The impact of mediated learning on the academic writing performance of medical students in flipped and traditional classrooms: scaffolding techniques

Abstract

Writing as a multiple-step process is one of the most complex and demanding skills for graduate students to master. Foreign or second language learners who are required to write for academic purposes at the university level may even find it more demanding to master. One of the ways of decreasing the burden of mastering this skill for learners is mediation, using scaffolding techniques to teach writing. Hence, having a good understanding of the impact(s) of adopting mediating or scaffolding techniques in writing classes is absolutely indispensable. To this end, the present study employed an experimental research design to investigate the impact of mediation in the flipped writing classrooms of the students of medicine. To peruse this goal, 47 medical students were selected through purposive sampling and put into control and treatment groups. Medical students in the treatment group watched teacher-made video content(s) before their writing classes. The students in this group experienced organized-interactive writing group activities in their classes. Unlike the experimental group, the students in the control group received all the instructions in the classroom and were assigned homework. The findings obtained through the ANOVA and t-test indicated that the students in the experimental group significantly outperformed their counterparts in the control group in terms of their writing. A probable conclusion could be that by requiring students to study in advance and take responsibility for their learning, flipped classroom can provide the opportunity for learners to actively construct knowledge rather than receive the information passively in the classroom. Flipped classroom can also cultivate interactive class time for teachers and enable them to invest in more fruitful academic practices, instead of asking students to spend a substantial amount of time each week doing homework independently.

The role of embodied scaffolding in revealing “enactive potentialities” in intergenerational science exploration

“…At the same time, it reveals how the dynamics of interaction shape and bring about meaningful action chains through participants' engagement in "joint action" (Gallagher, 2020, p. 113). In so doing, the findings broaden our understanding of scaffolding amidst the more well-known modalities of support including language, social actors, and technologies (e.g., Khojasteh et al, 2021).…”

“…This support has been characterized as a type of scaffolding. Drawing on the Vygotskian concept of “mediation” (e.g., Khojasteh et al, 2021; Sanford et al, 2007, p. 148), Wood et al (1976) unpack the notion of “scaffolding” identifying the different processes through which social mediation can occur (e.g., Strömmer, 2016), whereby a more expert partner assists a novice in reaching better understanding or more independence in the learning process. A substantial body of research has studied the role of adults, more expert peers and technology in scaffolding children's learning, as well as sense‐making practices that speak to a socio‐constructive approach to learning.…”

Shaping Human-AI Collaboration: Varied Scaffolding Levels in Co-writing with Language Models

“…Building on these fundamental theories, recent studies have explored the effects of various scaffolding strategies in different contexts, particularly focusing on English as a Foreign Language (EFL) writing proficiency. These studies have employed a range of strategies, including high-versus low-structure scaffolds, portfoliobased assessment, teacher-and peer feedback, process writing, self-revision, and mediated learning [4,31,33,39,50,65,66]. Collectively, this body of work demonstrates that well-aligned scaffolding can significantly enhance writing proficiency.…”

Quality education through writing: aligning learning objectives in learning materials and question papers using Bloom’s taxonomy

“…Scholars such as AL Harrasi (2023), Alnasser (2022), Desrochers et al (2018) and Phoophuangpairoj and Pipattarasakul (2022) have concentrated on teacher-generated and computer-generated feedback to improve the quality of students’ writing. Other researchers have paid attention to incorporating innovative use of technology, for example, computational thinking (Peng et al , 2023), using collaborative automatic assessment systems (Zhang, 2022) and particle swarm optimization (Wang et al , 2022), using of Edmodo and Google Docs (Adhami and Taghizadeh, 2022), flipped classrooms with teacher-made video content and interactive writing group activities (Khojasteh et al , 2021).…”