Sponsor
Portland State University. Center for Science Education
First Advisor
Michael Flower
Date of Publication
Fall 9-24-2014
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science in Teaching (M.S.T.) in General Science
Department
Science Teaching
Language
English
Subjects
Biology -- Study and teaching (Secondary), Technical writing -- Study and teaching (Secondary), Diaries -- Authorship -- Science -- Study and teaching (Secondary), Literacy -- Study and teaching (Secondary), Academic writing -- Study and teaching (Secondary)
DOI
10.15760/etd.2125
Physical Description
1 online resource (v, 84 pages)
Abstract
Writing-to-learn strategies have been administered in the past to enrich student learning. The purpose of this study was to see if K-W-L prompts in science journal writing could benefit student content knowledge within biology. Two high school biology classes were provided with learning journals. The journals given to the students during the treatment unit were provided with K-W-L question prompts to guide student learning while during the comparison unit students were given an open ended writing assignment. Pre and posttests were administered to determine student-learning gains. Student motivations and opinions of the treatment were collected through student interviews. The combined results were used to determine to what extent could K-W-L prompts in science journal writing influence comprehension of content knowledge. This study found there to be no difference in student learning gains when utilizing the K-W-L literacy strategy versus another free-writing activity. When scored, student K-W-Ls total scores did correlate to student success on unit tests. This opens up the potential for K-W-Ls to serve as an adequate tool for formative assessment. Here the K-W-L could be expanded to enrich student question asking, potentially aid students learning English, and potentially be used by students without teacher scaffolding.
Rights
In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).
Persistent Identifier
http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/13299
Recommended Citation
Wagner, Brandon Joel, "Integrating K-W-L Prompts into Science Journal Writing: Can Simple Question Scaffolding Increase Student Content Knowledge?" (2014). Dissertations and Theses. Paper 2127.
https://doi.org/10.15760/etd.2125