The Influence of Group-Level Knowledge Structure Critique on the Conceptual Structure of Summary Essays

Abstract Conceptual structure is a fundamental aspect of memory organization and thus of learning. This software development project considers the influence on conceptual structure of live instructor-led group-level network refutation critique while summary writing. Architectural engineering undergraduates, after regular lessons on Building with Wood and on Sustainability and Green Design, wrote 300-word summary essays using an online writing tool ( GIKS ). Using a crossover design, one group (n = 38) received an instructor-led critique immediately after writing the Wood essay while the other group (n = 28) received the instructor-led critique immediately after writing the Sustainability essay, thus each group served as a writing-only control for the other group. All students were asked to revise and resubmit their essays. Post essays, the dependent variable in this investigation, were collected later outside of class time. The post essays were graded by a teaching assistant and also by software that measured essay network similarity to the instructor’s Wood or Sustainability networks. Contrary to expectations, results indicate that relative to the writing only control, immediate instructor-led critique negatively impacted both rater and software-derived scores. Descriptive measures show that the instructor-led critique relatively increased students’ post essay length, key term frequencies, and key term association errors. Because immediate instructor-led group-level critique while summary writing had this substantial negative effect on learning, further research is needed to determine better ways to critique in order to improve the benefits of summary writing as an in-class lecture enhancement.