Writing about what they studied gave students small gains in what they learned.

The review

1. 01

   Who took part

   The review covered 46 studies, and a typical study had about 68 students. Grade 5 and below had 11 comparisons, grades 6 to 8 had six, grade 9 and up had ten, college had 21.

2. 02

   What they did

   Students wrote about their course subject, mostly summaries, reports and descriptions. The other groups were taught the same material in the usual way. Writing usually happened in class, and programmes lasted from one to 24 weeks.

3. 03

   What happened

   The gain was small, and writing that asked students to reflect on what they understood did better than writing without that. In grades 6 to 8, the other groups did better on average. The review did not test for missing studies, and most of its comparisons came from student theses.

What the review found

1. Helped

   Across 46 studies, students who wrote about their course did a little better than those in usual lessons.

   Pooled analysis of 46 studies · vs students taught the same content the usual way · ⚠ whole programmes were tested, so no single part can be credited; mixes trials with other kinds of study

2. Helped

   In 17 comparisons, writing with prompts to reflect beat usual lessons by more than writing with no prompts did.

   Pooled analysis of 17 studies · vs students taught the same content the usual way · ⚠ whole programmes were tested, so no single part can be credited; mixes trials with other kinds of study

Source