• Media type: E-Article
  • Title: The Effect of Journal Writing on Achievement in and Attitudes Toward Mathematics
  • Contributor: Jurdak, Murad; Abu Zein, Rihab
  • Published: Wiley, 1998
  • Published in: School Science and Mathematics, 98 (1998) 8, Seite 412-419
  • Language: English
  • DOI: 10.1111/j.1949-8594.1998.tb17433.x
  • ISSN: 0036-6803; 1949-8594
  • Origination:
  • Footnote:
  • Description: A teaching experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of journal writing on achievement in and attitudes toward mathematics. Achievement variables included conceptual understanding, procedural knowledge, problem solving, mathematics school achievement, and mathematical communication. Subjects were selected from first intermediate students (11–13 years) attending the International College, Beirut, Lebanon, where either English or French is the language of mathematics instruction. The journal‐writing (JW) group received the same mathematics instruction as the no‐journal‐writing (NJW) group, except that the JW group engaged in prompted journal writing for 7 to 10 minutes at the end of each class period, three times a week, for 12 weeks. The NJW group engaged in exercises during the same period. The results of ANCOVA suggest that journal writing has a positive impact on conceptual understanding, procedural knowledge, and mathematical communication but not on problem solving, school mathematics achievement, and attitudes toward mathematics. Gender, language of instruction, mathematics achievement level, and writing achievement level failed to interact with journal writing. Student responses to a questionnaire indicated that students found journal writing to have both cognitive and affective benefits.