A Case Study on Reflective Writing

7/23/2019 A Case Study on Reflective Writing

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A case study on reflective writing

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Resumo:

Reflective writing is a student centered approach widely used in science and engineering

courses that helps students develop a holistic scientific mindset. We present a multiple case

study in two science courses in which students engaged in reflective writing. he goal of this

study was to e!plore relationships between students" performance found in their writing

products and students" epistemology and way of learning. We found that students with higher

scores on an epistemology survey tended to use reflective writing in a more effective way to

enhance their learning of te!tual material.

e!to completo:

Writing#to#learn strategies have become increasingly valued in science teaching $%c&ermott'()*)+ %ullin' *,-,+ Rice' *,,-. Research has shown these strategies to be helpful for students

in confronting and becoming aware of misconceptions and consolidating their conceptual

/nowledge $0and' 0ohenshell' 1 2rain' ())3+ 0ein' *,,,+ 4utton' *,,(. 0and $())3 also

found that students" performance on conceptual 5uestions was improved by engaging in a series

of writing tas/s. 0owever' success depends on the nature of the writing tas/. If the writing tas/s

mainly re5uire students to hit the replay button' then it is not surprising that they do not perceive

writing to be a way of developing /nowledge $2rain 1 0and' *,,,. o get students to actively

construct their new /nowledge' the emphasis of writing tas/s should be based more on

reflection about their /nowledge $0and' 2rain' 1 Wallace' ())( and on epistemology and

scientific reasoning $0and' 2rain' 6awrence' 1 7ore' *,,,+ 0and et al.' ())(. Reflective

writing $8alman' ())9 comes from writing to learn' but it emphasies the active learning on

the student"s part.

;lby $())* pointed out that students" epistemological beliefstheir views about physics

/nowledge and how to learn physicswill affect how they approach physics courses. 0ammer

and ;lby $())


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/nowledge and science learning. In this paper' we e!plore the relationship between students"

performance found in their writing products and their epistemology and way of learning.

4tudents come into science classes with their own preconceptions and beliefs that ma/e sense in

e!plaining observations in their life world and are reasonable to some e!tent within their

horion. @adamer $*,9>' p. (, used the term horion to mean Bthe range of vision that

includes everything that can be seen from a particular vantage point.B hus' the 0orion A of

students includes both their life e!perience and former theoretical /nowledge. Another horion'

0orion =' is understood by scientists and described in scientific language. What professors

should do is to help students move and e!pand their 0orion A actively toward 0orion = of the

te!tboo/. 4tudents who are doing reflective writing instead of summary writing approach the

new material in the manner of what @adamer called a hermeneutical circle' moving bac/ and

forth between the two horions' ma/ing connections and comparisons and conse5uently trying

to construct their own understanding.

Reflective writing

In order to scaffold students to become active learners' we as/ students to do reflective writing$8alman et al.' ())- before going to classes. his writing tas/ emphasies reflective thin/ing

about what students have read. In performing reflective writing' students construct their own

understanding of the material. It is not simply a recall of points in the science te!tboo/s that

students usually do in summary writing. 8eys and colleagues $*,,,' p. *) noted that

Bencouraging students to write is to encourage them to negotiate meaning and construct

/nowledge.B Collowing are the instructions we gave for reflective writing:

Many of you may have had the experience that during a discussion

with others, you can clarify your ideas. Speaking to others is

always helpful to obtain a better understanding. The idea of doing

reflective writing is to construct a self-dialogue about what you

have read. The main difference between summary and reflective writing is that in a summary you write down what you already have

in your mind during your reading, while in reflective writing you

question what you have read and relate it to other concerns. on!t

"ust pick up important sentences or ideas from the textbook and

give me a list#

To do it, first finish reading the material. $t the same time, you

may underline, highlight, or even do summari%ation. Then close your

book and rethink about what your have in your brain. $t the same

time, write down your rethinking rapidly. on!t pay attention to

grammar. &t!s not formal writing, but "otting. 'rite down your own

understanding of concepts, relationship among those concepts, or

even relationship of the material to former chapters and your former knowledge from other disciplines and life experience. on!t

worry if what you are writing is right or not. Marking is not based

on that.

4tudents" reflective writing was not mar/ed for content. 4tudents do the reflective writing for

themselves. If mar/ed' students would write for the instructor' worrying about paragraphing and

sentence structure. It is chec/ed to see if the student is on tas/##that is' writing about the section

and free writing. As long as this is the case and the student produces a reasonable amount of

material' the student receives a grade of *))D. If not' mar/s are ta/en off.

%ethodology


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In this multiple case study $Ereswell' ())9' we integrated data collected at a 2hgranting

university $Institution A in the ()), winter semester and at a Funior college $Institution = in

the ()*) fall semester. In Institution A' we collected data in an introductory calculus#based

mechanics course ta/en by 9> students. he maFority of these students were studying

engineering' with the rest being science students. All students in the class were as/ed to do

reflective writing on each chapter of the course te!tboo/ with the e!ception of the first chapter.

his assignment accounted for *>D of their final grades. In Institution =' we collected data in

an introductory algebra#based course that covered both mechanics and electromagnetism. he

class contained ' ' ,' **' *('

and * G strongly agree. Cor the remaining negative statements' we arranged the answersin the opposite way. ;ach statement is assigned > points: * point for Ehoice * and > points for

Ehoice >' accordingly. In data analysis' we converted the total points into a percentage score.

