Making sense of power relations in a Malaysian English-as-a-second-language academic writing classroom

The role of power in an English-as-a-second-language classroom has yet to be fully explored by an action research practitioner, especially in a Malaysian higher education setting. This study aims to contribute to this gap by working within an academic literacies perspective to teaching academic writing, which propagates the understanding of power-relational, socio-cultural and epistemological conditions for effective teaching and learning. As the teacher in this classroom, I focus on how power-relational conditions play out. To activate the power conditions, I used a teaching principle in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL)-negotiated interaction to reduce power-based mismatches between participants in a teaching or learning relationship in my classroom, drawing upon Kumaravadivelu’s work on post-method pedagogy for TESOL; that is, not being bound by any specific method of teaching. In analysing the different types of power that were operational in my classroom, wider implications of power that operate beyond the classroom level and how they impacted teaching and learning decisions were found to be highly illuminating. The action research methodology used for this study enabled me to reflect critically on my detailed diary recordings and student letter and interview collections, which in turn impacted on my teaching decisions as each teaching cycle was completed. My reflections also help shape my evolving identity as a teacher-researcher throughout this ongoing Malaysian action research journey.     

Space for performing teacher identity: through the lens of Kafka and Hegel

In this study, we argue that a teacher has a crucial role in leading students into collaborative inquiry‐learning practices. While many studies have given the impression that students are able to engage in inquiry processes on their own, the role of social practices and teacher guidance often remains unexplained. However, even when the pedagogical setting is organized toward collaboration and student‐driven inquiry, it does not mean that students will, as a matter of course, collaborate and take collective responsibility for their own learning. This research has been conducted by a teacher and researchers, and reports on the teacher’s impressions about organizing and promoting a computer‐supported collaborative inquiry process in her classroom of the fourth and fifth grade levels of a Finnish elementary school. The ‘Artifact Project’ was collaboratively designed together by the class teacher and researchers, but the teacher was responsible for implementing and adapting plans in practice. The aim of the ‘Artifact Project – the Past, the Present, and the Future’ – was to support students’ (n = 32) understanding of the diversity of artifacts. Students were asked to analyze artifacts within the cultural context, to study physical phenomena related to them, and to design future artifacts. A collaborative learning environment, Knowledge Forum, facilitated the activities. During the process, the teacher wrote weekly in a reflective project diary. The template of the diary guided the teacher to reflect on the issues that she considered important at the writing moment: the organizing practices, topic content and process stages; how the classroom community functioned; as well as the role of technology as a support for the process. The contents of the diary were analyzed with qualitative content analysis with the help of AtlasTi software. This study depicts an experienced teacher’s practices, her efforts to promote pupils’ cognitive responsibility for advancing their collaborative object‐oriented inquiry process themselves. Instead of trying to control all aspects of pupils’ learning, the teacher assumed the role of an organizer concerning collaborative progressive inquiry and designing activities. Organizing and supporting activities were based on a continuous following of the pupils’ states of process. Knowledge Forum structured the process and mediated activities, and rendered their objects visible and accessible to the whole learning collective. We suggest that in order to expand and scale up advanced inquiry practices, teachers’ usually invisible work in guiding and directing classroom practices has to be made visible and should be analyzed in detail.     

课堂教学评价语“四性”原则探究——基于英语写作课教学实践

本文陈述了英语课堂教学评价语使用存在的问题,基于英语专业写作课的教学实践,提出评价语要遵守针对性、导向性、灵活多样性、得体性这四项基本原则,并以丰富可鉴的实例表明,如何实施评价语有效地创造积极向上、亦庄亦谐、活跃、开放的教学氛围,维系良好的师生互动关系;有效地调控课堂教学,提高教学效果,促进学生的全面发展。     

Middle-school students reading and creating multimodal texts: a case study

This article focuses on the graphic novel produced by a 12-year-old student who participated in a multifaceted study that provided her with opportunities to engage with multimodal texts. An ecological perspective on teaching and learning framed the classroom-based research that explored how developing students' knowledge of literary and illustrative elements affects their understanding, interpretation and analysis of picturebooks and graphic novels, and the subsequent creation of their own print multimodal texts. During a 10-week period, 25 Grade 7 students participated in interdependent reading, writing and oral activities that offered them opportunities to learn about metafictive devices, some art elements and a few compositional principles of graphic novels. For the culminating activity of the study, the students created their own multimodal print texts. The in-depth analysis of one student's graphic novel reveals how her participation and engagement in a particular classroom community of practice affected her learning of the content and concepts under study.     

