Does a Knowledge Generation Approach to Learning Benefit Students? A Systematic Review of Research on the Science Writin
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Does a Knowledge Generation Approach to Learning Benefit Students? A Systematic Review of Research on the Science Writing Heuristic Approach Brian Hand 1
& Ying-Chih Chen
2
& Jee Kyung Suh
3
# Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract
The shifting emphases of new national curricula have placed more attention on knowledge generation approaches to learning. Such approaches are centered on the fundamental sense of generative learning where practices and tools for learning become the focus of the learning environment, rather than on the products of learning. This paper, building on from the previous review by Fiorella and Mayer (2015, 2016), focuses on a systematic review of doctoral and master theses of a knowledge generation approach to the learning of science called the science writing heuristic (SWH) approach. The outcomes of examining 81 theses show that students regardless of grade levels and cultural settings were significantly advantage in terms of content knowledge, critical thinking growth, and representational competency. The results also indicate that time in terms of engagement with the approach is critical for achieving student outcomes and for teachers to develop expertise with the approach. Questioning was also noted as being critical. Implications arising from the study are centered on the development and use of writing, the need for interactive dialogical environments, and the importance of questioning as critical elements for success. Keywords Knowledge generation . Learning tools . Representation The recently released national standard documents have placed demands on requiring students to be engaged in the epistemic practices that underpin the generative nature of disciplinary
* Brian Hand Brian–[email protected] Ying-Chih Chen [email protected] Jee Kyung Suh [email protected] Extended author information available on the last page of the article
Educational Psychology Review
inquiry (e.g., National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers 2010; NGSS Lead States 2013). As such, there has been a distinctive shift in emphasis from more knowledge replicative approaches that have been the focus of much of the work in schools, to now involving students in the construction and critique of claims and evidence as a means to generate understanding of a topic within each discipline (Prian and Hand 2016). This focus on the epistemic underpinnings or practices of the discipline extends the notion of argument as a product to addresses the need to engage in the disciplinary practices as a process of knowledge generation. Reflecting on the eight epistemic practices outlined in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS Lead State 2013), Del Longo and Cisotto (2014) argue for the need to view argumentation as a communicative practice that places considerable demands on student cognitive processing and self-regulation capacity. As such, this requires learning environments that encourage the development of critical-analytical think
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