Prompted Journal Writing Fosters Secondary Students' Comprehension of, Interest in, and Critical Reflection on Scientific Topics

• In Event: Successful Teaching Practices: The What Works Clearinghouse Practice Guide on Secondary Writing

Abstract

Objectives and theoretical framework
Journal writing is a self-directed way of writing allowing students to personally select which aspects of a learning episode require deeper reflection. Learning journals are typically used to conduct follow-up coursework. Students write down their thoughts on previously heard learning contents, what they found personally interesting or relevant. They are prompted to ask themselves what they do not understand and what they can do to close their gap in understanding. In contrast to genres like scientific articles or argumentative essays, learning journals specifically do not have a fixed rhetorical structure. Hence, students can freely develop their ideas and reflect on their learning processes without having to pay attention to rhetorical constraints.
In our research program on journal writing, we empirically tested principles of how to effectively support the writing of learning journals. We found that students should especially be provided with prompts that stimulate the application of cognitive and metacognitive learning strategies. Powerful cognitive learning strategies are in particular the generation of examples to self-explain difficult concepts, and the organization of the learning contents through the identification of main points. Metacognitive strategies include the monitoring of one’s understanding to identify comprehension gaps and the application of remedial strategies to overcome the gaps.
Methods
In our contribution, we will briefly review the main tenets of our research program and present a recent quasi-experimental classroom study, in which we tested the effectiveness of journal writing in biology classes. Forty-six middle school students (13-14 years old) participated in the quasi-experimental field study. They were members of two different classes which were taught by the same teacher. The students in one course engaged in journal writing. They received several prompts that had been proven effective in our previous experimental studies. The prompts encouraged to employ cognitive and metacognitive strategies when writing a learning journal entry. The students in the other course completed other homework tasks (writing a summary, answering questions, creating a concept-map) during the three-weeks-intervention period.
Results
Results showed that the students in the journal writing class outperformed the control students in a comprehension test directly after the intervention period, F(1, 44) = 24.17, p < .01, partial η² = .36, and, eight weeks later in same test again, F(1, 43) = 19.29, p < .01, partial η² = .31, as well as in an additional critical reflection task F(1, 43) = 13.61, p < .01, partial η² = .24. The students in the journal writing condition further reported higher interest in biology than the students in the traditional homework F(1, 43) = 4.78, p < .05, partial η² =.10.
Scholarly Significance
Mediation analyses revealed a “domino effect”: Journal writing improved comprehension, which lead to raised interest, which resulted in superior critical reflection. Together, these results illustrate the potentials of journal writing for improving secondary students’ comprehension of, interest in, and ability to critically reflect on complex scientific issues.

Authors

• Matthias Nückles, University of Freiburg

• Sandra Hubner

• Alexander Renkl, University of Freiburg

• Kristin Wäschle