“This test makes no freaking sense”: Criticism, confusion, and frustration in timed writing

Large-scale writing programs can add value to the traditional timed writing assessment by using aspects of the essays to assess the effectiveness of institutional goals, programs, and curriculums. The “six learning goals” prompt in this study represents an attempt to provide an accurate writing assessment that moves beyond scores. This paper focuses on student challenges to the prompt and testing situation to reveal that many students successfully challenge the task as a deliberate strategy, while less savvy test-takers clearly resist in response to anger, confusion or frustration. While only a small minority of test-takers openly protest the prompt or testing situation, the paper suggests that all students could be better prepared to reflect upon their university experience in timed essays through more coaching and experience with reflective impromptu questions. This finding offers both encouragement and caution for writing programs seeking a single test that can generate both placement scores and valuable feedback.     

“This one is more me!” What children think about writing test stimuli involving choice

This study follows from a previous study into children's attitudes to writing test stimulus features. In that study the views of 192 English eleven‐year‐olds were surveyed using a questionnaire. The survey found that the children were mainly influenced by features that they felt contributed to task difficulty. A qualitative study was designed in order to investigate children's views in more depth. Stimuli were constructed containing various features that children in the earlier study had suggested contributed to task difficulty. The children's ideas relating to the stimuli were elicited using a modified version of Kelly's repertory grid technique.     

Incorporating formative assessment in Iranian EFL writing: a case study

Undergraduate students' experience of assessment in universities is usually of summative assessment which provides only limited information to help students improve their performance. By contrast, formative assessment is informative and forward-looking, possessing the leverage to inform students of their day-to-day progress and inform teachers of how to better tailor their instruction to students' immediate learning needs. Despite these potentials, studies carried out on the use of formative assessment in English as a foreign language (EFL) contexts are somehow rare. The current study reports on incorporating formative assessment in an L2 writing course in Iran. The analysis of data from pre- and post-study writing tasks, pre- and post-study questionnaires, and semi-structured interviews revealed that first-year undergraduate students were offered opportunities to improve various aspects of their writing and to develop positive attitudes toward writing as well as formative assessment. However, the students reported several challenges that could have implications for the further implementation of formative assessment in similar contexts.     

“I think it fits in”: using process drama to promote agentic writing with primary school children

Set against the backdrop of children being ‘alienated’ from their writing, this paper is taken from a United Kingdom Literacy Association sponsored project where primary school teachers were trained to use process drama in order to give children more agency in their writing across the curriculum. Here, we use discourse analysis to think about the children's historical creative writing in relation to the drama lessons which are differently framed by the teachers. Building upon a theoretical model of process drama as involving ‘embodied experience’ and writing as problem‐solving, a case is made that process drama can lead to what we term ‘agentic writing’. Agentic writing, we demonstrate, involves children actively translating their embodied experience of process drama into writing by making a range of intertextual borrowings. These borrowings serve both to capture and transform their embodied experience as the children gain agency by standing outside language to achieve ‘double voicedness’ and in doing so write sophisticated texts. Seeing the relationship between process drama and writing in this light, we argue, provides a means of reconnecting children to the act of writing.     

“The three hags and Pocohontas”: how collaboration develops Early Years writing skills

This article relates a child's development in story writing and the progress that she made in achieving text cohesion, spelling development and ideation through the collaborative process. The case study investigates the integration of major aspects of writing development such as collaboration, the importance of peer interactions through social learning and the fusion of illustrations and writing to assist children's communication and understanding. The authors examine the rationale for the inclusion of collaborative peer‐assisted writing and peer interaction as a social writing process, supporting the young writer's affective domain. The case study investigates the integration of major aspects of writing development such as collaboration, the importance of peer interactions through social learning and the fusion of illustrations and writing to assist children's communication and understanding. The authors examine the rationale for the inclusion of collaborative peer‐assisted writing and peer interaction as a social writing process, supporting the young writer's affective domain development. The strengths and complexities of peer interaction, the role of illustrations and their positive impact on composition are discussed.     

A closer look at integrated writing tasks: Towards a more focussed definition for assessment purposes

The use of integrated tasks is increasingly common in second language assessment in both high stakes and classroom contexts. However, because of the vague definition of what constitutes an integrated task, the types of tasks included in this area and the assessment of the resulting writing is highly varied. In this paper, we argue for a better definition of the term ‘integrated writing task’. We start by reviewing current definitions available in the literature, discuss the construct underlying integrated tasks and then propose a number of features which we feel need to be present in integrated tasks. We then propose a new, narrower definition of the term. We hope that this will result in better task design, improved assessment outcomes for test takers, more detailed test specifications, better replicability of research and a shared research agenda.     

Learning friendship: The “indispensable basis of a good society”

Aristotle believed that perfect friendship based in goodness is rare because few people seek to be good. Colleges and universities can prove him wrong by helping students understand the ways and whys of being a true friend.     

