Incorporating the Writing-to-Learn Method into the Concept Teaching Process: Intervention Mixed Methods Design

Abstract

This study aims to examine the impact of writing-to-learn activities on teaching certain concepts specific to social studies course. A total of eighteen fourth grade students at primary school participated in this study, which was designed according to the intervention mixed methods design. During the implementation process, ten different writing activities were conducted with a focus on different concepts to monitor students’ concept learning processes. Data were collected via an open-ended concept knowledge test, a concept academic achievement test, a structured classroom observation form, and a semi-structured interview form. Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive and predictive statistics, whereas the qualitative data were analysed by content analysis. Writing-to-learn activities show what students have or have not learned, and provide them with feedback, besides serving as a projection on teachers’ own teaching processes, resulting in self-regulation to be adopted by students while writing and by teachers while teaching. It has been concluded that the concepts necessary to learn about active citizenship, especially those that are abstract and difficult to learn such as national sovereignty, democracy, and freedom, are learned more easily through writing-to-learn activities. The factors that constitute success involve the mental effort students spend in the concept learning process, the social studies language designed in a way that different participants are able to comprehend, the feedback on the level of learning the concepts, and the active participation of teachers and students. Writing-to-learn approach can be an alternative method in the social studies course, integrating many concepts with an interdisciplinary approach.