Enhancing Thinking Dispositions Through Informal Writing.

This study explores whether, how and why non formal writing in science classroom change students thinking disposition, which are perceived as latent tendencies that motivate and direct abilities toward productive thinking. The study is theory-driven, inspired by a constructivist view of learning, new approaches to science literacy, cognitive and social theories of the writing process, and a theory of thinking disposition. Designed as an action research with a comparative group, the study was conducted in four 8th grade science classrooms for almost two years, and includes 97 students. Measurements of students' thinking dispositions were analyzed prior to the study and at the end, following the implementation of writing experiences that allowed the use of four writing genres. The measurement instruments were developed and validated specifically for the study: thinking disposition questionnaire, reflection questionnaire and 14 writing tasks. Both quantitative and qualitative analysis was performed. The findings provide hard evidence that not only do students who write on science subjects after studying a science topic show progress in all five thinking dispositions measured, but a comparable group of students, who did not receive writing assignments, either failed to make significant progress or made less significant progress than the intervention group. The results also demonstrate that improvement in student thinking dispositions was affected by tasks that, although generically representing different types of rhetorical discourse, nevertheless had similar potential to enhance dispositions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]