This project is a two-day workshop to advance current knowledge and discourse on the role of writing-to-learn (WTL) in undergraduate STEM education, particularly at research universities. It is also designed to educate and empower instructors to use writing as a pedagogical tool to improve and measure student learning. Although there is substantial evidence indicating that writing can be an effective tool for improving and measuring learning and increasing student engagement, WTL practices are not widely incorporated into undergraduate STEM education. Several barriers have hindered their implementation. First, STEM faculty generally have not connected writing to their teaching and have not reflected on ways to use writing in their courses to increase students' knowledge, understanding, and engagement. Second, extant studies have not generally been systematic or conceptually driven. As a consequence, evidence on effective WTL practices is scattered, of varying quality, and not cumulative, and does not inform teaching practices. Third, it is difficult to extrapolate beyond the unique educational contexts of empirical studies. The study will bring STEM faculty together with colleagues who are up-to-date on WTL theory and practice to investigate how WTL may be applied in undergraduate STEM courses to improve students' knowledge and comprehension and foster the development of critical and analytic thinking skills and to measure progress in both arenas. The first objective is to produce both a report that synthesizes current knowledge regarding the use of WTL in STEM disciplines and an online tool kit on "Writing to Learn in STEM" that identifies empirically validated and promising WTL practices (including guidance on their implementation). The second objective is to lay the foundation for a multi-university empirical study on WTL in STEM disciplines that addresses the gaps in knowledge and key issues in translating evidence into practice identified in the report. The final objective is to build a community of STEM faculty who have experience and knowledge of the use of WTL practices within STEM disciplines, will play a lead role at their universities and within their disciplines in promoting WTL practices, and will participate in the envisioned multi-university empirical study.
There is evidence indicating that the process of writing can be a useful tool for improving student learning and promoting the development of cognitive skills. However, writing-to-learn (WTL) practices, that is the use of writing to improve student’s learning of content, concepts, and methods, are not yet widely incorporated into undergraduate science education. The major goals of this project were to: Advance our knowledge by reviewing the research literature to identify promising WTL practices; engage the faculty in science and engineering fields in a discussion of the most promising findings and the implications for educational practice and stimulate their adoption of WTL practices; and develop a foundation for the design and implementation of collaborative studies across universities to further advance our understanding of effective WTL educational practices. To achieve these goals a "WTL Working Group" made up of well-known experts in STEM research and education from the disciplines of Biology, Chemistry, Engineering, Mathematics, Physics and Environmental Science formulated an intellectual framework to guide the review of the relevant research literature. The framework organized findings by discipline, specific learning objectives, and level of course: introductory, advanced, or capstone. Through the 2010 Conference of the Reinvention Center, a consortium of 66 research universities dedicated to strengthening undergraduate education, the Working Group provided a Workshop to engage faculty in discussion of the findings, consideration of barriers to implementation, and next steps in identifying effective educational practices. Subsequently, a comprehensive database of exemplary studies of promising practices in which writing is used as a vehicle to strengthen and measure student learning in science disciplines was made available to the science education community [http://bit.ly/fjudgo]. The database is organized by learning outcomes, discipline, and course level and can be searched by typing in keywords in the advanced search feature of the database. In its comprehensiveness and detailed annotations, the database will serve as an important tool kit for faculty who would like to incorporate writing in their teaching, as well as for professional staff who provide instruction through teaching resource centers. Finally, the Working Group formulated a conceptual framework to guide the next steps in the research process to advance educational effectiveness of WTL practices through targeting specific cognitive, emotional, and motivational processes that are known to influence learning.
