A personal utility prompt in journal writing improves learning motivation and comprehension¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · review r2 · q2
Currency · newest study 2020 · checked against its sources 2026-10-20 (automated, 1 of 1 entry) · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? Schmidt et al. (2012) found that prompting high school students to write about the personal utility of learning contents improved learning motivation and comprehension. → Nückles 2020

Evidence¶

Nückles 2020¶

Nückles, M., Roelle, J., Glogger-Frey, I., Waldeyer, J., & Renkl, A. (2020). The Self-Regulation-View in Writing-to-Learn: Using Journal Writing to Optimize Cognitive Load in Self-Regulated Learning. Educational Psychology Review. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-020-09541-1

q2 · i? · review · r2

Narrative review synthesizing 16 experimental and 4 correlational studies of journal writing. It reports Schmidt et al. (2012), an experiment with 40 high school students (ages 13–14, immunology content; Table 2), in which a personal utility prompt added to cognitive and metacognitive prompts increased acceptance of journal writing, content-related motivation and comprehension. It also reports that Wäschle et al. (2015, Exp. 2) replicated the motivation effect with tenth graders but found no comprehension advantage (the prompt improved a critical-reflection argumentation task instead). The review prints no effect sizes for these studies.

"Writing about the personal utility of learning contents in a learning journal improves learning motivation and comprehension"

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Instructionally supported (prompted) journal writing outperforms unsupported journal writing on learning outcomes (Hedges's g = 0.78) — the general claim this finding bears on, with the studies behind it
• Reflective Practice Improves Outcomes When Structured — related
• Strategy prompts strongly increase learners' use of the prompted strategies, and the effect on comprehension is mediated by strategy use — related
• A general chemistry utility-value and growth mindset intervention showed statistically significant positive outcomes overall but statistically nonsignificant outcomes for underrepresented students — related
• Combining cognitive and metacognitive prompts optimizes germane processing; metacognitive prompts alone help only when remedial planning is prompted and remediation is possible — related
• GenAI-supported utility value reflection produced more favorable development of perceived utility value than GenAI-supported cognitive learning strategy prompting in secondary students — related
• UV writing assignments showed more personal focus, more social and cognitive process content, and higher articulated utility value than control summary assignments — related