An Investigation of Students’ Academic Development, Views, and Feelings through Journals

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate upper primary school students’ academic development in science courses and to evaluate their views and feelings about self-learning processes through journals. Students in 6th and 7th grade wrote journals twice a week for nine weeks. We evaluated the journals weekly according to the Science Journal Rubric (SCR), and individually observed students’ academic developments. Subsequently, we also evaluated the journals by focusing on expressions in which students revealed their views and feelings about learning processes, excluding scientific concepts. We grouped the expressions containing views and/or feelings about the learning process into five categories. These categories were classmates, teacher, self-expressions, courses, and journals. The results supported the assertion that journals contain information not only about students’ academic development but also about their personal and affective sides.