Positive Emotional Responses to Hybridised Writing about a Socio-Scientific Issue

In order to understand better the role of affect in learning about socio-scientific issues (SSI), this study investigated Year 12 students’ emotional arousal as they participated in an online writing-to-learn science project about the socio-scientific issue of biosecurity. Students wrote a series of hybridised scientific narratives, or BioStories, that integrate scientific information about biosecurity with narrative storylines, and uploaded these to a dedicated website. Throughout their participation in the project, students recorded their emotional responses to the various activities (N = 50). Four case students were also video recorded during selected science lessons as they researched, composed and uploaded their BioStories for peer review. Analysis of these data, as well as interview data obtained from the case students, revealed that pride, strength, determination, interest and alertness were among the positive emotions most strongly elicited by the project. These emotions reflected students’ interest in learning about a new socio-scientific issue, and their enhanced feelings of self-efficacy in successfully writing hybridised scientific narratives in science. The results of this study suggest that the elicitation of positive emotional responses as students engage in hybridised writing about SSI with strong links to environmental education, such as biosecurity, can be valuable in engaging students in education for sustainability.     

职高语文作文教学的探索与实践

“如何提高职高生的写作能力,为他们以后的生活、工作、深造打下扎实的基础”是一直困扰职高语文教师的难题,经过多年对职高生的作文教学与实践,认为要对职高生分阶段分梯度进行作文训练;在课堂教学过程中,贯穿听说读写的知识弥补和能力训练;适当降低难度,调动学生的积极性,让他们充分写作并全面参与评改;分模块进行专项训练.这样,在职高两到三年的有限学习时间内,是可以有效提高学生写作能力,为升学做好准备的.     

Understanding the role of students’ reflections in their uptake of teacher written feedback

This study reports on the role of students’ reflections in their teacher written feedback. Informed by a qualitative case study approach, this study collected data from 18 students across a semester of an English-as-a-foreign language writing course at a university in China. In the course, teacher written feedback and students’ reflections were both informed by writing as a meaning-making process. The data sources included 72 pieces of student essays, 144 pieces of reflection written by the students, and post-semester interviews with the students. The study showed that engaging students in writing reflections was helpful for developing their knowledge of writing, although the process somewhat followed a zigzag trajectory. The exercise helped them transcend their previous knowledge repertoires, thereby assisting them in critically understanding their revision process and refining their knowledge of writing in response to the teacher’s written feedback. In particular, the students felt that the meaning-making-based reflections provided clear and accessible layers for them to understand the close relationship between language and content. As such, the students felt that they were able to harness their reflections as a written venue through which they could critically digest the teacher’s written feedback and develop their knowledge of writing as a meaning-making process while dialoguing with their instructor.     

科学写作:科学教育之有效路径

科学写作可以帮助教师了解学生原有的科学知识经验,引发认知过程、提高认知效率,促进前概念向科学概念发展,提升科学推理能力,是科学教育的有效路径。科学写作过程由计划、转换和检查构成,具有循环、交互性。任务环境和作者的长时记忆对科学写作亦有影响。在实际教学中,教师可以根据科学写作的内在认知过程及外在影响因素予以针对性指导。     

Graduate students’ self-reported perspectives regarding peer feedback and feedback from writing consultants

This study reported how ten Taiwanese Master’s students perceived their experiences of receiving feedback given by their peers and writing consultants to revise a shortened version of their thesis proposals. Collected over the course of one semester, data included students’ writing portfolios and interviews with them. Analysis of the data revealed three major themes: (1) The participants felt quite positive about providing and receiving peer feedback, although they seemed cautious toward language-related peer comments; (2) they generally had positive experience with the writing consultants, although the perceived usefulness of the consultants’ feedback varied with individual consultants and (3) the two types of comments served different functions for students, and questions arose from the peer editing process could serve as prompts for writing consultation sessions. Possible future research directions as well as pedagogical implication are outlined to conclude the paper.     

A case study of one instructor’s lecture-based teaching of proof in abstract algebra: making sense of her pedagogical moves

This paper is a case study of the teaching of an undergraduate abstract algebra course, in particular the way the instructor presented proofs. It describes a framework for proof writing based on Selden and Selden (2009) and the work of Alcock (2010) on modes of thought that support proof writing. The paper offers a case study of the teaching of a traditionally-taught abstract algebra course, including showing the range of practice as larger than previously described in research literature. This study describes the aspects of proof writing and modes of thought the instructor modeled for the students. The study finds that she frequently modeled the aspects of hierarchical structure and formal–rhetorical skills, and structural, critical, and instantiation modes of thought. This study also examines the instructor’s attempts to involve the students in the proof writing process during class by asking questions and expecting responses. Finally, the study describes how those questions and responses were part of her proof presentation. The funneling pattern of Steinbring (1989) describes most of the question and answer discussions enacted in the class with most questions requiring a factual response. Yet, the instructional sequence can be also understood as modeling the way an expert in the discipline thinks and, as such, offering a different type of opportunity for student learning.     

