Learning Logs: A Classroom Practice for Enhancing Scientific Sense Making

This case study of an advanced physics class analyzes the implications of a practice that creates opportunities for groups of science students to share thoughts and observations, defend viewpoints, and negotiate consensus about their thinking. The activity that facilitates such sense-making processes is computerized journaling. Because these documents are more than a static mechanism for organizing notes and observations, they are called learning logs. A system of analysis drawn from the literature on writing and learning in science was developed and systematically applied to characterize the formal and stylistic elements of writing contained in learning logs and to investigate changes in the nature and pattern of science discourse over time. These scientific conversations were found to support a dynamic classroom environment that helped learners to make sense of complex science topics. Writing in learning logs provides a vehicle for students and teachers to make their knowledge public, and builds an atmosphere for valuing the conceptual understanding of others. The journals also mediate an ongoing dialogue between the instructor and students, a feature that redefines traditional classroom roles and responsibilities. Conversing about science through the medium of computerized learning logs resulted in a closely knit community of reflective learners. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.