Teaching is … opening up spaces to explore academic work in fluid and volatile times

Universities are built upon the collaborative work of academic staff and students, yet the nature of this work has been undergoing profound and rapid change. Pressures within Australia’s higher education sector have led to a fracturing of traditional academic roles and growing feelings of disconnection. While there have been many narrative, ethnographic and autoethnographic explorations of academic work, few studies have employed visual arts-informed methodologies to interrogate the ways in which academics represent their teaching, research and community engagement work. In this article we outline findings about academics’ views of their teaching work. These findings surfaced from an arts-informed participatory research project, that sought to open up a space for (re)presentations of academic work. With a focus on teaching, three through lines emerged during the analysis: voicing absences and resistances; initiating layers of reflexive moments and expressing complexity through collage. We argue that the academics’ responses allow us to trace the emotional terrain of contemporary academic work. They also open up ways to unpack, express and make visible academics’ complex thoughts, feelings and ideas about teaching practices.     

Widening access to writing support: beliefs about the writing process are key

Abstract

Universities’ performance indicators for scholarly outputs depend on academics having productive and sustainable writing behaviours. Research shows that writing programmes can increase research output, but less is known about which writing processes are productive. A project was initiated at a university which widened access to writing support to include staff who were not included in these performance targets, but who might be in the future. Following a writing for publication workshop, 36 academics were offered a place at a structured writing retreat. The evaluation aimed to increase our understanding of participants’ perceptions of their writing skills and processes before and after the retreat using a transactional model. We found that participants’ perceptions of their writing abilities were greater than their perceptions of their ability to employ effective writing practices. Both scores improved after the retreat. This finding confirms that a structured writing retreat provides an environment and structure for academics to practise effective writing. It enhances self-belief in the processes and skills required to produce output. Widening access to writing support for academics is essential for success in performance-based systems. Writing support must provide opportunities for academics to develop strong performance beliefs by practising writing skills and productive and sustainable writing processes.     

学术特质与学术自由——兼论当代博士研究生如何践行学术自由

试图解析学术活动的基本特质,以求解学术的特质和学术自由之间的内在逻辑。详细分析了学术活动的基本特质;在学术特质的视角下,学术自由是学术活动基本特质的内在要求和逻辑必然,我们要树立科学的学术自由观。对于专门从事科学研究的博士生而言,敬畏自然、独立思想、怀疑一切、坚守寂寞是通向学术自由王国的基本道路。     

论写作中的情感分类及情感教育的意义

写作情感可分为理性情感、艺术情感、生活情感，此三类情感各有其特点，作为生活情感应视之为写作的基础，需要提炼、加工；艺术情感是对人的情感世界的丰富和再现，可以借鉴、运用；理性情感是对人生境界、写作水平的评价和体验，可以培养并提高。此三类情感的结合，又具有十分重要的意义。     

试论教师的情商对写作教学的作用

本从分析情商的具体内涵入手,探讨了教师的情商对提高写作教学质量的作用以及对提高教师自身素质的指导意义。     

Unpacking academic requirements: international students in Management and Education disciplines

This paper reports the findings of a qualitative case study that explores how international students in different disciplines struggle to interpret their disciplinary requirements. The study shows the emergence of five main forms of unpacking academic expectations that individual students in the study employed. It will be argued that these international students appear to be active and capable of drawing on various strategies and problem‐solving skills in order to take control of their academic life and enable them to participate in the academic practices of their discipline. The students' experiences also indicate that the interaction and dialogue they establish with their lecturers plays a significant role in their success in the course.     

Research on academic writing in the teaching-learning processes in the Spanish university context / La investigación sobre escritura académica en los procesos de enseñanza-aprendizaje en la universidad española

Abstract

This introductory article of the special issue has a threefold aim. First, it presents the objectives and background of the Research Network on Academic Writing in Teaching and Learning Processes (Red para la Investigación de la Escritura Académica en los procesos de Enseñanza y Aprendizaje; RIEA-EA); secondly, it points out the more urgent challenges that research on academic writing is currently facing at Spanish universities. These challenges are the underpinning of the studies presented in this special issue, which focus on faculty and student representations about the characteristics and role of writing within teaching and learning processes. Finally, it explains the organisation and characteristics of the articles included in this special issue.     

‘Write every day!’: a mantra dismantled

Numerous books, blogs, and articles on research productivity exhort academics to ‘write every day’ even during the busiest of teaching times. Ironically, however, this research-boosting advice hangs from a perilously thin research thread. This article scrutinises the key findings of Robert Boice, whose pioneering studies of ‘professors as writers’ in the 1980s and 1990s are still widely cited today, and offers new empirical evidence to suggest that the writing practices of successful academics are in fact far more varied and individualistic than has generally been acknowledged in the literature.     

科技论文写作课程在研究生教学中的作用

科技论文写作是研究生课程的重要组成部分。本文结合科技论文写作课程的内容,从端正写作态度,构建学术道德,掌握写作规范,提高写作能力,以及培养创新能力等方面阐述了该课程在研究生教学中所发挥的作用,并指出教学中应注重研究生综合素质的培养。     

Using a two-tier test in examining Taiwan graduate students’ perspectives on paraphrasing strategies

This study examines Taiwanese English as a foreign language (EFL) graduate students’ perspectives on paraphrasing strategies. A two-layer scenario survey was developed to identify the reasoning behind students’ judgments that certain paraphrasing is appropriate or inappropriate. The first-layer scenario survey is in a true–false format that consists of nine paraphrasing scenarios and that served to elicit from students their declarative knowledge of appropriate paraphrasing strategies. The second-layer scenario survey is in an open-ended question format that explores students’ explanatory knowledge underlying their first-layer choices. In addition, an attitude survey and a demographic survey were designed and implemented to explore learner variables in relation to the learners’ perspectives on paraphrasing strategies. A total of 141 EFL graduate students participated in the study. The results shed considerable light on students’ diverse perceptions and reasoning regarding paraphrasing strategies. More than half of the students considered surface-level paraphrasing (patchwriting) to be acceptable strategy use. Significant correlation was found between students’ responses to the acceptability of paraphrasing strategies and the following factors: (1) perceived difficulty in paraphrasing, (2) perceived value of appropriate source use, (3) perceived competence in overcoming the temptation to plagiarize, (4) perceived disadvantage as a foreign-language learner with paraphrasing, (5) gender, and (6) paraphrasing-related training. Pedagogical implications of the results are discussed.     

追寻学术论文写作的真谛——读陶富源教授所著《学术论文写作通鉴》

陶富源教授所著的《学术论文写作通鉴》是一本以执着精神追寻治学及写作真谛的论著。该书有三大特色:《通鉴》登高望远,指明了治学者所应具有的正确治学境界;《通鉴》将如何治学写作与为何治学写作融会一体,将个人治学的体认渗透进中外著名学者治学经验中并加以发展,将理论陈述与治学及写作的实践操作紧密结合;相对于其他相类著作而言,《通鉴》对治学及写作的规律挖的更深、讲的更透。