• Communications of Mathematical Education
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.91-108
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• 2008

One of the essential factors for successful college mathematics class is to provide a strong motivation for learning to students. In this respect, this paper attempted to find out how the letter-writing assignment can change students' learning attitude and enhance their motivation for further mathematical investigation. The process is to have all students write up letters containing a summary of the major points covered during the semester, and to find out how valuable is the letter-writing assignment. The major finding of this research is that the letter-writing assignment makes a notable contribution to the desirable change of students' learning attitude. From this finding, we suggest that the letter-writing assignment be adopted by more math classes and expect that such expansion of the letter-writing assignment would have a positive influence on the students' learning attitude.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.387-394
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• 2019

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of writing science diary on science learning motivation, science academic achievement and ecological sensitivity of elementary students. Teaching unit was focused on 'The structure and function of plants' in 6th grade science text book. The subjects of study were 51 students of two classes. One class of 25 students, experimental group, wrote science diaries as homework. While the other class of 26 students, comparative group, performed homeworks with fill-in-the-blank worksheets. The results of this study can be summarized as follows: First, writing science diary had a meaningful effect on improvement of science learning motivation. Second, writing science diary had a meaningful effect on improvement of science academic achievement. Third, writing science diary had a meaningful effect on improvement of ecological sensitivity. And we could find that students had a favorable impression and high satisfaction level about writing science diary from the questionnaire.

• Journal of Practical Engineering Education
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.485-494
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• 2023

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between writing self-efficacy and academic achievement in a project-based university writing class, and the mediating effect of reflective journal writing. A total of 135 college students participated in the study. The results showed that students with higher writing self-efficacy had higher academic achievement and wrote more reflective journaling. Reflective journaling was found to have a positive impact on reviewing learned content, improving metacognition and memory, and promoting idea development. Overall, consistent reflective journal writing not only enhanced writing self-efficacy but also positively influenced academic performance.

• Journal of Wellbeing Management and Applied Psychology
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.43-50
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• 2024

Purpose: People must express their feelings and thoughts to maintain mental health and stability. Expressing one's emotions, experiences, and thoughts in writing relieves inner feelings, promotes self-exploration, and improves individual well-being, resulting in a pleasant state on physical, mental, and social levels. This study aims to reveal the learning experiences of university students who participated in a self-expressive writing course to improve their well-being. Method: To explore the learning experiences of university students who took a self-expressive writing course, this study used qualitative research methods to analyze the students' written reflection notes. Results: Self-expressive writing was found to resolve university students' negative emotions, regulate their emotions, improve their self-reflection and self-awareness, contributing to their problem-solving skills and ability to set new goals, and strengthen their social communication. The meaning of this class experience can be summarized as healing, awareness, reflection, change, and growth. Conclusion: The results of this study provide concrete data on expressive writing classes and are valuable when designing the writing programs.

• Journal of Engineering Education Research
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.51-59
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• 2011

The authors have developed a reading & writing textbook for engineering students to improve their communication capability, and also analyzed the outcomes that the students accomplished through the Engineering Reading and Writing class. The reading & writing textbook has been organized to be used as a guidebook with which the engineering students can practically solve the problems that they would face continuously after they finish their regular curriculum and when they are employed. The questionnaire survey analysis has been performed in order to evaluate the textbook contents, lecturing, and learning outcomes for the lecturers and students finished the engineering reading and writing classes. Desirable evaluation has been resulted in the broad areas: subject extraction from the readings, logical understanding, summarizing, practical writing, writing principle, etc.

