The effect of writing to learn activities on motivation and learning strategies

The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of Writing To Learn activities on motivation and learning strategies. For this purpose, a study group consisting of 9th-grade students was employed. The students included one control (n:30; 17 girls, 13 boys) and two experimental groups (DG1, n:31; 17 girls, 14 boys; DG2, n: 30; 16 girls, 14 boys). The research was conducted with a nonequivalent control group pretest-posttest design which is one of the quasi-experimental methods. The data of the study were collected using quantitative and qualitative data collection tools. Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire, which was created by McKeachie, Pintrich, Lin & Smith (1986) and adapted to Turkish by Buyukozturk, Akgun, Kahveci & Demirel (2004) as Güdülenme ve Öğrenme Stratejileri Ölçeği (GÖSÖ) was used as the quantitative data collection tool. The qualitative data tool of the study was the interview questions asked to sample group selected from the experimental group students (DG1, n:3; DG2, n:3). According to the results obtained from the pretests of the research, it was detected that the scores of the experimental and control groups differed statistically which means that the groups were not statistically equivalent. Studies have been carried out to minimize the differences in groups and the effect of independent variables on the dependent variables of the study. Because the pretests were not equivalent, covariance analysis (ANCOVA test) was used in the analysis of the posttests. It was concluded that the WTL created a statistically significant difference between experimental groups and the control group in favor of experimental groups in motivation strategies. It was concluded that EG2 students who were given feedback along with WTL activities were more successful in motivation strategies than EG1 students who have applied only WTL activity, and this success was statistically significant. This finding was found to be similar in sub-dimensions and sub-factors of the research. However, while there was no difference between EG1-EG2 and EG2-CG in the exam anxiety sub-factor of affective sub-dimension; there was a significant difference in favor of CG between EG1 and CG. This led to the conclusion that the most successful group in reducing test anxiety was CG. Along with that, the second one was EG2 and the third one was EG1. It was found that WTL activity created a statistically significant difference between experimental groups and CG in learning strategies and this difference is in favor of experimental groups. In addition, it was concluded that EG2 students, who were given feedback along with WTL activities were more successful in learning strategies compared to EG1 students who applied only WTL activities and this success was statistically significant. However, it was concluded that EG1 students who applied only WTL activities were more successful in time and work environment management sub-factors of resource management sub-dimension compared to EG2 students who were given feedback along with WTL activities and this achievement was statistically significant. In light of the findings of the research, it was proved that WTL activities increase the motivation of the students and can be used as a tool to gain the learning strategies. In addition, it was found that the feedback given along with WTL enabled students to be more motivated and to use learning strategies better. Based on the results of the research, it was suggested that WTL activities should be used to teach motivation and learning strategies. Key Words: Writing To Learn, feedback, motivation, learning strategies