Epistemic Writing: content and writing learning associated to Social Studies project work

Abstract

Writing can be a tool for communicating or for learning. Increasingly, research emphasizes the epistemic function of writing. This study evaluates the effectiveness of a written intervention program in writing to learn the contents of Social Studies: the Social Studies contents learning and the writing skills are analysed. This is a quasi-experimental study with control group (CG) and experimental group (EG), carried out in the 4th year of primary school in a TEIP (Priority Intervention Educational Territory) cluster of schools in outskirts of Lisbon. A project work approach is chosen focusing expository texts writing. The results show that the intervention was a successful in terms of learning, with significant differences between the EG and the CG. The children of EG, while learning the contents of the Social Studies, developed writing skills - text knowledge and metatextual awareness - but also improved collaborative work. The analysis of the results supports the idea that writing to learn has an effect on the disciplinary contents, on the texts quality, the skills for description and explanation and the spelling. The results show to have implications for the classroom practices: the work carried out promotes literacy skills; knowledge construction and also it promotes students’ autonomy, motivation and responsibility.