“You Oughta Have My Life!”: The Story of Jamie,A Resistant Writer

This article offers ways to understand how a fifth‐grade resistant writer positioned himself socially and academically within classroom writing practices and how these positions influenced literacy learning. Classroom writing practices enabled the student to explore the possibilities of who he was as he determined what types of learning were socially available to him. The student's voice is heard to describe how he was using writing in creative ways to position himself. He engaged in positional writing practices to create spaces for himself to influence and to examine his and others' positions. Effective instructional approaches and implications for teaching are discussed.     

“Every experience is a moving force”: identity and growth through mentoring

This narrative of the experience of a native English speaking (NES) cooperating teacher working with a nonnative English speaking (NNES) student teacher in an MA Teaching English as a Second Language practicum begins with a discussion of teacher identity, then outlines the significance of caring in teacher–student relations Noddings (Caring: A feminine approach to ethics and moral education, University of California Press, Berkeley, CA, 1984) and personal values and beliefs within those relations Johnston (Values in English Language Teaching, Lawrence Erlbaum, Malwah, NJ, 2002). These then frame an understanding of three critical incidents Tripp (Qual. Stud. Educ. 7(1) (1994) 65), and the emergent themes of language expertise, cultural ways of knowing and doing, and conflicting religious beliefs. It concludes with a discussion of the value of writing and sharing teacher narratives for professional development.     

Progressive drawing: A novel “lid–opener” and “monotony–breaker”

An innovative strategy called “progressive drawing” was used at the beginning (lid‐opener) and later (monotony‐breaker) during gross anatomy lectures. Diagrams were drawn on the classroom blackboard with anatomic structures added one by one. Students identified and labeled the diagrams and predicted the next structures to be drawn. Students felt that the strategy helped to activate prior knowledge, created interest in the current lecture, and made lecture sessions more interactive. The strategy has appeal for visual, auditory, read/write, and kinesthetic learners. Anat Sci Educ, 2010. © 2010 American Association of Anatomists.     

The “Community” in Community Counseling: Results of a National Survey

Results are presented of a national survey of a master's level counselor education program (n = 308, 68% return rate) regarding the emphasis that these programs currently place, and would ideally like to place, on a prevention and systematically based community orientation. Results show that this orientation is currently endorsed and seems to represent an ideal direction for counselor education programs. These results reinforce a need to modify ACES standards so they more directly support community counseling curricula.     

“We're Playing Sisters,on Paper!”: children composing on graphic playgrounds

In this paper, I draw on two childhood ethnographies to ask basic questions about the foundation of child writing. The first question is, where does writing come from in young children's lives? Answering this question will lead us to childhood play as the foundation of writing. The second question is, how do educators negotiate an inclusive, playful classroom culture in racially divisive and neoliberal times? This question will lead to a critical consideration of forming an inclusive culture in a racially and culturally diverse classroom. In this time of uniform, mandated curricula, rampant in the United States and elsewhere, and of the dismissive attitude towards play and towards childhood diversity (e.g., in race, culture and socioeconomic class), it is worth revisiting basic questions about the beginnings of writing in childhoods. The questions are relevant whether a child is writing on paper, screen, slate, or sand.     

“Translated,it is: …” — An Ethics of Transreading

Inspired by Friedrich Nietzsche's idea of philology and William Gass's concept of transreading, Huiwen (Helen) Zhang employs “transreader” to suggest the integration of four roles in one: reader, translator, writer, and scholar. “Transreader” recognizes that close reading, literary translation, creative writing, and cultural hermeneutics are interdependent activities with intertwined goals: to transfer, transvalue, transform, and transcend the canon. From this perspective, Lu Xun, China's Nietzsche, is a twentieth‐century transreader of the canon, and his prose poem “Revenge (The Second)” delivers a self‐referential ethics of transreading. Zhang's transreading of this poem shows why slow reading is today more necessary than ever, in what sense translation is a universal dilemma, how humanity grows when its expression grows more subtle, and that transreading opens a space for genuine communication.     

“They get enough of that at home”: understanding aversion to popular culture in schools

This paper sets out to try and understand why, in the face of a growing body of research and opinion that favours the utilisation of popular texts to teach literacy ( Marsh & Millard, 2000, Dyson, 2001 , Bromley, 2001), teachers in a research and development project in Southeast England, still had an aversion to embracing children's interest in popular culture. It will argue that the professional position the teachers take is an understandable one in view of the issues surrounding conceptions of literacy, the nature of the pleasure that popular texts evoke, and the alienation to school literacy and culture that these texts can induce. In a discussion of literacy, the paper will argue that, surprisingly, the teachers in the project who did not wish to use popular culture in their classrooms share similar traditional conceptions of literacy with many of those who advocate the use of popular texts in the classroom.     

