Effects of student reflective writing on understanding of middle school science concepts

Abstract

This project focused on using various writing activities, such as exit tickets, student indicator sheets, and participation log, in a middle school science classroom to investigate the effects on student understanding, problem solving skills, and motivation. In addition, teachers' attitude and motivation was also studied. Writing-to-learn in the science classroom was shown to increase student retention in the content; however student motivation did not increase. The effect on the teacher was increased motivation to teach writing with a slight decrease in the enjoyment of teaching.