4.1.1
Writing in Science
Complete the interactive activities in the Seneca app to work towards your CPD certificate.
Writing in Science
Reading in Science is important, but so is writing in Science.
Barriers
- According to Cameron (2003), there are barriers to writing well in Science:
- At the word level, students' writing lacks a range of vocabulary including scientific terms.
- At the sentence level, students writing lacks detail, many find it a challenge to express their ideas clearly.
- At the text level, students are not clear about the different text types used in science.
- Students often fail to structure and organise their writing.
- Legibility, spelling, punctuation, and grammar can also be barriers.
Dual-stream model (Hickock 2012)
- Speech production and perception systems used to be viewed as being functionally distinct but are now seen as being strongly interconnected.
- The ‘dual stream model’ is probably the predominant explanation.
- This model suggests that students articulate a concept verbally to gain a deeper understanding of what they are learning prior to writing this down.
Modelling scientific language
- For Carrier, 2011, teachers need to explicitly model the correct use of science-specific language.
- Student: “We put this smooth powder in the bag along with the crunchy powder and the bag blew up and got hot.”
- Teacher: “We mixed baking soda and calcium chloride with water resulting in a gas, and the heat was released.”
- Scientist: “The combination of baking soda and calcium chloride is an exothermic reaction with the products of sodium chloride, calcium carbonate, and carbon dioxide.”
Well done!
Thank you for completing our CPD course. We hope you've enjoyed it and that it has given you some ideas for your own classroom.
1Why Literacy Matters in Science Education?
1.1Why Literacy Matters in Science Education?
2The Language of Science
2.1The Language of Science
3Reading in Science
3.1Reading in Science
4Writing in Science
4.1Writing in Science
Jump to other topics
1Why Literacy Matters in Science Education?
1.1Why Literacy Matters in Science Education?
2The Language of Science
2.1The Language of Science
3Reading in Science
3.1Reading in Science
4Writing in Science
4.1Writing in Science
Practice questions on Writing in Science
Can you answer these? Complete these activities in the Seneca app to progress towards your certificate.
- 1Barriers to writing well in ScienceFill in the list
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