IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/che/ireepp/v8y2009i1p64-86.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Impact of Writing Assignments on Student Learning: Should Writing Assignments Be Structured or Unstructured?

Author

Listed:
  • Linda Dynan

    (Northern Kentucky University)

  • Tom Cate

    (Northern Kentucky University)

Abstract

This action research project investigates whether writing assignments are associated with improved student performance in terms of lower-order learning and higher-order learning as defined in Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives. The impact of explicitly structuring the learning environment on student performance is examined. We find that structured writing positively impacts students' performance on lower-order (knowledge and comprehension) assessments. However our findings suggest that structure only weakly enhances the performance of students on higher-order skills assessments. Accordingly, we recommend that structured writing assignments, particularly those designed to develop higher-order learning objectives, be introduced earlier into the economics and business curricula.

Suggested Citation

  • Linda Dynan & Tom Cate, 2009. "The Impact of Writing Assignments on Student Learning: Should Writing Assignments Be Structured or Unstructured?," International Review of Economic Education, Economics Network, University of Bristol, vol. 8(1), pages 64-86.
  • Handle: RePEc:che:ireepp:v:8:y:2009:i:1:p:64-86
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.economicsnetwork.ac.uk/iree/v8n1/dynan.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Steven A. Greenlaw, 2003. "Using Writing to Enhance Student Learning in Undergraduate Economics," International Review of Economic Education, Economics Network, University of Bristol, vol. 1(1), pages 61-70.
    2. William E. Becker, 1997. "Teaching Economics to Undergraduates," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 35(3), pages 1347-1373, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kristin Stowe, 2010. "A Quick Argument for Active Learning: The Effectiveness of One-Minute Papers," Journal for Economic Educators, Middle Tennessee State University, Business and Economic Research Center, vol. 10(1), pages 33-39, Summer.
    2. Raboy, David G., 2017. "An introductory microeconomics in-class experiment to reinforce the marginal utility/price maximization rule and the integration of modern theory," International Review of Economics Education, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 36-49.
    3. Caroline Elliott & Vudayagi Balasubramanyam, 2016. "Assessing students: Real-world analyses underpinned by economic theory," Cogent Economics & Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 4(1), pages 1151171-115, December.
    4. Paul Dalziel, 2011. "Schumpeter's 'Vision' and the Teaching of Principles of Economics to Resource Students," International Review of Economic Education, Economics Network, University of Bristol, vol. 10(2), pages 63-74.
    5. Hall, Joshua C. & Podemska-Mikluch, Marta, 2015. "Teaching the economic way of thinking through Op-eds," International Review of Economics Education, Elsevier, vol. 19(C), pages 13-21.
    6. Grogan, Kelly A., 2017. "Will this be on the test? How exam structure affects perceptions of innovative assignments in a masters of science microeconomics course," International Review of Economics Education, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 1-8.
    7. Elizabeth Perry-Sizemore & Steven A. Greenlaw, 2011. "Writing for Learning in Economics," Chapters, in: Gail M. Hoyt & KimMarie McGoldrick (ed.), International Handbook on Teaching and Learning Economics, chapter 12, Edward Elgar Publishing.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hall, Joshua C. & Podemska-Mikluch, Marta, 2015. "Teaching the economic way of thinking through Op-eds," International Review of Economics Education, Elsevier, vol. 19(C), pages 13-21.
    2. Kristin Stowe, 2010. "A Quick Argument for Active Learning: The Effectiveness of One-Minute Papers," Journal for Economic Educators, Middle Tennessee State University, Business and Economic Research Center, vol. 10(1), pages 33-39, Summer.
    3. Tang, Tommy, 2019. "Perceptions of assessment demands in economics," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 80-90.
    4. Zimmermann, Klaus F. & Bauer, Thomas K., 1998. "Learning Efficiency of Economics Students," IZA Discussion Papers 23, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Anna Maximova & Steve Muchiri & Mihai Paraschiv, 2023. "A Stroll Down the Dollar Street: Teaching Per-Capita GDP Using Internationally Comparable Photographs," Journal of Economics Teaching, Journal of Economics Teaching, vol. 8(2), pages 87-113, May.
    6. Andrew Worthington & Helen Higgs, 2003. "Factors explaining the choice of a finance major: the role of students' characteristics, personality and perceptions of the profession," Accounting Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(1), pages 1-21.
    7. Dahlgran, Roger A., 2002. "A Template For Online Homework: Frankenstein'S Monster Or Robo Ta?," 2002 Annual Meeting, July 28-31, 2002, Long Beach, California 36583, Western Agricultural Economics Association.
    8. Gerald Eisenkopf & Pascal A. Sulser, 2016. "Randomized controlled trial of teaching methods: Do classroom experiments improve economic education in high schools?," The Journal of Economic Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(3), pages 211-225, July.
    9. Phillip Saunders, 2011. "A history of economic education," Chapters, in: Gail M. Hoyt & KimMarie McGoldrick (ed.), International Handbook on Teaching and Learning Economics, chapter 1, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    10. Brad R. Humphreys & Joshua C. Hall & Hyunwoong Pyun, 2015. "An Inventory of Sports Economics Courses in the US," Working Papers 15-49, Department of Economics, West Virginia University.
    11. Grogan, Kelly A., 2017. "Will this be on the test? How exam structure affects perceptions of innovative assignments in a masters of science microeconomics course," International Review of Economics Education, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 1-8.
    12. David Zetland & Carlo Russo & Navin Yavapolkul, 2010. "Teaching Economic Principles: Algebra, Graph or Both?," The American Economist, Sage Publications, vol. 55(1), pages 123-131, May.
    13. Joshua C. Hall & Kaitlyn R. Harger, 2014. "Teaching Students to "Do" Public Choice in an Undergraduate Public Sector Course," Working Papers 14-16, Department of Economics, West Virginia University.
    14. Ninos Malek & John Estill, 2024. "A Random Walk Down San Fernando Street," Journal of Economics Teaching, Journal of Economics Teaching, vol. 9(1), pages 17-30, February.
    15. Ibrar Hussain & Umar Hayat & Md Shabbir Alam & Uzma Khan, 2024. "A Dynamic Analysis of the Twin-Deficit Hypothesis: the Case of a Developing Country," Asia-Pacific Financial Markets, Springer;Japanese Association of Financial Economics and Engineering, vol. 31(1), pages 25-52, March.
    16. Patricia M. Flynn & Michael A. Quinn, 2010. "Economics: Good Choice of Major for Future Ceos," The American Economist, Sage Publications, vol. 55(1), pages 58-72, May.
    17. William E. Becker & Michael Watts, 2001. "Teaching Economics at the Start of the 21st Century: Still Chalk-and-Talk," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(2), pages 446-451, May.
    18. Allgood, Sam, 2001. "Grade targets and teaching innovations," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 20(5), pages 485-493, October.
    19. Dahlgran, Roger A., 2001. "Technology In The Agricultural Economics Classroom: Are We On The Right Path?," 2001 Annual Meeting, July 8-11, 2001, Logan, Utah 36175, Western Agricultural Economics Association.
    20. Curtis R. Price & Perry Burnett & Daria Sevastianova, 2022. "The attitudinal gender gap of an economics education," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 42(1), pages 233-243.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:che:ireepp:v:8:y:2009:i:1:p:64-86. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Martin Poulter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.economicsnetwork.ac.uk/iree .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.