Introduction: Does Writing Promote Learning in Science?

Most of us have had the experience of thinking about concepts in new ways or discovering gaps in our knowledge through the act of writing. The idea that learners could generate new science knowledge through composing text was proposed in the early 1970s. Science writing involves the use of reasoning skills to organize information, describe scientific phenomena, create knowledge claims, and formulate an argument. Thus, writing has potential for fostering content learning. Yet, research evidence on the specific character of science knowledge learned through writing, and the mechanisms through which the learning takes place has remained somewhat elusive over the past three decades. Writing in 1984, Applebee asserted, “At one level, most authors begin with the assumption that writing about a topic helps us to understand that topic better. At another level, we know almost nothing about the nature of the understanding that develops ...” (p. 590). A decade later in 1994 (p.885), Holliday, Yore, and Alvermann noted, “Currently, conceptions of writing to learn appear to be embryonic and fragmented.”