ENHANCING SCIENTIFIC LITERACY THROUGH WRITING: EFFECTS OF INFORMAL IN-CLASS WRITING ASSIGNMENTS IN INTRODUCTORY GEOLOGY COURSES

Geoscience educators have recognized the importance of incorporating writing in the classroom to obtain scientific literacy. Early pioneering research includes ideas of using writing as a valuable, unique way to learn material with successful learning described as being personal and engaged. Other research includes the use of low stakes writings that are frequent, informal, and graded as such with their focus on the students’ understanding of course concepts. Research on these writing-to-learn techniques provides data vital to our own research including that of increased conceptual understanding and enhancing scientific literacy. The main gap within previous research is conclusive data on the use of these techniques in geoscience education particularly, and the overall effects of informal in-class writings on the internalization of geological concepts. The foci of our research are on the low stakes writings and writing-to-learn techniques, and whether or not they have a recognizable impact on student learning and obtainment of scientific literacy in geology courses. Within this research, our three goals are to study student perceptions of the nature of science, whether their perceptions can be improved through informal in-class writings, if there was a differential effect for our treatment group to control group, and lastly what the students’ attitudes were towards this technique. This study is focused on in-class writings by students in introductory geology classes during the Fall 2016 semester. Participants in the treatment group were given 10 writing assignments and allotted a 10-minute period to write their answers to questions pertaining to geology concepts, and the nature of science. The last assignment was a student perception survey and reflection on the educational value of these techniques. Initial data suggests that there is an improvement in student conceptions of the nature of science. Student perceptions were notable as all values for each question averaged favorable. More results and analysis will be presented including statistical comparisons between our control and treatment groups, and a qualitative analysis of student writings. This research provides further vital information on the impact of informal in-class writing assignments on scientific literacy in geology courses.