A Collaboration between ESL and Regular Classroom Teachers for ELL Students’ Literacy Development

This article presents a teacher‐research project on collaboration between an English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher and a fourth‐grade classroom teacher to enhance the literacy development of English language learners (ELLs). It illustrates how two teachers worked closely in helping their ELL students develop their writing skills and the benefits both the students and teachers gained from this collaboration.     

Time,things, teacher,pupil: engaging with what matters

This article presents an empirical study of everyday life in school and a methodological attempt to emphasise children’s views and to find ways other than representation to analyse them. The empirical portion took place in a Finnish elementary school in which the author was the class teacher. The ten-year-olds in the class engaged in an unstructured classroom diary activity in which they freely wrote their observations, thoughts and stories. The study takes a relational materialist approach to the children’s writings focusing on various moments and gatherings in the classroom as assemblages and illustrates how time, things, teacher and pupils are co-produced in them. Temporality and materiality are also considered in relation to research methodologies. Research with children is reconceptualised based on the focus on mattering. The analysis is enacted as a non-linear and nomadic process through retelling and responding to the children’s texts. It highlights particular situations, unstabilities, ‘tiny’ things and the complexities of children’s lives in educational environments.     

Children's patterns of composition and their reflections on their composing processes

This article reports on an Economic and Social Research Council‐funded study into secondary‐aged writers' compositional processes, both as observed in a naturalistic classroom setting and as gathered through post hoc reflections. The sample comprised 38 children drawn from Year 9 and Year 11 who were observed, using an annotated timeline, responding to a writing task in the classroom and were subsequently interviewed, using stimulated recall. The initial analysis of the pause and writing patterns observed during the writing task revealed different writing profiles for different writers, and subsequent analysis suggests tentatively that writers of different proficiency may present differing writing profiles. These patterns of composition are then illustrated further through use of the interview data, indicating the writers' awareness of their own composing processes. Finally, the article considers the pedagogic and theoretical implications of these findings, in particular the need for further confirmatory research.     

Research Supervision: An Important Site of Teaching

Supervision of students engaged in research projects and theses is an important site of teaching. Schon's (1987) well-known framework–educating for reflective practice–proves aptly suited for this teaching forum, offering insights for research supervision at multiple university levels. Conceptually, a research and writing studio where a practicum takes place is substituted for Schon's illustrative architectural design studio. The framework is mined for its fine-grained analysis of student-coach interaction and its emphasis on bringing self-reflection, a practice consistent with social work ideals, to three levels: research and writing, the student-coach dialogue and the relationship in which it is embedded.     

Responding to the Message: providing a social context for children learning to write

Abstract In this classroom‐based research study, written expression was viewed as an interactive social process involving written communication between the teacher and the children. Children received increased opportunities to write on topics they chose themselves, and their teacher responded in writing to the content of their writing. The teacher did not provide corrective feedback for accuracy of spelling or grammar throughout the study. Written content feedback from the teacher was provided to each child according to an intra‐subject ABAB research design. Analysis of the teacher's written feedback identified her use of six specific categories of positive response to the themes, ideas and characters of each child's writing. Significant increases in both quantity and quality of writing occurred during the written content feedback phases. Spelling accuracy was maintained at a high level of accuracy throughout the study.     

