This research investigates what impact (if any) do personal epistemology (PE) have on individual’s engagement and ideas progression when engaged in a CSCL discourse designed to stimulate knowledge building (KB) (Scardamalia & Bereiter, 2003). Through literature review, this thesis sets out with an assumption that a learner’s engagement in a collaborative learning discourse is influenced by three kinds of beliefs: nature of knowledge, how learning takes place, and quality criteria for good knowledge. Reflective judgment (RJ), i.e. network of beliefs on knowledge and knowing underpinning personal judgments on ill-structured issues (Kitchener & King, 2002), is the key PE construct underpinning this study. Further, it is believed that the extent to which an individual pursues explanatory coherence (EC) (Thagard, 1989) when engaged in a CSCL discourse reflects his/her beliefs about the quality criteria for good knowledge. The empirical part of this study was undertaken in a grade 8 class involving 32 students over a 12-weeks period. Students worked in groups on an integrated-humanities module to develop proposals for new tourist attractions in Hong Kong. Students were encouraged to use Knowledge Forum® (KF) for online collaborative discussions throughout different inquiry stages of the module. A questionnaire instrument was designed and administered to assess students’ RJ. Using this instrument, fifteen students were identified as pre-reflective and seventeen as quasi-reflective. Independent-samples t-tests on students’ participatory statistics in KF show that quasi-reflective students’ usage of two metacognitive-oriented KF features, scaffolds and note revision, were significantly more frequent than pre-reflective students (p<=.05). Four qualitative indicators for RJ were developed to assess epistemic properties of all written notes students contributed on KF: purpose of the note, type of query raised, structure of claims, and basis for justification. The first two reflect disposition and the other two reflect argumentative rigor of a note. No statistically significant difference in the mean of epistemic properties contributed by students at different RJ levels was found. In average, students are disposed towards contributing argumentative notes and raise explanatory questions in the online collaborative discourse. Furthermore, student’s contributions are mainly justified on idiosyncratic basis. The study further investigates whether individual’s EC seeking notes in threads reflects his/her beliefs about quality criteria for good knowledge, and how EC seeking affects ideas progression. Qualitative analysis of threads show students sought EC on ideas and the inquiry process through raising concerns about contextual issues, challenging causal views, task-space evaluation, and methodological evaluation. In many threads analyzed quasi-reflective students were the initiator of EC seeking. They are also active contributors of argumentative build-ons that contribute towards changes in view among peers. Independent-samples t-tests suggest that quasi-reflective students have contributed significantly more notes that sought EC about contextual issues than pre-reflective students (p=.016). To conclude, epistemic properties of notes contributed and individual’s EC seeking acts provide preliminary evidence to support the notion that RJ and individual’s beliefs about quality criteria for good knowledge influence engagement and ideas progression in CSCL. Further studies on using developmental PE theories to study learner’s beliefs and engagement in KB discourse are recommended. / published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Under the trend of ICT implementation in education, students’ learning becomes highly reliant on ICT. A student will thus suffer in his / her learning process if he / she lacks the chance of using ICT at home. This is what a divide in student’s learning is. As the occurrence of this divide is due to digital ICT devices and its effect is focussed on students’ academic performance, such divide is termed as digital divide in education (DDE). To bridge this divide, most governments around the world have spent a lot purchasing hardware for schools and even assisting students from low income families to have computers at home. The divide, however, still persists. Nowadays, almost all students have the chance to use ICT. If a student is skilful in using ICT, he / she can learn more effectively by searching useful materials on the Internet. Otherwise, the student may lose his / her learning path. Thus there is a divide in learning between the skilled and unskilled students using ICT. In addition to the learning-related usages, recent studies showed that most students mainly use ICT to play games or for social communication. The divide in learning still exists and shifts to the difference between the students who use ICT for their learning and those who mainly use ICT for other purposes. Moreover, even some of the students using ICT for their studies, such as doing assignments, may use it inappropriately for copying and reassembling materials from the Internet as their assignments for submission. Such surely impedes their learning. The divide in learning then extends to whether students use ICT appropriately. The aim of this research is to investigate the effect of DDE on students learning in terms of four facets: the chance of using ICT (access disparity), the skilfulness in using ICT (skill disparity), the ways in using ICT (usage disparity), and the appropriateness of using ICT (ethical disparity). The objective is three-fold. The first one is to examine whether the four facets of DDE affect students’ academic performance, the second one is to investigate whether the four facets are interrelated, and the third one is to explore the factors contributing to the four facets empirically. After reviewing various literatures, the potential factors are categorised into three groups: students’ personal factors, environmental factors, and ethics-related factors. A survey has been conducted to achieve the objective. A pilot test was carried out first to check the reliability and validity of the designed questionnaire. 825 valid responses were obtained from a set of random samples taken from Secondary 2 students in Hong Kong. Statistical methods are employed for investigating the relationship between the four facets and also the factors of each facet. The analysis results indicate that the latter three facets are the main constituents of DDE, significantly affecting students’ academic performance. The facets are also interrelated in a sequence. There is a significant effect of skill disparity on the other two disparities, and there is also a significant effect of usage disparity on ethical disparity. A number of key factors were also found for the facets, including students’ gender, SES, ICT experience, and also their parents’ parenting styles and ICT abilities. Their peers’ behaviour also plays an important role in affecting their appropriateness of using ICT. A number of policy implications are then proposed according to the results, in terms of financing approach of government (e.g. direct subsidy scheme), revision of curriculum, and enhancement of parenting skills. / published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

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