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Narrative Writing for Science Learning
This document describes a study on using narrative writing to teach the process of science. Students in a college science course wrote research narratives about scientists and their work. The study examined students' experiences with this assignment and the role of autonomy, competence and relatedness on engagement and performance. Students found the autonomy and open-ended nature of the assignment beneficial for learning about research processes and connecting with scientists. However, some students found it difficult to write creatively and critically review their own work. While autonomy support had little effect on performance, autonomous self-regulation marginally improved scores. The assignment was effective for science communication and identifying mentors but recommendations were made to improve instructions and feedback.
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Narrative Writing for Science Learning
- 1. Narrative Writing asa Student-Centered Approach to Learning the Process of Science Eunbae Lee University of Georgia
- 2. Overview Narrativewriting as a way of learning the processes of science Qualitative study on students’ experiences on research narratives in a college science course The role of autonomy, relatedness, and competence in research narratives Development of reusable design propositions for student-centered research narratives
- 3. Student-Centered Learning Student assume the major responsibility for using a variety of resources and tools to navigate through the process of reaching the individually identified learning goals (Land & Hannafin, 2012)
- 4. Self-Determination Theory (Ryan& Deci, 2000) Experience of • Autonomy •Competence • Relatedness Fosters • Volition •Motivation • Engagement Result in • Enhanced performance • Persistence •Creativity
- 5. Writing in ScienceEducation Constructing new knowledge by establishing connections between prior knowledge about the topic and knowledge about discourse processes and goals Reflection and expression of learned material in meaningful organizations Examined for flaws, revised, reorganized, and combined with additional research, or discarded (MacKenzie & Gardner, 2006; Madigan, 1987; Moore, 1994; Bereiter & Scardamalia, 1987; (Hayes & Flower, 1986;Alamargot & Chanquoy, 2001; Hayes, 1996)
- 6. Narrative Writing Differentfrom typical science reports Story with drama and characters (Clopton, 2011).
- 7. Research Narratives Student-centered Learning Identify a scientist Interview the scientist Learn about the research project Write a narrative Main goal: To understand the process of science Other goals: Identify graduate and career mentors Public outreach: Communicate science in a plain language to the general public
- 8. Purpose of Study To understand students’ experiences with research narratives To examine the role of autonomy, relatedness, and competence in students’ engagement and performance in college-level, student-centered science education
- 9. Research Questions 1.What are students’ experiences when engaged in science research narratives in college-level, student-centered science learning environments? Steps to completion Perceptions Resources and guidance Difficulty Students’ recommendations
- 10. Research Questions To what extent do autonomy support, competence, relatedness, and autonomous self-regulation influence students’ performances on the research narratives?
- 11. Research Method Participants: A college science course Design Participant observations Student interviews Instructor interviews Document Analysis Student questionnaire Learning Climate Questionnaire Self-Regulation Questionnaire Intrinsic Motivation Inventory Analysis: Thematic Analysis and Correlation analysis
- 12. Steps to Completion Identified researcher based on their interests Referenced the researcher’s websites, blogs, news and magazine articles, and scholarly publications Semi-structured phone interviews Follow-up emails for details while writing Incorporated story telling techniques (e.g., an arc, humor, villains) Revised the first draft based on feedback received from the instructor and peers
- 13. Students said My focus was the research. … So when writing it, I did introduction to the topic. And then I just kind of went and tried to play along with the order for research and what it has led to. (Matthew, 62-69) And then I've kind of organized her answers to the question. I wrote it up. So, when I was writing I tried to make it into a story and kind of make it blend in with topics of research I wanted to get into. How actually I would do that in the field and give the reader a good sense of what it would be actually like to do the research. (Daniel, 12-14 I focused on the person and her life choices to get her where she was in her research. (Jessica 93-94) I made him more of a super hero than he made himself seem. (Nettie, 159)
- 14. Useful Guidance 1.Feedback on the First Draft 2. Opportunity to Revise 3. Rubrics 4. Instructions provided in the syllabus 5. Peer Review 6. Example 7. Self-Critique 8. Individual Discussions with the Instructor
- 15. Difficulties 1. WritingTo Tell A Good Story 2. Critiquing My Own Work 3. Understanding Why I Have To Do This 4. Critiquing Someone Else’s Work 5. Contacting and Interacting with The Researcher 6. Conveying Scientific Information to a Layperson 7. Identifying Content to Include in My Narratives 8. Motivating Myself to Do It 9. Planning Out What to Do Next 10. Understanding Content 11. Having Someone Critique My Own Work
