“It’s more enjoyable but it doesn’t help you with your writing.” The impact of ICT in task design on student self-efficacy and enjoyment in writing.

Abstract

This thesis investigates the relationship between the inclusion of Information Communication Technologies (ICT) in the design of school-based writing tasks, and student self-efficacy and enjoyment in writing. It describes the development, execution and reflection of an action research intervention, which explores this relationship.

A case study methodology within an action research framework was adopted. Primarily the research was qualitative in nature, together with some quantitative data collection. The study was conducted with a class of Year 7 and 8 students and their teachers, from a full primary school in South Auckland.

Findings suggest that students themselves made a clear distinction between the writing they do outside of school, and that which they do for school purposes. They were reluctant to acknowledge the kinds of digital writing that is not exemplified as writing at school as ‘real writing’. Although digital forms of writing were seen as enjoyable by these students, they did not see writing in this way as being helpful to their writing achievement, which they measured against formal, traditional assessment practices.

The implication of these findings for teachers is that an expanded view of literacy must be adopted and valued to include a multimodal, multiliteracies approach to literacy, to ensure students are equipped to participate effectively in the twenty-first century. Further, students themselves will also need to diversify their views of what constitutes writing, including validating for classroom purposes, the digital writing they do beyond the classroom.