idea Consumers to Knowledge Co-Creators: A 3-Year Design Study of Sustained Creative Work Through Cross-Community Partnership

This three-year design-based research (DBR) study investigates how to shift students from being passive consumers of information to active co-creators of knowledge. Conducted in three iterative phases, the study progressed from a local Grade 2 classroom to a cross-national partnership between Grade 2 (Canada) and Grade 9 (Spain). Using a mixed-methods approach, including a novel AI-based analytical tool (StAS), results demonstrate a clear progression from students reproducing authoritative information to engaging in authentic knowledge synthesis and co-design. These findings provide a model for cultivating epistemic agency by progressively expanding the "public" for student ideas and utilizing multimodal tools for collaborative theory building.