Fostering cognitive control through reflection in scientific writing

ABSTRACT This paper aims to determine the role cognitive control awareness plays in university students through their scientific writing. Results show that through an assessment-centred instruction approach embedded in reflective learning, tertiary students at a faculty of sciences can achieve greater metacognitive awareness of their learning. Fourth-year students in a physical oceanography class displayed cognitive control over established activities designed to develop their discursive writing skills (writing components included objectives, subject content, methodologies, contextualization and environmental implications on local and global scales). Scientific writing was promoted through students managing their own learning processes and cognitive control through metacognitive awareness, i.e. through a constructivist scheme embedded in formative learning. In the POST test, students scored higher primarily in the categories of writing methodologies, and bibliographies. Teacher expertise, which was mainly provided through feedback and scaffolding for student autonomy was highly valued by the students, and included considering the effects of a teacher assessing their writing and providing strategies to write a better scientific paper