Directed Self-Inquiry: A Scaffold for Teaching Laboratory Report Writing

Abstract

A scaffold was created for the explicit instruction of laboratory report writing. The scaffold breaks the laboratory report into sections and teaches students to ask and answer questions in order to generate section-appropriate content and language. Implementation of the scaffold is done through a series of section-specific worksheets that are introduced during the semester. Implementation is supported by one-on-one feedback on all student writing. The integration of scaffolding and personal feedback has led to improved student writing.