Broadening Grade 11 students' learning conceptions of web authoring: A phenomenographic approach

In this paper, a phenomenographic approach was utilized to create learning spaces in which two groups of 78 Grade 11 students under the guidance of the teacher (the action researcher) learned to do projects on improving information-seeking efficiency of their school web. The projects were the compulsory school-based assessment (SBA) component of an open examination on the Computer and Information Technology (CIT) subject in Hong Kong in the school year 2007-08. Through iterative planning-acting-observing-reflecting cycles of action research in a learning study, the teacher experienced three substantive stages of gaining understanding of student learning conceptions and pedagogical changes on improving efficient information-seeking mechanisms of web authoring. Throughout the process, some learning and teaching conditions varied whilst others were kept invariant to articulate inter-student learning variations and thereby formulate feasible teaching approaches in SBA. In learning dimensions, the students experienced methodological and contextual variations on web authoring skills and web publishing knowledge, whilst in pedagogical dimensions, the teacher experienced variations in assessment means (such as devising assessment rubric descriptors) and made suitable in-step guidance for students to do their ongoing projects. Notably, a new learning space experienced by the teacher was found to deepen understanding of didactical interactions and those critical conditions accounting for individual learning differences. Copyright © 2008 Asia-Pacific Society for Computers in Education.