Children writing ethnography: children's perspectives and nomadic thinking in researching school classrooms

This article makes a connection between narrative ethnography, childhood studies and new materialist theories in studying children's perspective on school. It presents ‘children writing ethnography’ as an approach based on complexity and involving participatory research. The question of ‘what is happening in the classroom’ is explored through writings produced in class by 10-year olds. The ‘messy’ ethnographic data are examined within the framework of narrative ethnography using the idea of ‘small stories’ that capture everyday interaction. Furthermore, both material and embodied meanings in the writings are discussed. New materialist theories and the idea of nomadic make it possible to account for the connectivity between the writings, the classroom reality, the child-ethnographers and the research, which are seen as mutually producing one another. The author suggests that engaging with children's free-flowing ethnographic writing serves as a productive way to conduct participatory ethnographic research, as well as to investigate contemporary childhoods in all their complexity.     

Self‐assessment methods in writing instruction: a conceptual framework,successful practices and essential strategies

Student writing achievement is essential to lifelong learner success, but supporting writing can be challenging for teachers. Several large‐scale analyses of publications on writing have called for further study of instructional methods, as the current literature does not sufficiently address the need to support best teaching practices. Self‐assessment methods in writing instruction present meaningful ways to promote student writing achievement through reflection and meta‐cognition during the writing process. Self‐assessment practices are described in publications across the academic disciplines where writing is required, and close investigations of the methods are also published in the research fields of literacy, English education and composition. This study aims to bridge these fields to construct a clear and comprehensive understanding of self‐assessment methods. Self‐assessment encompasses a wide range of practices and varied terminology. It is essential to clarify effective methods of self‐assessment and to disseminate practical information to educators. This paper presents the findings of an analysis of the literature yielding: (1) a theoretical framework for self‐assessment methods in writing instruction; (2) an overview of concepts/practices; (3) a list of literature‐supported strategies for effective classroom use derived from a study of a vast body of literature. Results strongly support self‐assessment as a means to foster student writing achievement, middle school through higher education. Delineated strategies can assist instructors with self‐assessment implementation.     

Academic literacies and e-learning: A critical approach to writing in the online university

This paper adopts an academic literacies perspective to argue for a critical approach to the writing practices of the online university classroom. It describes an on-going action research project in an online Masters in Online and Distance Education (MAODE) programme at the UK Open University, which aims to create an online writing resource to support distance learners in developing a critical awareness of the writing practices on the programme. The paper presents the results of an evaluation study of this resource during the 2005 presentation of the MAODE, and discusses the evidence from this study that such a resource can provide a space for students to critique the dominant literacies of the online university.     

结构图策略在大学英语教学中的应用——一项《大学英语阅读与写作》课堂上的行动研究

教师作为意义建构的促进者,可以运用结构图策略教学帮助学习者将新的语言知识整合到原有的认知结构中,形成新的意义建构,提高将知识转换成自己的内部的表达能力。文章以此为出发点,设计了结构图策略教学的详细方案,通过一个学期的行动研究发现,结构图策略是帮助学生提高阅读与写作能力、培养自主学习能力的有效途径。     

Grammar matters: How teachers' grammatical knowledge impacts on the teaching of writing

Teaching grammar has been mandated in statutory curriculum documents in England since 1988. Yet despite this, research evidence continues to suggest that metalinguistic knowledge is an area of challenge for many teachers. Drawing on data from a larger study, this paper considers the role of teachers' grammatical knowledge, both content and pedagogical content knowledge, in mediating learning about writing in the classroom. It also illustrates how students' learning about writing is influenced by teachers’ metalinguistic knowledge. The study highlights that grammatical pedagogical content knowledge is more significant than grammatical content knowledge in supporting meaningful teaching and learning about writing.     

Video diary: a method for exploring learning dispositions

This paper presents an innovative method for qualitative research in education. The video dairy technique was developed and used alongside other qualitative methods to map the socio‐cultural landscape of primary‐school children's learning dispositions prior to their transfer to secondary school. The larger project comprised a case study of a group of children transferring from one Year 6 classroom to their local comprehensive secondary school, with particular reference to their learning of mathematics. Theoretically framed by Pierre Bourdieu's sociological tools, the study explored the impact of three fields—school, family and peer group—upon children's learning dispositions and trajectories at this school interface. The alternative perspectives afforded by the diary entries highlighted the inter‐relatedness of the three fields of interest, often in ways that had not been anticipated or considered. I will explain practical aspects of the process and consider some of the challenges that might be experienced by researchers using video diary techniques.     

