Writing for learning in secondary science: Rethinking practices

Prain, Vaughan; Hand, Brian

doi:10.1016/s0742-051x(96)00003-0

Cited by 153 publications

(115 citation statements)

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“…They also have found that students who do more than one non-traditional writing task can work on conceptual questions better than those who only do one writing task. Prain & Hand (1996) proposed five elements to guide the learning of writing in science: writing type, writing purpose, audience, topic, and method of text production. Studies in general show that writing for authentic audiences in various formats increases students' engagement, helps students learn better, and increases satisfaction in the teaching and learning process (Hand, Yang, & Bruxwoort, 2007; McDermoth & Kuhn, 2011;Wallace, 2007; Gunel, Hand & Mcdermott 2009).…”

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confidence: 99%

Enhancing Critical Thinking Skills and Writing Skills through the Variation in Non-Traditional Writing Task

Sinaga¹,

Feranie²

2017

INT J INSTRUCTION

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The research aims to identify the impacts of embedding non-traditional writing tasks within the course of modern physics conducted to the students of Physics Education and Physics Study Programs. It employed a quasi-experimental method with the pretest-posttest control group design. The used instruments were tests on conceptual mastery, tests on critical thinking skills, and a rubric of writing assessment. The data were analyzed by determining the percentages of average normalized gains, Cohen's d, and correlational analysis. Based on the results of data analysis, it is found that the different treatments in the non-traditional writing tasks given to the students of the Physics Education and Physics Programs have the following impacts: 1. There was a significant difference in the increased conceptual mastery and critical thinking skills; 2. There was a difference in the writing quality of the students of the Physics Education and Physics Program; 3. There was a correlation between writing quality and conceptual mastery with a high degree relationship and there was a correlation between writing quality and critical thinking skills with a low degree relationship; 4. Increased conceptual understanding was influenced by the writing domain.Key Words: critical thinking skill, quasi-experimental method, non-traditional writing tasks, conceptual mastery, writing to learn INTRODUCTIONWriting is a part of teachers' and scientists' job to help them in memorizing, making reports, planning and regulating, encouraging critical thinking skills, self-reflection over conceptual mastery, and communicating. Writing is also a part of science, although many prospective scientists and pre-service teachers do not receive formal training in writing (Barrass, 2000). In the curricula of Indonesian teacher training and education institutes, writing knowledge and skills are only embedded within the course subjects of English and Indonesian, each with two credit hours. In the descriptions of the two courses, writing is only a subtopic among many other topics taught. Based on the 70Enhancing Critical Thinking Skills and Writing Skills … International Journal of Instruction, April 2017 • Vol.10, No.2 interview with lecturers who teach the courses, obtained information that writing knowledge and skills are taught to students, but not optimally. The less than optimal teaching of writing has resulted in the low writing skills of pre-service teachers and future scientists. This was reinforced by one of the following fact: students are required to write articles research results and published by local journaling which is managed by the department of physical education. Each year there are 60 articles on average reviewed by editors, out of which only 27% of eligible. In addition, there is a lack of support for them to develop their writing skills. Thus, instructional strategies that can increase conceptual understanding as well as increasing the writing skills of pre-service teachers and prospective scientists are needed. Based on the facts, t...

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Enhancing Critical Thinking Skills and Writing Skills through the Variation in Non-Traditional Writing Task

Sinaga¹,

Feranie²

2017

INT J INSTRUCTION

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“…Recent research in science education has been advocating the need to incorporate skills, such as reading and writing, into the science classroom because these skills are necessary in the process of doing science (e.g., Alexander et al, 2008;Fang et al, 2008;Prain & Hand, 1996). Simple lesson-based reading and writing assignments give students the opportunity to learn how to write and enjoy reading while simultaneously learning science.…”

Section: Interdisciplinary Approaches In Sciencementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Additionally, students who wrote creatively about science (rather than writing a typical report) felt that they had learned about both English and science during the course of the project (Alexander et al, 2008). This process of "writing-to-learn" has been discussed in recent science education literature and is shown to help students increase their understanding of science content as well as critical thinking skills (Prain & Hand, 1996).…”

Section: Interdisciplinary Approaches In Sciencementioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of Teaching Resources for Implementing an Interdisciplinary Approach in the K-12 Classroom

Yarker

Park

2012

EURASIA J MATH SCI T

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“…Prain and Hand, 1996;Hand et al, 1999;Riggs and Kimbrough, 2002) and on discussing real issues, WebCT gave each student a means to express his or her views in spite of the large class size and the opportunity to receive credit for participating to the debate, something that would have been impossible in a traditional classroom with 250 students. The correlation between final grade and use of WebCT, and in particular of the Discussion tool, is interesting and intriguing.…”

Section: Course Notes 77mentioning

confidence: 99%

Getting Help from Course Management Software to Teach a Large-Enrollment Introductory Geology Class

Cervato

2003

Journal of Geoscience Education

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Course management software allows instructors to introduce an Internet-based component to their classroom teaching even without any prior knowledge of HTML language. I used one of the most widely available software, WebCT, for two introductory geology classes of approximately 250 students each at Iowa State University in fall 2001. The software is easy to use and I established a variety of content and communication tools in less than a day, using the procedure described in the paper. Student responses to the use of WebCT were in general positive and they especially liked the opportunity to communicate with me, to keep track of their assignments with the "Calendar" tool, and to view their grades online. Students who earned good grades in the class are also the ones that made more extensive use of WebCT, especially with the "Discussion" tool. However, it cannot yet be demonstrated that the use of WebCT helps learning in a measurable way. RightsThis is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.This article is available at Iowa State University Digital Repository: http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/ge_at_pubs/5 ABSTRACTCourse management software allows instructors to introduce an Internet-based component to their classroom teaching even without any prior knowledge of HTML language. I used one of the most widely available software, WebCT, for two introductory geology classes of approximately 250 students each at Iowa State University in fall 2001. The software is easy to use and I established a variety of content and communication tools in less than a day, using the procedure described in the paper. Student responses to the use of WebCT were in general positive and they especially liked the opportunity to communicate with me, to keep track of their assignments with the "Calendar" tool, and to view their grades online. Students who earned good grades in the class are also the ones that made more extensive use of WebCT, especially with the "Discussion" tool. However, it cannot yet be demonstrated that the use of WebCT helps learning in a measurable way.

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Writing for learning in secondary science: Rethinking practices

Cited by 153 publications

References 23 publications

Enhancing Critical Thinking Skills and Writing Skills through the Variation in Non-Traditional Writing Task

Enhancing Critical Thinking Skills and Writing Skills through the Variation in Non-Traditional Writing Task

Analysis of Teaching Resources for Implementing an Interdisciplinary Approach in the K-12 Classroom

Getting Help from Course Management Software to Teach a Large-Enrollment Introductory Geology Class

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