Changes in teachers’ beliefs after a professional development project for teaching writing: two Chinese cases

A plethora of research has found that teachers’ beliefs directly influence their classroom practices and teaching outcomes. While numerous studies in second/foreign language writing have examined the effectiveness of different innovative approaches on students’ learning to write, there is a paucity of research on writing teachers’ beliefs about these approaches and how their beliefs change in the process of their professional development. Such a lacuna becomes prominent in English as a Foreign Language contexts, especially in China, where there are numerous calls for changing the nature of classroom practices from product-focused to process- and student-centred instruction. In order to fill this gap, this brief article reports on a case study regarding changes in two Chinese English teachers’ beliefs after attending a professional development project for teaching writing. A key research question guides this study: What changes, if any, did the two teachers experience in their teaching beliefs during the project? Two writing teachers were voluntarily recruited for a case study. Findings show that the professional development project for teaching writing broadened the teachers’ understanding of different writing theories, provided a clear model of how to integrate these new approaches into regular writing courses, changed their instructional focus and shifted their perception of teachers’ roles in teaching practice.     

Student formation in higher education: teachers’ approaches matter

Teaching in higher education encompasses more than merely helping students develop knowledge and skills. It entails engaging students in their own formation as persons, professionals and citizens. From this perspective, this article investigates how approaches to teaching academic writing contribute to formation. By analysing a case from initial teacher education in Norway, we identify and examine one teacher educator’s beliefs about writing and his approaches to teaching writing. Theoretical framework rests on six discourses of writing developed by Roz Ivani? and on the formative possibilities and constraints embedded in these different literacy discourses. Thus, we provide students’ experien-ces with this teacher’s approaches and discuss what formation his approaches seem to have initiated. The findings point to the need for more critical reflection on the formative impact of teaching approaches in higher education more generally.     

Connecting Literacy and Science to Increase Achievement for English Language Learners

Giving students a purpose and a passion for sharing their thinking through authentic learning experiences and giving them tools for writing through which they can risk new vocabulary, new language, and new thought is critical for the linguistic and cognitive development of students. Furthermore, students develop a deep understanding of content they have heard and read when given time to process information through writing and speaking. This article describes one teacher’s quest to identify and implement effective research-based instructional strategies that she could use to successfully support her kindergarten ELL students during science instruction.     

外语写作过程中同学互评的实验研究

英语写作评改是英语过程写作的重要组成部分。本文对本校不同类学生互评写作的教学及实践进行对比、分析和研究。结果表明：在英语过程写作教学中广泛应用互评技能确实从多方面丰富了英语写作课堂教学,而且写与改相结合的教学不但激发了学生写作兴趣,也使他们的写作效果有了极大的改观与提高。     

Meaning making: What reflective essays reveal about biology students’ conceptions about natural selection

The process of reflective writing can play a central role in making meaning as learners process new information and connect it to prior knowledge. An examination of the written discourse can therefore be revealing of learners’ cognitive understanding and affective (beliefs, feelings, motivation to learn) responses to concepts. Despite reflective writing being an important learning tool, the role of this genre in upper-division college biology courses has not been well studied. This paper examines how nineteen physiological ecology students wrote about their understanding of natural selection and adaptations in ten reflective essays and describes how a model of student meaning making was developed. Qualitative essay analysis (through a triangulation of data: class observations; essays; and transcribed interviews) revealed that students could be classified into four categories of writers: subjective (personal, affective connections); objective (conceptual, cognitive connections); authentic (both affective and cognitive connections); and superficial (no supportive connections or claims). In-depth case studies illustrating these four categories are presented. Implications for college science instruction are discussed.     

论穆旦创制"新的抒情"的历程

论文从早期、中期和后期来考察穆旦新诗写作追求现代性过程及其表现,探讨他的研究型写作和创制“新的抒情”的内涵。     

Native-English Speaking Instructors Teaching Writing in China

This article presents two separate but related studies on native-English speaking (NES) instructors’ teaching writing practice in Chinese universities. One study is a case study that explores the teaching practice of three NES instructors’ writing instruction in a southern Chinese university as well as students’ responses to their practice. Another study takes on an auto-ethnographic approach, in which the researcher retrospectively examines his own writing instruction as a college NES instructor in China with his new understanding of Bakhtin’s dialogic theory and theories of multi/biliteracy. The pairing of these two studies, methodologically and conceptually, illustrates the NES instructors’ teaching experiences in China from both an outsider and an insider’s perspectives. The findings of the studies indicate that one of the key factors that hinder the effectiveness in teaching writing in English as a foreign language (EFL) contexts is the doctrine of ‘native fallacy’ widespread in the EFL field. This is an ethnocentric view of treating English as a hegemonic practice that drives EFL students to reach native-like English proficiency in both their English speaking and writing. The article concludes with a call for a paradigm shift in teaching and learning in the EFL field, which requires fundamental changes in the view of English from ‘native English’ to World Englishes or an international language for today’s globalized community.     

