Ian D. Stoodley

Ways of experiencing the act of learning to program: A phenomenographic study of introductory programming students at university

Research Report: The research reported here investigates variation in first year university students’early experiences of learning to program, with a particular focus on revealingdifferences in how they go about learning to program. A phenomenographic researchapproach was used to reveal variation in relation to the act of learning to program. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with students who had either completed,or were recently completing a university level introductory programming subject. Theanalysis process revealed five different ways in which students go about learning toprogram in introductory university level units. These are captured in categories ofdescription which capture the critical dimensions of what students learn as well ashow they go about learning. Students may go about learning to program by: • Following – where learning to program is experienced as ‘getting through’ the unit. • Coding – where learning to program is experienced as learning to code • Understanding and integrating – where learning to program is experienced as learning to write a program through understanding and integrating concepts • Problem solving – where learning to program is experienced as learning to do what it takes to solve a problem • Participating or enculturation – where learning to program is experienced as discovering what it means to become a programmer The mapping of the variation constitutes a framework within which one aspect of theteaching and learning of introductory programming, how students go about it, may beunderstood. Implications for teaching and learning in introductory university curriculaassociated with each category are discussed. Recommendations for further researchare made.

Constituting the significance and value of research: views from information technology academics and industry professionals

The information technology research community, comprising both academic and industry stakeholders, is responding to national and international imperatives that challenge disparate groups to work together. In this article it is shown how, within both academic and industrial contexts, researchers interpret, or constitute, the significance and value of research in different ways. Important aspects of these differences may be described in terms of what comes to the foreground when members of the community are asked to consider the significance of projects; and what recedes to the background, ultimately forming a ‘perceptual boundary’ beyond which they do not see. The study reported here represents a first step in understanding one dimension of the ‘collective consciousness’ of the information technology research community. The framework developed may contribute to the widening awareness of more experienced researchers, as well as revealing something of the character of the research community to those engaged in researcher training, education and development.

Exploring Health Information Use by Older Australians within Everyday Life

Exploring information use within everyday or community contexts is a recent area of interest for information literacy research endeavors. Within this domain, health information literacy (HIL) has emerged as a focus of interest due to identified synergies between information use and health status. However, while HIL has been acknowledged as a core ingredient that can assist people to take responsibility for managing and improving their own health, limited research has explored how HIL is experienced in everyday community life. This article will present the findings of ongoing research undertaken using phenomenography to explore how HIL is experienced among older Australians within everyday contexts. It will also discuss how these findings may be used to inform policy formulation in health communication and as an evidence base for the design and delivery of consumer health information resources and services.

Diversifying Information Literacy Research: An Informed Learning Perspective

This article uses the idea of informed learning, an interpretation of information literacy that focuses on people’s information experiences rather than their skills or attributes, to analyse the character of using information to learn in diverse communities and settings, including digital, faith, indigenous and ethnic communities. While researchers of information behaviour or information seeking and use have investi- AU :2 gated people’s information worlds in diverse contexts, this work is still at its earliest stages in the information literacy domain. To date, information literacy research has largely occurred in what might be considered mainstream educational and workplace contexts, with some emerging work in community settings. These have been mostly in academic libraries, schools and government workplaces. What does information literacy look like beyond these environments? How might we understand the experience of effective information use in a range of community settings, from the perspective of empirical research and other sources? The article concludes by commenting on the significance of diversifying the range of information experience contexts,for information literacy research and professional practice.

Experiencing religious information literacy: Informed learning in church communities

This paper reports an exploration of religious information literacy in terms of how people use information to learn in the context of church communities. The research approach of phenomenography was used to explore Uniting Church in Australia members’ experience of using information to learn as participants in their church communities. Five ways of experiencing religious information literacy were identified, using information to learn about: growing faith, developing relationships, managing the church, serving church communities and reaching out beyond church communities. It is anticipated that such findings will be of interest to information professionals, including information literacy specialists, as well as leaders and members of church communities.

CONSTITUTING INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH: THE EXPERIENCE OF IT RESEARCHERS

The collective consciousness of effective groups of researchers is characterized by shared understandings of their research object or territory. In this study, we adopted a phenomenographic approach to investigate information technology (IT) research, and its objects and territories, as they are constituted in the experience of IT researchers. Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with researchers representing different sub‐disciplines. Analysis revealed the variation in meaning associated with the idea of IT research; and the awareness structures through which participants experience variation in ways of seeing the object and territories of IT research. Eight ways of seeing IT research were found. The outcomes of our project appear to make visible the changes and developments that are an essential part of the character and experience of contemporary IT research.

Expanding ethical vistas of IT professionals

In this paper we argue for an experientially grounded view of IT professionals’ ethical formation and support. We propose that for such formation and support to be effectual, it should challenge professionals’ conceptualisations of their field and of ethics, and it should do so with the aim of changing their experience. To this end, we present a Model of Ethical IT, which is based on an examination of the nature of ethics and on empirical findings concerning IT professionals’ experience of ethics. We argue that for IT professionals to be enabled to become more ethical in their practice: the purpose of IT must be primarily understood to be user-oriented; the nature of professional ethics must be primarily understood to be other-centred; and the goal of ethics education must be understood as primarily promoting a change in awareness.

Doctoral Students' Experience of Information Technology Research

As part of their journey of learning to research, doctoral candidates need to become members of their research community. In part, this involves coming to be aware of their field in ways that are shared amongst longer‐term members of the research community. One aspect of candidates’ experience we need to understand, therefore, involves how they ‘see’ or ‘constitute’ the fields of research in which they are engaged. The study reported in this article investigated information technology research students’ differing ways of experiencing their object(s) of study and their research field or territory. A phenomenographic approach was adopted, using techniques developed from an earlier study of experienced information technology researchers in order to make the results comparable. The results revealed seven ways of constituting information technology research amongst students, compared with eight previously identified amongst experienced researchers. Information technology research students constituted information technology research in ways that revealed both variation from, as well as complementarities with, more experienced researchers working in the same environment. The results extend an existing collective model of the character of information technology research, and suggest directions for doctoral education and associated research across the sector.

Using a Capability Maturity Model to build on the generational approach to student engagement practices

The generational approach to conceptualising first-year student learning behaviour has made a useful contribution to understanding student engagement. It has an explicit focus on student behaviour and we suggest that a Capability Maturity Model interpretation may provide a complementary extension of that understanding as it builds on the generational approach by allowing an assessment of institutional capability to initiate, plan, manage, evaluate and review institutional student engagement practices. The development of a Student Engagement, Success and Retention Maturity Model is discussed along with its application in an Australian higher education institution. In this case study, the model identified first-, second- and third-generation approaches and, in addition, achieved a ‘complementary extension’ of the generational approach, building on it by identifying additional practices not normally considered within the generational concept and indicating the capability of the institution to provide and implement the practices.

Information Experience : Contemporary Perspectives

The purpose of this book is to open a conversation on the idea of information experience, which we understand to be a complex, multidimensional engagement with information. In developing the book we invited colleagues to propose a chapter on any aspect of information experience, for example conceptual, methodological or empirical. We invited them to express their interpretation of information experience, to contribute to the development of this concept. The book has thus become a vehicle for interested researchers and practitioners to explore their thinking around information experience, including relationships between information experience, learning experience, user experience and similar constructs. It represents a collective awareness of information experience in contemporary research and practice. Through this sharing of multiple perspectives, our insights into possible ways of interpreting information experience, and its relationship to other concepts in information research and practice, is enhanced. In this chapter, we introduce the idea of information experience. We also outline the book and its chapters, and bring together some emerging alternative views and approaches to this important idea.