EXAMINING THE TRANSFER OF LANGUAGE FROM SCIENCE TO MATH WRITING: AS AN EPISTEMIC TOOL

Abstract

The purpose of this study to examine how students transfer their language practices from science classrooms to math classroom in terms of writing activities. For this aim, 64 5th grade students, who were familiar with the SWH approach that supports multimodal writing from their science classrooms, participated in the study. The students were provided questions to complete a writing activity in their math classrooms in each semester. Multimodal writing samples from two consecutive semesters, and scores of Cornell Critical Thinking (CCT) Test, conducted at the beginning and the end of year, were collected. The findings suggest that students were able to use the writing and representational work from science classrooms to math classrooms, and across time from the first semester to second semester, they improved their math writings in terms of multimodality, and also, writing scores are also significantly predictor of final CCT scores. In conclusion, when students have a rich learning environment, in this context it was the SWH approach, they learn not only content knowledge but also how language can serve as an epistemic tool. It is this use of language that, we believe, is being transferred into new context and is improved by the time.