Abstract:

To learn information systems development (ISD), students need a challenging and supportive work environment. Based on experiences with a bachelor’s programme in IT and Information Systems, we suggest a combination of two theoretical perspectives to facilitate students’ learning ISD.

One perspective is Gadamer’s (1989) philosophical hermeneutics, which focuses on how human understanding takes place at an individual level. We suggest that in an ISD context this hermeneutic perspective on learning should be combined with Vygotsky’s (1978) work on learning as a result of activities in a social context. Such a combination of theory is in line with Duvall (2007) and a suggested hermeneutic zone of proximal development (HZPD), has been put forward by Kakkori and Huttunen (2014).

This paper presents an analysis of bachelor students’ own reflection on how they learned ISD. The analysis is done from the two perspectives of Gadamer’s and Vygotsky’s work. The findings show how the two perspectives present a complementary view of how students learn ISD. Gadamer’s focus on the individual complements Vygotsky’s focus on the social interaction. The findings have theoretical implications for how we study ISD learning, and how we design learning environments for ISD students. Finally a number of questions to be explored in future research are raised.

Keywords:

Information systems, students, hermeneutics, zone of proximal development, social interaction.