Analysis of Cognitive Consequences of Writing to Learn (WTL) in Education Process

Reviewing the literature and studies conducted on the Writing-to-Learn (WTL) approach, the present paper seeks to stabilize the position of written assignments for the promotion of academic learning and cognitive consequences. Writing-to-Learn is the use of written assignments during instruction and based on the idea that learner’s perception grows and gets more elucidated through writing. Research reported in the literature review of WTL can be categorized according to four hypotheses: shaping at the point of utterance, forward searching, genre and backward searching. Each of these hypotheses is based on different and at times conflict explanations about the relationship between writing and learning. The main question is how and when using written assignments in academic learning is effective. To answer this question, the explanations and research results about each hypothesis were analyzed and compared. And the following conclusions were deduced: 1- the consistency between learner’s skill-level and the complexity of written assignment facilitates their usage. 2- The compatibility between the types of written assignments and the level of cognitive goal in teaching assures the effectiveness of these assignments.