Master of Arts (Instructional Design & Technology)

The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of using blogs as a learning tool, incorporating the elements of Situated Learning and Keller’s ARCS model, in improving the narrative writing skills of Primary 4 pupils. The learning environment included strategies like group collaboration, peer coaching, mentoring and modeling by the teacher to facilitate pupils’ learning of narrative writing skills. This study used blogs as a tool to facilitate pupils’ discussion on their writing assignment. The primary objective of the study was to find out if this learning environment can improve the pupils’ narrative writing skills. A secondary objective in the study was to find out pupils’ perception of developing narrative writing skills through this mode of learning.

The instruments used in this study included the conduct of pre-test and post-test, a survey on the pupils’ attitude towards narrative writing and a survey on their perception of this learning environment. An adapted competence rubric was used to assess the quality of the pupils’ essays. Feedback from the pupils was also gathered through the conduct of the two surveys.

The findings showed evidence that this learning environment had a positive influence on the pupils’ writing skill. In particular, the pupils had shown a clearer understanding on how to sequence their ideas in their essays. The findings also revealed that the pupils had responded favorably to this learning environment.