Collaboratively Learning How To Use Data: The Process of Knowledge Creation

Data-based decision making in education can lead to school improvement. However, teachers often do not use data effectively. In the Netherlands, school leaders and teachers work collaboratively in data teams to create knowledge about data use to improve their education. However, more insight into the process of knowledge creation is required to further support data use in schools. We studied this process using Nonaka and Takeuchi’s model of knowledge creation. For this qualitative micro-process case study we analyzed all meetings, log files and status reports of two data teams over a 2-year period. Results showed, for example, that over time, data teams reflected more often on their work. Furthermore, the content of the knowledge creation process changed, as the use of data was increasingly discussed. Furthermore, the knowledge creation processes differed between the two teams, for example in the frequency and depth with which they evaluated their data