"Scientific communication": An instructional program for high-order learning skills and its impact on students' performance

In this paper we describe an instructional model for the acquisition of high order learning skills (HOLS) and the program Scientific Communication, which supports its application in a junior high school (JHS) science and technology curriculum. The model emphasizes explicit and spiral instruction of learning skills, and a continuous demand for their implementation in various contexts and tasks. We describe a study that assessed the impact of our instructional model on students' performances. Students (N=447) from five different JHSs participated in the study: One group (N=334) studied the program Scientific Communication, and the other (N=113) did not study learning skills through any formal program. The results show superior performance of the first group over the second in the following ways: the ability to describe and explicate the practice of learning skills; three aspects of the actual performances of a complex task: knowledge, learning skills, and the quality of products; and reports by students on the skills that they had acquired. The results also indicate that high and average achieving students gained the most from the program. We concluded that the contribution of the program Scientific Communication to students' performances of learning skills indicates the potential of its underlying instructional model in achieving its goals.