• Journal of Engineering Education Research
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.56-65
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• 2018

This research aims to explore the relationships between academic writing ability and 'thinking styles' (capable of representing individual differences and diversity) in engineering freshmen in Korea, and to draw educational implications for the development of instructional strategies. (Academic) Writing is not just about conveying an idea or content, it is also about the representation of writer's self. In this perspective, there has been some research conducted on writing (process) and personality. However, to date, little attention has been paid to writing ability of engineering students and its relationships with thinking styles. This study was conducted with 127 engineering freshmen as well as 67 non-engineering freshmen at H University, and students' writing ability as well as their thinking styles have been measured before and after writing class for 15 weeks. Our findings show that firstly, there was a significant difference of writing ability by majors. Second, there were significant differences in freshmen's thinking styles by majors. Third, there was significant differences of writing ability according to thinking styles. Freshmen's internal, legislative and hierarchical styles scored significantly higher in writing ability than the others. And as for the engineering freshmen, internal, external and global styles scored significantly higher in writing ability than the others. Finally, there was a weak but significant relationship between writing ability and thinking styles(hierarchical & internal). These findings are expected to provide an explanation for the development of instructional strategies of writing (related) courses in engineering school.

• Journal of Engineering Education Research
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.33-45
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• 2022

This study aims to investigate effects of scaffolding on writing apprehension and media literacy in engineering freshmen's synchronous online writing course, and the relationships between the two variables. 'Scaffolding' is in-time support provided by a teacher/tutor or competent peer that enables students to meaningfully gain skills at problem solving process. Also, it is one of the most frequently mentioned concepts in education as well as one of the more necessary teaching strategies in an online writing course. In this study, provided treatments for the experiment were supportive scaffolding for domain-specific knowledge and reflective scaffolding for meta-cognitive knowledge. Participants were 102 engineering undergraduate students, who were assigned to two experimental groups by scaffolding types. A process-based writing course in online learning environment was conducted for 8 weeks. The writing tasks were given according to writing process. The findings were that, firstly, there were statistically significant writing apprehension's reduction and self-expression's improvement through the scaffolding provided in writing class. Secondly, writing apprehension's reduction and self-expression's improvement were significant in supportive scaffolding group. Thirdly, media literacy predicted writing apprehension. The practical implications of these findings are discussed herein, with particular attention on ways for writing apprehension's reduction as well as media literacy's enhancement.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.179-202
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• 2005

The purpose of this study is to examine whether the teacher feedback (TF) group and the peer feedback (PF) group exhibit significant differences in their English writing abilities and attitudes toward English writing. The subjects of this study are eighty-three college first-year students enrolled in a college English reading class. The subjects' first and final writing samples are used to measure the improvement of English writing abilities and a set of pretest and posttest questionnaires is administered in order to find their attitudes. The qualitative and quantitative analyses of the data collected show the following results. First, the two groups show no significant difference in their holistic scores. Neither do the two groups display any significantly different development in their analytic scores. Second, the two groups show no significant differences in attitude factors but writing confidence. These findings suggest that peer feedback can be used to encourage EFL college students to develop their writing abilities.

• Journal of Korean language education
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.23-47
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• 2017

This research analyzed procedural problems presented in academic writing faced by international students. The result of this research will serve as a basis for suggesting methods of developing a curriculum in Korean writing as a liberal arts education designed for international students. To analyze problems presented in academic writing by international students, the standard of assessment was divided into interaction, knowledge construction, and material quotation. Then, knowledge construction was divided into contents, structure, and expression, and the items were subdivided in each category. These categories of assessment correspond to the genre of academic writing and are different from the existing standard of assessment for academic writing. Applying these standards, this research analyzed 43 texts of academic writing in process for a final paper by international students in an class and presented problems in them. Furthermore, this paper aims to give detailed feedback that can help solve those problems.

• Educational Technology International
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.71-94
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• 2011

How can an automated essay scoring (AES) program, which provides feedback for essays, be a formative tool for improving ESL writing? In spite of the increasing demands for English writing proficiency, English writing instruction has not been effective for teaching and learning because of a lack of timely and accurate feedback. In this context, AES as a possible solution has been gaining the attention of educators and scholars in ESL/EFL writing education because it can provide consistent and prompt feedback for student writers. This experimental study examined the impact of different types of feedback for a college ESL writing program using the Criterion AES system. The results reveal the positive impact of AES in a college-level ESL course and differences between the teacher's feedback and the AES feedback. The findings suggest that AES can be effectively integrated into ESL writing instruction as a formative assessment tool.