Elsevier

Computers & Education

Volume 69, November 2013, Pages 356-368
Computers & Education

Pattern of reflection in learning Authoring System through blogging

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2013.07.031Get rights and content

Highlights

  • The dominant type of reflection in blogging is monologue.

  • Students used reflective conversation and monologue type of reflection to achieve Grade A in learning Authoring System.

  • Students require deep and critical reflection to perform better in the subject Authoring System.

Abstract

This research study aims to identify student's perceptions regarding the use of blogging, the pattern of reflection involved in learning Authoring System through blogging and student's performance in tests based on the reflection's pattern. Sixteen students who registered for the Authoring System subject participated in this study. It was conducted using quantitative approaches, through survey and pre-experimental design of one group post-test type. The instruments used were questionnaire, performance test and blog contents, where tutors and students posted messages and comments on the blog during the course. The results showed that the students' overall perception regarding the educational benefits of writing a blog and reading other students' blogs and comments was positive. Students also moderately agreed that they had difficulties in engaging in the reflection through blogging. It was also found that blogging indirectly improved the students' performance in the test. Through blog content analysis, the dominant type of reflection was monologue. However, the results from the data mining analysis showed that the students used reflective conversation and monologue type of reflection to achieve Grade A in learning Authoring System. It shows that students require deep and critical reflection to perform better in the subject.

Introduction

A learning journal is an essential medium for reflection to support the particular content of educational programs. All adults reflect and sometimes it occurs only when the environment is encouraging for reflection, such as an incentive or some emphasis on the guidance of reflection (Moon, 2006).

Since the late 1990s, the theory and practice of reflection has made a major impact in the educational environment especially in language learning but less attention has been placed on learning computer subjects. In addition, the result of reflection (which is likely to be reflective) is often assessed by tutors (Lamy & Goodfellow, 1999). This can actually motivate some students in writing reflective materials as it will be frequently viewed by their tutor (Moon, 2006). This factor may influence the nature of reflective learning (Boud & Walker, 1993).

Moon (2006) says that reflection is a form of thinking, as it often involves complex issues and may generate difficult consequences. This is in line with Dewey's (1933) thought on reflection that thinking must involve “a state of doubt, hesitation, perplexity and mental difficulty”. Authoring System is a subject which can be considered complex since it integrates the use of scripting languages such as Action Script. Action Script tutorials are available over the Internet as this language is an open source however, creating a simple animation is not as simple as it seems. Often there is a need to check for errors when we do certain things that may generate undesired result (Reynolds, 2008). Handling the errors is not an easy task and for those who are new to scripting might find this very troublesome. The availability of reflective learning is helpful in facilitating students in learning the Authoring System subject effectively as they are encouraged to actively share ideas, experiences and perspectives on the emerging issues related to the Action Script topic especially in discussing the concepts and errors. The interaction, personal opinion or knowledge publishing provides the possible pathway for reflection which leads to deep learning (Boud, 2001).

For the purpose of nurturing reflection, asynchronous discussion is more appropriate as compared to synchronous discussion due to the flexibility that the learners have to think carefully about the discussion and record exchanges (messages and replies) which can be accessed repeatedly (Lamy & Goodfellow, 1999). Synchronous communication technologies such as live chats are ineffective because they allow little time for thinking (Bartlett-Bragg, 2003).

Educators should be aware of how the new technologies can fit with flexible learning. Blogging is among the technologies that promise the flexible and accessible opportunities for student-centered practices (Glogoff, 2005). A blog is an online journal where users can update the posts, in their own words (Matheson, 2004). Blogging is a useful approach for learning Authoring subjects as it can stimulates reading and motivates learning, builds the community, makes hyperlinks to other resources and provides a learning space. A blog is an appropriate platform for giving such motivation provided that one can read and make comments that lead to discussion about shared interests and individual differences. Engaging actively with blogs gives students an opportunity to read issues and deepen the learning experiences through reflection (Yang, 2009). Studies have shown that the influence of Internet access has caused a number of students to read comprehensively (Liaw et al., 2008, Rodzvilla, 2002, Stiler and Philleo, 2003).