“Safe Harbor”: Evaluation of a professionalism case discussion intervention for the gross anatomy course

Medical professionalism is a multifaceted paradigm and is an essential component of medical education. Gross anatomy is a laboratory to teach professionalism, and promoting critical reflection in medical students is a prerequisite to furthering professionalism. The aim of this study was to determine if professionalism case discussions during a Gross Anatomy course improve students' reflections using a validated reflection instrument (12 items; five‐point Likert scale where 1 = Disagree, 2 = Disagree with reservation, 3 = Neutral, 4 = Agree with reservation, 5 = Agree). Four facilitated reflection sessions were aimed at fostering reflective capacity through reflection on elements of professionalism. Results did not show a significant change between pre‐and postintervention reflection scores (3.45 ± 0.61 vs. 3.48 ± 0.51; P = 0.82). Historical control students were found to have significantly higher reflection scores when compared with postintervention students (3.91 ± 0.53 vs. 3.48 ± 0.51; P < 0.001). However, the historical control students were found to have significantly higher professionalism scores (P = 0.001) as compared with the intervention students. Student satisfaction was high, with 25 of 28 (89.2%) students reporting that the sessions should be included as a component of future anatomy courses. While reflection scores were not significantly increased as a result of the intervention, students expressed appreciation for the opportunity to discuss professionalism issues related to the dissection of cadavers. Additionally, the intervention students had both lower professionalism scores and lower reflection scores, which supports the idea that highly professional students are more capable of reflecting on professionalism. Future studies should determine whether this case discussion intervention improves objective measures of professionalism. Anat Sci Educ 7: 191–198. © 2013 American Association of Anatomists.     

Feedback in Hong Kong secondary writing classrooms: Assessment for learning or assessment of learning?

While much of L2 teacher feedback research has focused on the effectiveness of feedback and its impact on student revision and writing, little has been done to examine teachers’ feedback in the larger classroom context of teaching and learning to ascertain the functions teacher feedback serves from an assessment-for-learning perspective. Using multiple sources of data from 26 secondary teachers’ written feedback to 174 student texts, interviews with six of the teachers and 18 students, the present study investigates the nature of teacher feedback and the functions it serves in the teaching-learning-assessment process in the writing classroom. The findings show that teacher feedback focuses largely on assessing writing summatively, primarily serving the purpose of assessment of learning, rather than assessment for learning – i.e., using feedback as a pedagogical tool for improving the teaching and learning of writing. The study calls for greater attention to the implementation of assessment for learning in the writing classroom, and specifically the use of feedback for formative purposes.     

Factors influencing students' decisions to participate in a short “dissection experience” within a systemic anatomy course

Changes in medical education have affected both curriculum design and delivery. Many medical schools now use integrated curricula and a systemic approach, with reduced hours of anatomy teaching. While learning anatomy via dissection is invaluable in educational, professional, and personal development, it is time intensive and supports a regional approach to learning anatomy; the use of prosections has replaced dissection as the main teaching method in many medical schools. In our graduate‐entry medical degree, we use an integrated curriculum, with prosections to teach anatomy systemically. However, to not exclude dissection completely, and to expose students to its additional and unique benefits, we implemented a short “Dissection Experience” at the beginning of Year 2. Students attended three two‐hour anatomy sessions and participated in dissection of the clinically relevant areas of the cubital fossa, femoral triangle, and infraclavicular region. This activity was voluntary and we retrospectively surveyed all students to ascertain factors influencing their decision of whether to participate in this activity, and to obtain feedback from those students who did participate. The main reasons students did not participate were previous dissection experience and time constraints. The reasons most strongly affecting students' decisions to participate related to experience (lack of previous or new) and new skill. Students' responses as to the most beneficial component of the dissection experience were based around practical skills, anatomical education, the learning process, and the body donors. We report here on the benefits and practicalities of including a short dissection experience in a systemic, prosection‐based anatomy course. Anat Sci Educ 6: 225–231. © 2013 American Association of Anatomists.     

The “flipped classroom” approach: Stimulating positive learning attitudes and improving mastery of histology among medical students

Traditional medical education methodologies have been dramatically impacted by the introduction of new teaching approaches over the past few decades. In particular, the “flipped classroom” format has drawn a great deal of attention. However, evidence regarding the effectiveness of the flipped model remains limited due to a lack of outcome‐based studies. In the present study, a pilot histology curriculum of the organ systems was implemented among 24 Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) students in a flipped classroom format at Jinan University. As a control, another 87 TCM students followed a conventional histology curriculum. The academic performance of the two groups was compared. In addition, a questionnaire was administered to the flipped classroom group. The test scores for the flipped classroom participants were found to be significantly higher compared to non‐participants in the control group. These results suggest that students may benefit from using the flipped classroom format. Follow‐up questionnaires also revealed that most of the flipped classroom participants undertook relatively more earnest preparations before class and were actively involved in classroom learning activities. The teachers were also found to have more class time for leading discussions and delivering quizzes rather than repeating rote didactics. Consequently, the increased teaching and learning activities contributed to a better performance among the flipped classroom group. This pilot study suggests that a flipped classroom approach can be used to improve histology education among medical students. However, future studies employing randomization, larger numbers of students, and more precise tracking methods are needed before definitive conclusions can be drawn. Anat Sci Educ 10: 317–327. © 2016 American Association of Anatomists.