We investigated the impact of an assignment wrapper in promoting self-regulation of learning in a series of written assignments for a First-Year Biology laboratory. Students completed a planning survey prior to submitting an Introduction assignment. Upon receipt of the graded Introduction, students completed an assignment wrapper, two more written…

Critical thinking is essential in academia and the workforce. Although writing can be used as a pedagogical tool for fostering deeper subject matter understanding, increased retention, and critical thinking, relatively few science courses are writing based. This writing-based introductory science course provided an opportunity for students to…

The Dialectical Map (DMap) is an open-source, web-based argument visualization tool developed and used at a Canadian University to scaffold argument construction. To illustrate the ways that argument mapping can be used in undergraduate courses, this article presents five cases selected from courses in biology, psychology, computing science, and…