Online forum discussions: They will respond the way you ask
Online forum discussions: They will respond the way you ask

Summary/Abstract: This paper presents a longitudinal study, across three semesters following 19 elementary education preservice teachers registered in three blended courses (foundations of education, and integrated reading and language arts methods), at a university in Hawaii. In two courses the instructor, aside of regular course content, taught also about Bloom’s Taxonomy, and used it as a rubric for grading students’ discussions about language arts instructional methods in elementary education. A total of 912 forum postings (reflections and comments) were analyzed and scored. Results show that teaching Bloom’s taxonomy as an instructional tool in a blended course, and using it as a rubric to score online postings, improved students’ performance in online discussions. The level of assigned discussion task was also shown to be a factor in the level of students’ responses in the online discussions. Results are presented by semester and type of posting (reflections vs. comments). Lessons learned and educational implications are presented.

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