Writing assignments in studies that demonstrated enhanced student learning were most effective when they contained four important constructs. These constructs include: (1) A meaning-making writing task; (2) Clear writing expectations; (3) Interactive writing practices; (4) A chance for students to partake in metacognition. This research conducted in a first semester General Biochemistry course, investigated the effectiveness of writing assignments containing all 4 of the aforementioned constructs to enhance student conceptual understanding. Three concepts were selected, and two of the three concepts tested are taught either by lecture or lecture plus writing until all three concepts have been taught by both methods during a three-semester sequence (Fall 2018, Spring 2018, Fall 2019). Student scores on concept-related written response exam problems are calculated. A comparison across all three concepts together was conducted and an analysis of whether there is a significant difference in average student scores based on teaching method employed was performed. When the student population is taken as a whole, no significant differences in average scores are observed, however, filtering the students into arbitrary assigned groups based on whether the scores (on a scale of 0 to 5) were low performing (a score of &lt; 3.0) or high performing (a score of &gt; 3.0) yielded interesting results. When a writing assignment is utilized, there is no significant difference in average student scores for the low performing group, but the percentage of students that fall into the low performing group decreased from 48.4% to 38.7%. Among the high performing students, when a writing assignment is utilized, the average student score significantly improved from 4.30 to 4.56 (p = 0.018) with an effect size of 0.47 (Cohen’s d). These findings indicate that writing assignments containing the four aforementioned constructs are an effective strategy for improving student conceptual understanding.

Learning biochemistry the write way: Writing as a tool to promote conceptual understanding

ACS Spring Meeting 2021

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.