语义关联与二语写作能力培养

本文基于语义场理论、关联语义学及二语写作的特点，推导出二语写作心理流程模型，并提出了一种切实有效的二语写作教学方法。通过实验观察和对数据的分析，作者发现，基于语义关联过滤为核心的二语写作心理流程模型介入教学，对学习者写作能力的提高，尤其在逻辑性和篇章连贯方面，有明显的促进作用。     

The Redirection: An Indicator of How Teachers Respond to Student Thinking

Responsive teaching occurs when teachers take up and respond to their students’ ideas during instruction (J. L. Pierson, 2008). Although responsive teaching is gaining recognition as an effective strategy for encouraging student learning, few methods of analysis are capable of characterizing the different ways in which teachers take up their students’ ideas in the moment. This article presents and exemplifies a new methodological construct, the redirection, which provides researchers with a means of detecting nuanced differences in how teachers respond to their students’ thinking. The redirection construct emerged via systematic discourse analysis of 1 science teacher’s classroom discussions during 3 implementations of an inquiry-based module on the water cycle. Redirections are defined as instances when a teacher invites students to shift or redirect their attention to a new locus. Such shifts reflect different types of teacher responsiveness and, as such, can be used to capture the different ways in which teachers take up their students’ ideas. This article presents a comprehensive coding scheme for the redirection, in addition to segments of classroom discourse to exemplify each redirection coding category. A comparison of 3 5th-grade teachers using the construct provides an illustrative example of the type of analysis such a coding scheme affords learning sciences researchers.     

以私人写作为旨归 从名家日札集教例——论鲁迅的日札写作教育观

鲁迅的日札写作教育观是他的写作教育思想的重要组成部分,其基本内容是:一、指出了日札的私人写作性;二、认为从名家日札里收集"不应该那么写"的教例是学习写作的有利途径;三、明确了日记体散文的非文学的文体特征。     

Effects of the Showcase Writing Portfolio Process on First Graders' Writing

The showcase writing portfolio process was introduced for nine weeks to eighteen first grade students as an instructional intervention strategy to significantly increase: 1) quality of writing as assessed by the modified holistic rubrics, 2) quantity of writing as assessed using a count of total words written and number of words per journal entry, and 3) motivation to write as assessed by the frequency of visitation to the writing center. Using a t-test analysis, there was a significant increase on all three post assessment measures, as compared to the pre-assessment measures. Thus, the showcase writing portfolio process is an effective teaching strategy for improving writing. The educational implications and significance of this research are: 1) the intervention can be readily integrated into existing early literacy practices advocated in an early childhood curriculum; 2) the measure can be easily used by classroom practitioners for assessment of writing products and processes; 3) the study expands practitioners' uses of the portfolio process as a teaching and motivating methodology.     

Effects of the Showcase Writing Portfolio Process on First Graders' Writing

The showcase writing portfolio process was introduced for nine weeks to eighteen first grade students as an instructional intervention strategy to significantly increase: 1) quality of writing as assessed by the modified holistic rubrics, 2) quantity of writing as assessed using a count of total words written and number of words per journal entry, and 3) motivation to write as assessed by the frequency of visitation to the writing center. Using a t-test analysis, there was a significant increase on all three post assessment measures, as compared to the pre-assessment measures. Thus, the showcase writing portfolio process is an effective teaching strategy for improving writing. The educational implications and significance of this research are: 1) the intervention can be readily integrated into existing early literacy practices advocated in an early childhood curriculum; 2) the measure can be easily used by classroom practitioners for assessment of writing products and processes; 3) the study expands practitioners' uses of the portfolio process as a teaching and motivating methodology.