Using Online Studio Groups to Improve Writing Competency: A Pilot Study in a Quality Improvement Methods Course

Communication skills are a significant contributor to an individual's success in the workplace. Unfortunately, students often have trouble expressing their ideas in written form and the poor quality of students’ written work often impedes the learning process. This pilot study investigates the use of online writing studios within a quality improvement methods course and the impact of this intervention on students’ writing competency and perceptions about the writing process. The impact of this approach on student performance is evaluated within and across semesters using comparative statistical analyses. Results show that students who participated in online writing studios performed better (i.e., at least one rubric level higher) on their final written assignments for the course compared to students who did not, and that this approach is associated with improved students’ perceptions about the writing process. This research suggests that the use of online writing studios within a content‐specific course can incrementally improve students’ writing competency over the course of one semester, and can positively affect the learning of written communication skills and change students’ perceptions about various aspects of the writing process.     

元认知视角下的英语写作教学

根据Flavell提出的元认知概念,写作者可以认识了解自己的写作过程并对该过程实施监控。近些年的相关研究表明元认知与写作密切相关。丰富的元认知知识有助于写作能力、水平的提高。本文介绍了近年来国内外基于该理论的英语写作研究成果,并对如何培养学生的元认知来提高英语写作水平提出了一点看法。     

元认知视角下的英语写作教学

根据Flavell提出的元认知概念,写作者可以认识了解自己的写作过程并对该过程实施监控。近些年的相关研究表明元认知与写作密切相关。丰富的元认知知识有助于写作能力、水平的提高。本文介绍了近年来国内外基于该理论的英语写作研究成果,并对如何培养学生的元认知来提高英语写作水平提出了一点看法。     

Profiles of self-perceived competencies and conceptions of academic writing in university students / Perfiles de competencias y concepciones sobre la escritura académica en estudiantes universitarios

Abstract

This study analyses Spanish undergraduates’ perceptions of their competency in academic writing, as well as their perception of the criteria that define its quality. We identified student profiles and examined their relationship with (1) certain sample characteristics, such as years of university experience, area of study and students’ gender, and (2) variables related to the process of writing, namely the students’ perception of the writing process and the importance they attribute to its characteristics. The data obtained came from the European Writing Survey (EUWRIT) which was administered to 1,044 students from nine Spanish universities. Profiles were identified by means of k-means cluster analysis. The relationship between these profiles and the variables studied was examined by means of chi-squared analyses and univariate ANOVAs. Two profiles were identified: students who are confident about their writing skills and who acknowledge the importance of writing in their field of knowledge; and students who are relatively confident about their writing ability and who consider writing to be relatively important in their subject area.     

Transforming engagement in literacy instruction: The role of student genuine interest and ability

In this case study paper, I describe my work with Bill, a first grade boy with dyslexia. My goals were to identify his interests and abilities and create contexts in which these interests and abilities supported his literacy learning. A theoretical foundation that merged current understandings of highly effective pedagogical practices for individuals with dyslexia with Dewey’s (1913) theory of genuine interest within a social-constructivist perspective (Vygotsky 1987, 1993) was utilized. A noticeable improvement in Bill’s willingness to engage in activities of reading, writing, and phonological awareness occurred when he was given a voice in the activities. Within contexts of literacy learning that allowed him to demonstrate his interests and talents, Bill became increasingly engaged in activities surrounding the reading and writing of text. Ultimately, this project was successful in creating a context, for this six-year-old boy with dyslexia, in which meaningful learning took place and motivation was provided for future literacy learning.     

头脑风暴训练对外语写作能力培养的功效研究

结合大学英语写作教学现状和过程写作教学法的写前构思阶段,采用定性和定量研究方法,设计头脑风暴写作训练课并在福建某高校开展实证研究,以探讨该教学策略对我国学生外语写作能力发展产生的功效及学生对这一策略的态度和看法。结果显示:头脑风暴写作训练能有效地提高学生写作构建能力和写作水平,学生对该教学活动有较高的认同度。该研究对中国大学英语写作教学具有一定的借鉴意义。     

An Investigation into Uncovering and Understanding Tacit Knowledge in a First‐Year Design Studio Environment

Tacit knowledge, intuitive responses, empirical research – how can design elevate itself as a discipline when its main forms of knowledge gathering and generation are still believed to be less valuable than those in traditional academia? Beginning design students must learn to put words to their actions, to understand their processes and to be critical and reflective throughout all stages of a project. By guiding students into developing rigorous iterative processes that combine theoretical research, empirical research, questioning and reflection students will no longer need to hide behind the lure of the enigma of intuition. The introduction of writing in the studio classroom is one method that can help students see the relationship between the various stages of their creative process and articulate the reasons behind the decisions they make. Experiential learning techniques that combine writing, making, research and reflection will help students shift their personal frames of reference and thus create a more critically engaged student body.