Students' Achievement in Physics Using Low-Stakes Writing
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of low-stakes writing assignments on students' achievement in physics. The written assignments are a combination of Anson (2007) “scenario for writing” and E. Backus “meaningful paragraph” (2007). This work is aimed to professors who care about students learning. A posttest-only control group design was adopted. Two classes from a physics course in an Ecuadorian University participated in the study and they were intact groups assigned to different conditions, namely, the instruction with writing assignments and the instruction without writing assignments. The instructional unit chosen was “Kinematics of Rotation and Rotational Dynamics”. The results of the t test showed that there was a significant difference between the groups at p<0.02 with df=78. The results obtained provided empirical evidence supporting the usefulness of the writing tasks promoting conceptualization and problem solving skills.
Location
Room 2908
Recommended Citation
Herrera, Jorge Flores, "Students' Achievement in Physics Using Low-Stakes Writing " (2010). SoTL Commons Conference. 46.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/sotlcommons/SoTL/2010/46
Students' Achievement in Physics Using Low-Stakes Writing
Room 2908
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of low-stakes writing assignments on students' achievement in physics. The written assignments are a combination of Anson (2007) “scenario for writing” and E. Backus “meaningful paragraph” (2007). This work is aimed to professors who care about students learning. A posttest-only control group design was adopted. Two classes from a physics course in an Ecuadorian University participated in the study and they were intact groups assigned to different conditions, namely, the instruction with writing assignments and the instruction without writing assignments. The instructional unit chosen was “Kinematics of Rotation and Rotational Dynamics”. The results of the t test showed that there was a significant difference between the groups at p<0.02 with df=78. The results obtained provided empirical evidence supporting the usefulness of the writing tasks promoting conceptualization and problem solving skills.
