Positive Emotional Responses to Hybridised Writing about a Socio-Scientific Issue

Tomas, Louisa; Ritchie, Stephen M.

doi:10.1007/s11165-011-9255-0

Cited by 36 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 26 publications

(32 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…While the results of this study indicate that writing hybridized scientific narratives can impact positively on students' attitudes, can such writing also elicit positive emotional responses? This question is the subject of a follow‐up study conducted with 12th grade students that investigates the ways in which positive emotional responses elicited by the writing of hybridized scientific narratives contribute to student engagement with socioscientific issues (Tomas & Ritchie, in press).…”

Section: Discussion and Concluding Remarksmentioning

confidence: 99%

Attitudinal impact of hybridized writing about a socioscientific issue

2011

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The development of scientifically literate citizens remains an important priority of science education; however, growing evidence of students' disenchantment with school science continues to challenge the realisation of this aim. This triangulation mixed methods study investigated the learning experiences of 152 9 th grade students as they participated in an online science-writing project on the socioscientific issue of biosecurity. Students wrote a series of hybridized scientific narratives, or BioStories, that integrate scientific information about biosecurity with narrative storylines. The students completed an online Likert-style questionnaire, the BioQuiz, which examined selected aspects of their attitudes toward science and science learning, prior to their participation in the project, and upon completion of the writing tasks. Statistical analyses of these results and interview data obtained from participating students suggest that hybridized writing about a socioscientific issue developed more positive attitudes toward science and science learning, particularly in terms of the students' interest and enjoyment. Implications for research and teaching are also discussed.

show abstract

Section: Discussion and Concluding Remarksmentioning

confidence: 99%

Attitudinal impact of hybridized writing about a socioscientific issue

2011

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The Facial Action Coding System (FACS) developed by Ekman and Friesen () is an anatomically based system that measures visible facial behaviors. The FACS has been used extensively in empirical studies of facial measurement (Rosenberg, ), including earlier studies by the first and third authors (e.g., Tomas & Ritchie, ; Ritchie et al, ). In this study, in the absence of full‐frontal images of subject's faces that would permit the application of facial recognition software, manual procedures for interpreting students' facial expressions were applied, according to Ekman and Friesen ().…”

Section: Research Design and Proceduresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Students' regulation of their emotions in a science classroom

2015

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Research aimed at understanding the role of the affective domain in student learning in classrooms has undergone a recent resurgence due to the need to understand students' affective response to science instruction. In a case study of a year 8 science class in North Queensland, students worked in small groups to write, film, edit, and produce short videos about the socio-scientific issue of coal seam gas mining as part of a unit on energy. Student emotions over the course of the unit of work were recorded using emotion diaries (a self-report measure), video recordings of lessons, and end-of-project interviews. We identify trends in student emotions and analyze their relation to classroom activities using two constructs for interpreting the affective dimension of student learning: emotional energy and emotion regulation. By analyzing a salient classroom event, we report students' regulation of negative emotions like frustration and anger as they worked together to complete the video project successfully. Furthermore, we propose that emotions, particularly positive emotions, elicited by the video task and not the socio-scientific issue dominated students' experiences and perceptions of the unit. This raises questions about how students' positive emotions might be regulated effectively so that they remain focused on the intended learning. # 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 53: 2016

show abstract

“…In our program of research, we have explored the use of BioStories as a diversified writing-to-learn science strategy that centralises the role of communication through particular consideration of content, context, code and representation (Kulgemeyer & Schecker, 2013): students write hybridised scientific narratives (representation) that communicate their conceptual understandings (content) related to the socioscientific issue of biosecurity (context) using clear, everyday language and appropriate vocabulary (code). In a series of multi-method studies conducted with Year 6, Year 9 and Year 12 students, it was reported that writing a sequence of BioStories enhanced students' familiarity with biosecurity issues and helped them to develop a deeper understanding of related biological concepts (Ritchie, Tomas, & Tones, 2010); significantly improved their attitudes toward science and science learning (Tomas, Ritchie, & Tones, 2011), and elicited positive emotional responses in science classes (Tomas & Ritchie, 2012). In this paper, we report on the investigation into students' developing scientific literacy, and in doing so, explore the challenges that we encountered in this context.…”

Section: Writing For Scientific Literacymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These research projects have provided students at schools in different cities in Queensland, Australia, with the opportunity to write and share 'hybridised' narratives (i.e., short stories that integrate scientific information, which we call 'BioStories') about the socioscientific issue of biosecurity. While detailed analyses of the cognitive and affective outcomes arising from this research have been reported previously (see Ritchie, Tomas, & Tones, 2010;Tomas, Ritchie, & Tones, 2011;Tomas, 2012;Tomas & Ritchie, 2012), in this paper, we focus specifically on the challenges that we encountered in seeking to evaluate students' scientific literacy, as evidenced by the BioStories written by Year 9 students. In doing so, we present the findings of our evaluation as they pertain to the development of students' derived sense of scientific literacy through their participation in the study.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Challenge of Evaluating Students’ Scientific Literacy in a Writing-to-Learn Context

Tomas

Ritchie

2014

Res Sci Educ

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper reports on the challenge of evaluating students' scientific literacy in a writing-to-learn context, as illustrated by our experience with an online sciencewriting project. In this mixed-methods study, Year 9 students in a case study class (13-14 year olds, n = 26) authored a series of two 'hybridised' short stories that merged scientific and narratives genres about the socioscientific issue of biosecurity. In seeking to measure the efficacy of the intervention, we sought evidence of students' conceptual understanding communicated through their stories. Finding a suitable instrument presented our first challenge. This led to the development of scoring matrices to evaluate students' derived sense of scientific literacy. Student interviews were also conducted to explore their understanding of concepts related to the biosecurity context. While the results of these analyses showed significant improvements in students' understanding arising from their participation in the writing tasks, the interviews highlighted a second challenge in evaluating students' scientific literacy; a disparity between their written and vocalised understandings. The majority of students expressed a deeper level of conceptual understanding at interview than they did in their stories. The interviews also revealed alternative conceptions and instances of superficial understanding that weren't expressed in their writing. Aside from the methodological challenge of analysing stories quantitatively, these findings suggest that in a writing-to-learn context, evaluating students' scientific literacy can be difficult. An examination of these artefacts in combination with interviews about students' written work provided a more comprehensive evaluation of their developing scientific literacy. The implications of this study for our understanding of the derived sense of scientific literacy, as well as implications for classroom practice, are also discussed.

show abstract

Positive Emotional Responses to Hybridised Writing about a Socio-Scientific Issue

Cited by 36 publications

References 26 publications

Attitudinal impact of hybridized writing about a socioscientific issue

Attitudinal impact of hybridized writing about a socioscientific issue

Students' regulation of their emotions in a science classroom

The Challenge of Evaluating Students’ Scientific Literacy in a Writing-to-Learn Context

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About