Beyond the Pencil: Blogging for Better Written Expression in the Primary Classroom

This study examined the potential effectiveness of blogs as a pedagogical tool in developing primary school students’ written expression. A quasi-experimental design was used with a sample of 200 male and female tenth-grade students purposefully selected from 10 private schools in Amman, the capital city of Jordan. The participants were divided into two groups: an experimental group that received writing instruction through electronic blogs and a control group taught using traditional methods. A written expression test was administered to both groups, as both a pretest and posttest, to assess the potential effect of the treatment. Data were analyzed using a Two-Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) to gauge the potential effect of the instructional modality and gender on the participants’ written expression. The findings revealed a statistically significant improvement in written expression among the participants who used blogs compared to those in the control group. However, no significant differences were found between male and female students in either group, suggesting that blog-based instruction is equally effective across gender.