Modeling Scientific Communication with Multimodal Writing Tasks: Impact on Students at Different Grade Levels

One emerging area of science education research deals with the use of multimodal writing tasks to help improve student conceptual understanding. In these tasks, students are asked to utilize non-text modes along with text to discuss concepts dealt with in classroom activities. Previous research has indicated that these tasks benefit student conceptual development most when students are effective at integrating all modes together within one piece of communication. Lessons specifically designed to improve ability to integrate or embed modes have been shown to help students develop this skill, however the impact of these lessons has not been systematically tested at different grade levels. In this study, Cognitive Load Theory provided a framework for evaluation of the lesson and its impact on student writing and conceptual development. Students in pre-existing science classrooms in grades 6, 7, 8, 10 and 11 were randomly assigned to treatment groups in which an “Embeddedness Encouraging Lesson” (EEL) was taught and were compared to control groups that did not receive the lesson. Student multimodal writing products were assessed for embeddedness strategy use and student writing scores were correlated to overall test performance. Results indicate that the current pedagogical progression associated with multimodal writing tasks may be most beneficial for students at middle grade levels.