Writing-to-Learn in the Inquiry-Science Classroom: Effective Strategies from Middle School Science and Writing Teachers

Baker, William P.; Barstack, Renee; Clark, Douglas H.; Hull, Elizabeth; Goodman, Ben; Kook, Judy; Kraft, Kaatje Van der Hoeven; Ramakrishna, Pushpa; Roberts, Elisabeth; Shaw, Jerome M.; Weaver, David A.; Lang, Michael

doi:10.3200/tchs.81.3.105-108

Cited by 28 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Even though it was time intensive, we agree with Baker et al (2008) that providing students with detailed feedback is an important component of WTL. Students indicated appreciation for the depth of feedback in their evaluations of WTL as well as the overall course evaluations.…”

Section: There Might Be Unexpected Benefitssupporting

confidence: 62%

Writing to Learn: Benefits and Limitations

Fry

Villagomez²

2012

College Teaching

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Writing to learn (WTL) is the act of making a subject or topic clear to oneself by reasoning through it in writing; it is a pedagogical approach that uses writing to facilitate learning (Zinsser 1988). Some researchers have reported favorable results associated with the approach (Balgopal and Wallace 2009; Bullock 2006; Hand, Hand, Gunel, and Ulu 2009). However, others have indicated that studies supporting WTL pedagogy tend to lack comparison groups, pre/posttest data, or the rich description that contributes to a rigorous qualitative study (Hübner, Nückles, and Renkl 2010; Kieft, Rijlaarsdam, and van den Bergh 2006; Klein 1999). Thus, existing research about WTL suggests that its effectiveness depends on context, leaving a need for further research to better understand the contexts in which WTL has a favorable impact on student achievement. In response to this need, we designed this mixed-method, quasi-experimental study to include pre/posttests and qualitative analysis of WTL journals. Writing to Learn WTL is based on the foundational idea that writing plays a role in the learning process. Zinsser (1988) explained how it is beneficial: … as a writer I [often] made clear to myself some subject I had previously known nothing about by just putting one sentence after anotherby reasoning my way in sequential steps to its meaning… often the act of writing even the simplest document clarified my half-formed ideas. Writing and thinking and learning were the same process. (p. ix) Given these benefits, it follows that teachers who adopt WTL as part of their pedagogy anticipate that writing promotes student learning. Engaging in the act of writing does not automatically enhance student learning, however; research suggests specific conditions need to be met in order for it to be effective. In a meta-analysis of 48 studies of WTL at the K-12 level, Bangert-Drowns, Hurley, and Wilkinson (2004) found that WTL can have a small to medium effect. They found the effect size increased with longer exposure to WTL experiences and when the writing task required metacognition. Further substantiating the latter finding, Hübner et al. (2010) found that WTL had a positive impact on learning when students were explicitly introduced to "specific cognitive and metacognitive strategies of self-regulated learning" (p. 18) and provided with an example of a WTL journal entry that illustrated those strategies. Kieft et al. (2006) found that WTL was more effective if the writing task matched with students' preferred writing approach. Thus, contextual factors influence WTL's impact on learning, the evidence supporting it is ambiguous, and while WTL has potential, it is not a cure-all (Bangert-Drowns et al. 2004; Newell, Koukis, and Boster 2006.).

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Section: There Might Be Unexpected Benefitssupporting

confidence: 62%

Writing to Learn: Benefits and Limitations

Fry

Villagomez²

2012

College Teaching

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Science teachers, however, must do more than just encourage students to write more; they must also consider the purpose and the nature of the writing that they expect students to do and what activities that students must engage in as they write. Writing short answer responses to analysis questions at the end of a lab activity, writing reflective journals, or summaries of research articles alone does not seem to result in better scientific writing skills, although these types of writing tasks can help students develop a better understanding of important content (Baker et al, 2008;Gunel et al, 2009;Prain, 2006) To improve secondary students' science-specific argumentative writing skills, and understanding of the content at the same time, the writing students do during school science laboratories needs to be more authentic and educative. To be more authentic, the writing tasks need to be realistic, embedded into the inquiry process, and engage students in the serious writing practices of science.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Writing to Learn by Learning to Write During the School Science Laboratory: Helping Middle and High School Students Develop Argumentative Writing Skills as They Learn Core Ideas

Sampson¹,

Enderle²,

Grooms³

et al. 2013

Science Education

123

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This study examined how students’ science‐specific argumentative writing skills and understanding of core ideas changed over the course of a school year as they participated in a series of science laboratories designed using the Argument‐Driven Inquiry (ADI) instructional model. The ADI model is a student‐centered and writing‐intensive approach to laboratory instruction. The study was conducted in two middle school and two high school courses offered at a university‐affiliated laboratory school located in the southeast USA. The intervention took place over two semesters and consisted of at least eight laboratory activities in each course. Student learning gains were measured using a science content assessment and a science‐specific argumentative writing assessment that were administered at the beginning, middle, and end of the school year. Changes in student performance on the two assessments over time indicate that the students’ science‐specific argumentative writing skills and their understanding of core scientific ideas improved over the course of intervention. Furthermore, students who participated in a greater number of ADI activities demonstrated greater and more consistent improvement in their writing. The implications of the study describe ways to enhance students’ science proficiencies during school science laboratories and include recommendations for future research. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed 97:643–670, 2013

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“…Previous studies have found that the IBL approach motivates students to seek for answers and generated increases in affective and cognitive outcomes (Herman & Knobloch, 2004;Slavin, 2006). As agreed by Baker et al (2008), IBL requires students to explore and urges them to think and seek actively, as opposed to the act of memorizing repetitively. Hmelo-Silver et al (2007) commented that middle school students who adopted an inquiry-based mode of learning has been found to achieve better results in their tests.…”

Section: Inquiry-based Learning (Ibl) and Students' Performance In Mamentioning

confidence: 99%

Implementing Inquiry-Based Learning and Examining the Effects in Junior College Probability Lessons

Chong

Shahrill

et al. 2017

Journal. Math. Edu.

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This study examined how Year 12 students use their inquiry skills in solving conditional probability questions by means of Inquiry-Based Learning application. The participants consisted of 66 students of similar academic abilities in Mathematics, selected from three classes, along with their respective teachers. Observational rubric and lesson observation checklist were used as the data collection instruments. The results obtained were analyzed and then quantitatively reported. Findings from the observational rubric revealed that Year 12 students were able to understand most of the questions during the activity, but they only select and use one previously learned method to solve the questions during the activity. In addition, these students rarely seek and asked probing questions during the activity. They only used words, diagrams and numbers to interpret the solutions to the questions and make connections between them but with few mistakes detected.

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Writing-to-Learn in the Inquiry-Science Classroom: Effective Strategies from Middle School Science and Writing Teachers

Cited by 28 publications

References 12 publications

Writing to Learn: Benefits and Limitations

Writing to Learn: Benefits and Limitations

Writing to Learn by Learning to Write During the School Science Laboratory: Helping Middle and High School Students Develop Argumentative Writing Skills as They Learn Core Ideas

Implementing Inquiry-Based Learning and Examining the Effects in Junior College Probability Lessons

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