- 16. Perceptions: Least Helpful Research Narratives Textbook Lecture Exam Online Lecture Reading Quiz Amphibian Inventory Instructional Lab Lab Exam Live Lecture
- 17. Perception: Autonomy Especially with narratives, how we got to choose and how we got to research. So, there was a lot of freedom there. … I think I would prefer how it was with more freedom. So you get to choose the topic you get to write about. So you are not stuck with something you are not interested in. (Daniel, 125-129) I liked how it was open-ended. You can choose whatever you want. You turn it in this time well set out towards the end of the semester. (Leila, 127- 128) You have the creative liberty. You can take it wherever. (Leila, 149)
- 18. Perception: Students’ takeaway Public outreach: You have to communicate to the public good things about the field. So I think the point of this is to be able to take science and present it in a way that is interesting to someone who is not from science. (Jessica, 73-75) Connection with current research and researchers: I guess it was to get experience reading and learning about new research and making contact with people. (David, 81) Enhanced personal engagement: The other part of it was to get you more interested in this field and make it related to something you personally care about if you were not science majors. Which is the part that appealed to me. (Leila, 82-83)
- 19. 5. Recommendations for Improvement More specific instructions More detailed rubrics F2F feedback Pertinent examples of science narratives Explanations narrative compared to other forms of writing Former student work samples Specific page limits Additional time for peer review
- 20. RQ2: Self-Determination on Performance and Engagement Experience of autonomy, relatedness, competence, and perceived autonomy support from the instructor had no effect on students’ performance on the research narratives Autonomous self-regulation had a marginal effect on the students’ performance. (p=.06) Experience of autonomy have some positive effect on their motivation to do well on the research narratives
- 21. Correlation Analysis I would recommend having this assignment again. (Matthew, 10) I don't know I would recommend this for future classes. (David, 76) I wasn't that excited about this assignment. It was a lot more difficult for me to try to approach creative writing and took a lot of energy on wanting to do it. (Sarah, 128-130)
- 22. Limitations N=17 Documenting students lived experience during the process Review of instructor feedback to students
- 23. Processes of science Research Narratives Outreach Mentor Communi-cation Self-knowledge
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Editor's Notes
- #2 This study systemically examines ways to promote the understanding of science processes by writing a research narrative in college-level science education.
- #5 Self-determination Theory suggests that individual’s experience of autonomy, competence, and relatedness fosters the most volitional and high quality forms of motivation and engagement for activities, including enhanced performance, persistence, and creativity. (Ryan & Deci, 2000)
- #6 Writing in general has been widely recognized as a powerful tool to stimulate thinking and enhance science learning. Writing is a complex cognitive task that supports constructing new knowledge by establishing connections between prior knowledge about the topic and knowledge about discourse processes and goals (Bereiter & Scardamalia, 1987)
- #7 how the research process is comprised of theory, making predictions, data collection and analysis, and testing the predictions, and discussion. The second objective is to expose students to the broader community of science and to the bigger and wider perspectives of a variety of researchers. The third objective is for students to explore careers related to science, network with professionals, and maintain the connections.
- #9 However, little is understood about the students’ experiences engaged in narrative writing in science education, especially in student-centered learning environments.
- #13 Students integrated story telling techniques which are described in the rubric by incorporating a rising action, climax, falling action, and conclusion; by developing a theme or a character; and by infusing humor into the narrative. Some were very accommodating and timely, while others were not very responsive, because they were out of town or busy with other things. Students asked about how the researcher became interested in the area, what made the researcher do what he or she does now, how the researcher conducted a scientific research project, what difficulties were experienced along the way and how they were overcome, what funny things happened in the process, and what are their projected directions for the future.
- #22 Participants identified the research narrative as the least helpful out of the following components of the course, whereas the other student-centered learning activity, the instructional lab, was one of the top three most helpful activities.
- #24 Engaging students in writing a research narrative holds the potential for teaching the process of science while students have meaningful conversations with a scientist about his or her lived experience of conducting scientific research, conduct a student-centered inquiry into the scientist’s research project, and communicate their science knowledge to a lay audience. The findings from this study inform science educators and instructional designers in the education community the systemic design and implementation of narratives as a way to teach the processes of science and promote student-centered learning in science education.