Sequential Writing Tasks’ Influence on Science Learning

Abstract

Recent enlarged accounts of science literacy emphasize that student learning should move beyond a narrow focus on technical knowledge to an understanding of the nature, rationale and procedures of science as well as a commitment and capacity to communicate scientific understandings to diverse readerships. This chapter explores the implications of this redefined view of science literacy for effective task design in writing for learning in science. We report on two case studies that sought to identify the effects on student learning of science and science literacy when they engaged with different single and sequential writing tasks. The results of the study indicated that students who wrote to explain their ideas performed better on subsequent tests than students who undertook only the usual writing tasks. Students who undertook a sequence of two connected writing tasks also performed better on higher order questions than students who did not undertake such tasks.