Using digital feedback in support of middle school students’ persuasive writing skills: A Bernsteinian perspective
type: CreativeWork
description: The provision of feedback is one of the most important changes a teacher can implement to enhance learning. Digital technology can support teachers' feedback to students by creating new and different spaces for conversations around learning. In this study I combined feedback and digital technology to create a different space for teachers and students to learn together about persuasive writing. My interest in persuasive writing arose during my reading of Bernstein’s work. Bernstein argues there are two types of codes, or discourses: restricted and elaborated codes. Students from more advantaged backgrounds can switch between these discourses. Schools operate in the elaborated code, which can be challenging to fully comprehend, especially for students from less advantaged milieu. Bernstein offers that the knowledge to be acquired at school is or needs to be recontextualised by teachers so all students can access this academic knowledge. Persuasive writing is a difficult genre to master as it is complex and presents codes which can be challenging for students to comprehend. However, the literature suggests that it allows students to become democratically informed and active citizens. It is for this reason that this genre of writing was chosen as the focus of this study. The investigation I undertook aimed to answer the following question: How does the use of an online collaborative writing platform to create feedback as dialogue support diverse middle school students’ learning of the persuasive genre? To answer this question, a design-based intervention was conducted in a middle school with two participating teachers and their classes, of which 10 students were chosen by the teachers to be the target students. These students formed three groups: one group of three students was working above the national standard in writing, a group of three students was working at the standard and another group of four students was working below the standard. The study, conducted withi…
abstract: The provision of feedback is one of the most important changes a teacher can implement to enhance learning. Digital technology can support teachers' feedback to students by creating new and different spaces for conversations around learning. In this study I combined feedback and digital technology to create a different space for teachers and students to learn together about persuasive writing. My interest in persuasive writing arose during my reading of Bernstein’s work. Bernstein argues there are two types of codes, or discourses: restricted and elaborated codes. Students from more advantaged backgrounds can switch between these discourses. Schools operate in the elaborated code, which can be challenging to fully comprehend, especially for students from less advantaged milieu. Bernstein offers that the knowledge to be acquired at school is or needs to be recontextualised by teachers so all students can access this academic knowledge. Persuasive writing is a difficult genre to master as it is complex and presents codes which can be challenging for students to comprehend. However, the literature suggests that it allows students to become democratically informed and active citizens. It is for this reason that this genre of writing was chosen as the focus of this study. The investigation I undertook aimed to answer the following question: How does the use of an online collaborative writing platform to create feedback as dialogue support diverse middle school students’ learning of the persuasive genre? To answer this question, a design-based intervention was conducted in a middle school with two participating teachers and their classes, of which 10 students were chosen by the teachers to be the target students. These students formed three groups: one group of three students was working above the national standard in writing, a group of three students was working at the standard and another group of four students was working below the standard. The study, conducted withi…
author: Lyons, Florence Felicie Marie Nicole
keywords: Feedback, Digital, Persuasive, Bernstein
license: https://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/bitstreams/e9c64e39-1c39-48fb-89f4-54d2b34159ef/download
date published: 2021
date modified: 2026-07-24T05:57:27Z
provider: University Waikato
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: The University of Waikato