Elementary students' strategies for writing-to-learn in science

Previous research has shown that writing can contribute to learning, but fe w studies have examined the cognitive processes through which this occurs, particularly among elementary students. A total of 70 children in Grades 4, 6, and 8 carried out science experiments concerning buoyancy or the balanc e beam, stated their explanations of the phenomena, and then wrote journal- style notes while thinking aloud. Fifteen of the students constructed more complex explanations during writing. Four aspects of the data were analyzed : writing operations, transitional sequences among writing operations, text features, and strategies for generating content. An analysis of these data yielded 7 factors: Text Production, Searching From Experiment, Brainstormi ng, Elaborative Genre, Goal Setting, Searching From Text, and Reviewing Bel iefs. In a logistic regression analysis, Brainstorming, Searching From Text , and Searching From Experiment contributed significantly to the likelihood of explanatory gains; Text Production contributed marginally. It was concl uded that for elementary students, writing-to-learn depends on strategies t hat are diverse, local in scope, independent of one another, and moderate i n sophistication. Instructional implications are discussed.