We had * out of 9> students participating in the survey' with percentage scores ranging from

3.( to -.(. he average score was -., with a standard deviation of ,.-. As the switching of

scales in this version is not normal' and students might discover which ones are positive and

negative to achieve high scores' we developed ?ersion = in Institution =. In this version' we

arranged answers from strongly agree to strongly disagree for all the statements. Also' we

deleted 4tatement as it reflects students" attitude to the writing activity' not their

epistemological beliefs. he percentage scores of *, participants ranged from 3-.< to --.


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Ease A*

his student scored 9., on the survey' which is higher than the average of -.,. 0e handed in

five assignments' and two are reflective writing. Collowing is an e!ample:

(ield forces do not require

contact, they act over space. The

book says empty space, which &

think is an oxymoronic description

since the space would need something

in it. & wonder if even a magnetic

field should be labelled as something.

$nd the term empty in this case should

mean space without mass in it.

his student was doing the concept assignment in a different way than the others were. %ost of

the students were trying to ma/e connections between new material and their e!perience from

the life world $0orion A##that is' they were trying to understand them through e!amples

around them##whereas this student was trying to construct his own understanding at a moretheoretical level' trying to fit the new concepts into his own theoretical system about physics

$0orion A and arguing about the fitness. Collowing is part of the interview transcription for

Ease A*.

Interview *:

Huestion: =efore this 5uestion' let me first give the definition of preunderstanding. 7ou may

already have some ideas about physical concepts' such as mass' force' velocity' and

acceleration. hese ideas may come from your former educational e!perience or from your life

world. 6et"s say' all these ideas in your mind before you entered this course are called

preunderstanding. &o you bring your preunderstanding into studying for the course

Answer: It"s helpful' I thin/ it"s helpful.

Huestion: Why

Answer: All the things that I have in my head from high school' I can visualie. 4o if I can

visualie something' I can see a person moving' I can feel a weight' and I understand all these

different things ... all that previous understanding definitely helps me.

Huestion: 0ow do you do your reflective writing assignment

Answer: I put it to what I can spea/. 4o I ma/e it simpler and probably not as proper' but I canunderstand it.

Huestion: 0ow helpful is this activity

Answer: A lot' for a couple of reasons. Jne is ma/ing me read the boo/' whenever I go to the

class' I"m more prepared.... 4o once already you"ve thought it through' it"ll be easier to thin/ it

through again and again and again. 4o the very first time reading in the boo/' it might not ma/e

any sense' but if I read myself' it ma/es more sense. 4o the reflective writing is very helpful.

Interview (:

Huestion: Eould you please tell me something about your e!perience in the course


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Answer: I would say it"s a hard course' I thin/ it"s a little bit too complicated for an entrance

course.

Ease =*

his student scored 93.( on the epistemological survey' which is higher than the average of-.(. 0e handed in seven assignments' and three of them are in the manner of reflective writing.

In two assignments' he tried to relate new concepts to life e!perience.

%ass also shows it"s proportionate to inertia. =igger dudes have greater inertia than s/innier

dudes. I guess that"s why bullies in high school were fat or big and those who get bullied were

s/inny as hell because they can Fust get pushed off ...

Collowing is part of the interview transcription for Ease =*.

& try to put them )preunderstanding

and textbook* together, when they don!t

match, & will take a note, this is not totally wrong, but a kind of misconception.

'ithout the steps, or let!s say not

following step +, step , step

, & could like get more of it ... well,

in the instruction, it says "ust

reflective writing ... but since it!s

the part that teacher!s gonna look at

it, it makes me feel like maybe ... what if

& wrote this wrong That makes me think

that & need to write in the

way of note taking.

his student really wanted to do the writing assignment in the way of reflective writing to get

more out of it. =ut he thought it should be very private' not for teachers to loo/ at' so because of

the emotional reason' he tried to do it more li/e note ta/ing to ma/e sure what he wrote is right.

Ease A(

his is a part#time student. 4he scored 9(.< on the survey' which is higher than the average of

-., but lower than Ease A*. his student did all the writing assignments in the manner of

summary writing. Collowing is part of the interview transcription for Ease A(.

Interview *:

4o I thin/ the role of preunderstanding is very important ... I thin/ I use it more li/e reference ...

now I"m learning in a different way to learn a concept ... I thin/ it"s more li/e combination.

I thin/ it"s e!tremely helpful ... really li/e doing reflective writing before they are being taught

to us because it gets you to start thin/ing about ... about it. =ecause everything is connected to

everything else.

Ease A. 0ow do you approach the reflective writing tas/

2robe: @eneral steps

. &uring your reflective writing' you are instructed to relate new concepts to your previous

/nowledge+ what do you usually do when you find the two conflict with each other

2robe: &o you try to argue about the confliction or Fust memorie what the boo/ tells you

9. 0ow do you perceive the activity in relation to your own learning

2robe: Is reflective writing helpful for you to engage into your studying process

References

Ereswell' N. W. $())9. Hualitative in5uiry and research design: Ehoosing among five

approaches $(nd ed.. housand Ja/s' EA: 4age.

;lby' A. $())*. 0elping students learn how to learn. American Nournal of 2hysics: 2hysics

;ducational Research 4upplement' ,' 43>3#433.

@adamer' 0. @. $*,9>. ruth and method. 6ondon' ;ngland: 4heed 1 Ward.

0ammer' &.' 1 ;lby' A. $())


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8eys' E. W.' 0and' =.' 2ram' ?.' 1 Eollins' 4. $*,,,. Osing the science writing heuristic as a

tool for learning from laboratory investigations in secondary science. Nournal of Research in

4cience eaching'


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A Case Study on Reflective Writing