Student's reflections through blogging can be categorized based on several patterns. The social interaction model as proposed by van Lier (1996) applied the social-interactionist view of learning for the discussion of the language learning by categorizing communications that occur between the lecturer and learners. It involves monologic, dialogic and fully conversational talk. According to Lamy and Goodfellow (1999), the model proposed by van Lier (1996) has never been tested to the analysis of online interaction exchanges. Thus, the social interaction model was adapted to study the role of online learning reflection to facilitate learning. Lamy and Goodfellow (1999) used the terms “monologue”, “dialogue”, “social conversation” and “reflective conversation” in their study.

To encourage the students to reflect on their learning, instructors need to scaffold the learning process. One of the types of instructor scaffoldings that can be used is metacognitive scaffolding. In education, the goal of metacognitive scaffolding is for the students to become independent, self-regulating and less teacher-dependent. In other words, the metacognitive scaffolding aims at helping students to control and monitor their own learning (Azevedo & Hadwin, 2005) as it can develop higher-level cognitive strategies (Hartman, 2001).

Therefore, the metacognitive scaffolding strategies through blogging were implemented in the study to trigger student's reflection and then student's patterns of reflection were analyzed based on the model proposed by van Lier (1996), which was further investigated by Lamy and Goodfellow (1999).

Section snippets

Social constructivist learning environment and blogging

Social constructivist learning environment (SCLE) is the environment that represents the social constructivism theory. It designates a way of knowing where learners are able to build new comprehension and knowledge during the social interaction with peers (Wink & Putney, 2002). Vygotsky (1978) stated that a person can develop deep understanding through collaboration and from more knowledgeable peers rather than from his/her own ability. SCLE serves as an open platform where the students work

Research objectives

Following are the objectives of this research:

  • (1)

    To ascertain student's perceptions regarding the use of blogging

  • (2)

    To identify the difficulties confronted by students in doing reflection

  • (3)

    To establish student's patterns of reflection involved in learning Authoring System through blogging

  • (4)

    To evaluate student's performance in a test based on the reflection's patterns.

Design

A survey and pre-experimental design of one group post-test type were employed in this study. The survey was carried out to gather the information based on standardized approaches using standardized instruments and a questionnaire was used for this purpose. One group post-test design is a type of pre-experimental design where only one group receives a treatment and it is then measured in a test (Campbell & Stanley, 1963). For this study, a post-performance test was used. There was no control

Data analysis

The responses to this questionnaire were analyzed using SPSS to obtain the mean, percentage and frequency. The analysis aimed to answer the first and second research objectives which concerned the student's perceptions about the educational benefits of reflection through blogging and the difficulties confronted by students in doing reflection. The level of the mean score representation was used to look at the student's variables. The level is presented in Table 6.

The performance test data was

Analysis of perception regarding educational benefits of writing a blog

The results of the percentage, mean and standard deviation for students' perceptions regarding the educational benefits of writing a blog that consists of nine items, are displayed in Table 8. The highest mean was 4.50 for item number 2, while the lowest mean was 3.62 for item number 9. The overall mean for students' perception regarding the benefit of writing a blog was high at 4.04.

Analysis of perceptions regarding educational benefits of reading other students' blogs and comments

The results of the percentage, mean and standard deviation for students' perception regarding the educational

Discussion

The assessment of the student's perceptions in regard to the use of blogging was based on the benefits in writing a blog as well as in reading other students' blog and the comments. As a result it was agreed by all the students that writing a blog allows them to share their writing as it provides them personal space to express their own views and this eventually leads them to develop a unique style of writing (Table 8). Writing a blog motivates students because they want to impress the readers (

Conclusion

To conclude, there were quite a number of students who found it very convenient to use blog as a medium to emphasize reflection and it seemed like blog motivated them to learn the subject better. Yang (2009) also acknowledged that students feel motivated to learn due to the interactive environment of the blog itself. However, further investigation is required. It was also shown by the result that through blogging students were able to share their writing and knowledge with others as the blog

Limitations and recommendations for future studies

The findings of this research study recommend a number of directions for future investigation. The first recommended area was regarding the students' attitudes towards practicing reflection. Since they were given only a short amount of time for reflection and the marks allocated for the reflection were very limited hence their attitudes towards reflection were adversely affected. The duration in collecting data should be increased since the students need time to become familiar with the

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to thank the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) and Ministry of Education (MoE) Malaysia for their support in making this project possible. This work was supported by the University Research Grant [Q.J130000.2544.03H03] initiated by UTM and MoE.

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