Learning to be critically reflective: exploring fiction writing and adult learning

Many educators in adult, community and higher education contexts are concerned with fostering reflective learning amongst their students. This paper explores the concept of critical reflection and considers how engaging with fiction may be an innovative pedagogical approach to support critical learning opportunities. Drawing upon interviews with fiction writers, ways in which critical reflection may be encouraged in connection to reading and writing fiction are taken up by exploring three different thematic areas that relate to a Habermasian framework of knowledge constitutive approaches to learning. These different areas can be categorised as (a) technical-rational, (b) humanistic and (c) critical or emancipatory. The first of these considers critical reflection as a way to develop technical capacities as a creative writer. The next section takes up a humanistic framework to explore the value of individual and collective learning opportunities to enhance personal growth and critical reflection. The third area of discussion considers a deeper critical or emancipatory framework of learning through critical reflection which may lead to social change. The paper concludes by considering the value of arts-informed adult education approaches, such as those related to fiction writing, to enhance the development of critical reflection amongst adult learners.     

Student attitudes that predict participation in peer assessment

Peer assessment has been widely applied to actively engage students in learning to write. However, sometimes students resist peer assessment. This study explores reviewers’ attitudes and other underlying factors that influence students’ participation in online peer assessment. Participants were 234 Chinese undergraduates from two different academic backgrounds: engineering majors (n = 168) and English majors (n = 66). Gender, academic background and prior experience with peer assessment were all related to participation levels. Moreover, factor analyses revealed three attitudinal factors: (1) positive attitude (a general endorsement of the benefits of peer assessment), (2) interpersonal negative (concerns about the negative effects on interpersonal relationships), and (3) procedural negative (doubts about the procedural rationality of peer assessment). Among the attitudinal factors, procedural negative was negatively associated with participation, as expected. Interestingly, interpersonal negative was associated with greater participation, and positive attitude was associated with lower participation, in part because students worked hard on each review rather than doing many reviews superficially. Implications for instruction are discussed.     

Failing with grace: kids,Improv and embodied literacies

In this article, we explore the idea that comedy, with its often unorthodox ways of looking at, experiencing, and responding to the world, offers untold possibility for classroom literacy instruction. The article focuses on the potential of Improv comedy as socio‐materialist literacy in the classroom. It provides an account of Improv as a form of embodied literacy that operates as an assemblage created collectively between many people, practices, and material objects. We present findings from interviews with professional comedians regarding the possibilities of comedy for language and literacy instruction with elementary school children. The article then examines a moment from the subsequent classroom phase of the study to look at ways Improv can help students create stories and ways that laughter can be used to create a cohesive assemblage based around students' spontaneous creation of texts. The aim of the article is to provide educators with a practical means to apply socio‐materialist literacy in their classrooms through Improv, which will, in turn, allow students to create collectively generated texts and assemblages.     

Student Perceptions of the Use of Writing in a Differential Equations Course

The use of writing to learn mathematics at the university-level is a pedagogical tool that has been gaining momentum. The setting of this study is a second-year differential equations class where written assignments have been incorporated into the course. By analyzing survey results and students' written work, we examine the extent to which students view writing as an effective learning strategy, as well as their beliefs about the relationship between mathematical writing and communication. We also discuss what students' narratives reveal about their past mathematical experiences.     

Pre-service teachers in an after school program: increasing understanding of students,communities, and teaching

The purpose of the After School Creative Expression Program (ASCEP) was to provide a short-term afterschool program focusing on the visual and written creative arts to a group of elementary school children attending a Title 1 school. Pre-service teachers attending a liberal arts university within the same geographic region developed lessons in writing and photography and served as afterschool educators for ASCEP. The program provided pre-service teachers a valuable experience outside the classroom. Findings demonstrate pre-service educators gained new insights from ASCEP that will impact their teaching practices during school. Overall, results show ASCEP provided future educators with valuable learning experiences and opportunities to connect more deeply with their students and their community.     

A Card Trick for Improving Writing Skills and Attendance

This paper describes an innovative way of randomly collecting handwritten homework in calculus classes with approximately 50 students using a standard deck of cards, which does not place an excessive burden on faculty with regard to grading. In addition to the increased awareness students develop in structuring a mathematical solution, the strategy has been successful in increasing classroom attendance, which the literature suggests leads to increased attainment. Along with personal observations and empirical data indicating that the scores from the randomly collected homework assignments strongly correlate with exam performance, perceptions of students are included, which show that students are strongly supportive of the method used.     

Negotiating Voice Construction Between Writers and Readers in College Writing: A Case Study of an L2 Writer

Voice is co-constructed, a result of the “text-mediated interaction between the writer and the reader.” The present study, using the context of U.S. college writing, explores the complicated process by which an L2 novice writer—one who has a growing awareness of, yet peripheral access to, discourse practices—constructs a voice. Through interviews and a close analysis of a text, a comparison is made between the voice the L2 writer wished to project in an assigned paper and the voice constructed by two readers in the course of their anonymous readings of the paper. The significant gap between the L2 writer’s aims and the readers’ responses suggests that a writer’s view of her voice stems from the ways in which she conceptualizes discourse conventions, in association with her particular linguistic, social, and cultural background. The pedagogical implications of the L2 writer’s process of negotiating identity, and her struggles to learn discourse expectations, are discussed.     

大学生写作中的心理障碍与调适

写作活动是一种心理活动,写作中充满着心理机制;大学生在写作中普遍存在畏惧心理、厌倦心理、无为心理、趋同心理、惰性心理、虚荣心理、焦虑心理等心理障碍,分析其原因,在写作教学中重视对其进行有益的调适,是有效进行写作教学,提高大学生写作水平的重要途径。     

远程教育期刊中论文写作范式评述——以《现代远程教育研究》期刊文章为例

从写作范式的角度,分析远程教育期刊的文章要求,能够把握所采用文章的写作特点和基本规律。期刊采用文章的标准,一是专业标准,二是质量保证。质量标准的基本条件首先就是观点新颖、内容扎实,具有学术价值。因此,文章选题要注意个性化、创新性,要以能产生新意的角度为论述切入点,避免思辨的空洞和一般化,避免脱离解决实际问题的实证研究。学术规范影响作者写作范式的运用和形成,学术期刊以其严谨性和规范性,保持应有的学术尊严。     

唐诗中的“谏纸”、“谏书”、“谏草”与唐代谏议规范

唐代谏议制度在中国古代政治制度史上具有特别的意义,它以较完善的体制,将谏议活动规范化,使之成为一种重要的行政手段。这些规范,大多存于《唐六典》、《唐会要》中。由于唐代诗人大多有谏官经历,其诗歌也涉及唐代谏议制度的规范问题,有些能填补史载之空缺,月给谏纸、谏囊献书、避人焚草等即是如此。它们不仅真实地反映了唐代谏官的参政议政活动,而且还为完整认识唐代谏议制度提供了直观的材料。