Abstract

Written communication is a paramount skill to develop in our students so that they can communicate to the scientific community and the public. Our two-semester organic chemistry course focuses on building scientific writing skills through mini lab reports that build to writing full lab reports. After students received feedback from the instructor, we implemented optional student reflections as a way for students to practice self-regulated learning between lab reports. Through these optional reflections, students demonstrated metacognitive awareness in disciplinary knowledge, formatting, written fluency, and reflection on instructor feedback with the rubric. We observed that students used this awareness in self-regulating their learning. In subsequent reports, both quantitative (grade-based) and qualitative (growth-based) improvements were observed, suggesting that the metacognitive exercise of reflecting upon instructor feedback translated into improved report writing. Students who completed these reflections showed a greater improvement than those who did not complete the reflections, with the most improvement seen in students who earned the lowest grades. Incorporation of teacher feedback, coupled with metacognitive reflections, fostered development in scientific writing throughout our organic chemistry course. In addition to improving writing skills, reflections could also help to foster a growth mindset and continual improvement among students who began the course earning the lowest grades from their writing. Thus, metacognitive reflection is demonstrated to be a low-effort, high-impact practice that could be beneficial in courses across chemistry and broader STEM disciplines.