Writing feedback as an exclusionary practice in higher education

2014 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 262-275 ◽  
Author(s):  
Grace Chu-Lin Chang
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Social Practice ◽  
Best Practice ◽  
Academic Literacy ◽  
Written Feedback ◽  
Academic Literacies ◽  
Written Discourse ◽  
Academic Communities ◽  
Writing Feedback

This ethnographic research probes into feedback on academic writing received by Taiwanese students in Australian higher education institutions, and examines whether the feedback received helped students to participate in the written discourse of academic communities. Academic writing dominates the academic life of students in Australia and is the key measure of their academic performance. This can be problematic for international students who speak English as an additional language and who are expected to acquire academic literacies in English ‘by doing’. As a social practice, academic writing depends on participation in dialogue for students to be included in the community of academia. However, the findings show that few participants received any useful feedback. Some assignments were never returned; in other cases, the hand-written feedback was illegible, and often included only overly general comments that puzzled the participants. As a result, the learning process came to an end once the students handed in their assignments; feedback failed to promote further learning related to content, and particularly to academic writing. The article highlights the few instances where participants received helpful feedback that was accessible and constructive, and which can be considered best practice for the promotion of academic literacy.

scholarly journals AUTOETHNOGRAPHY AND THE STUDY OF ACADEMIC LITERACIES: EXPLORING SPACE, TEAM RESEARCH AND MENTORING

2020 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 264-295 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pamela Olmos-López ◽  
Karin Tusting
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Personal Experience ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Academic Literacy ◽  
Academic Literacies ◽  
Place And Space ◽  
Mentoring Relationship ◽  
Team Research ◽  
Insight Into

ABSTRACT Autoethnography is the study of culture through the study of self (ELLIS, 2004; ELLIS et al, 2011). In this paper, we explore the value of autoethnography in the study of academic literacies. We draw on our own experiences as ethnographers and autoethnographers of literacy to provide illustrative examples. We show how autoethnography has provided a fresh understanding of the role of place and space in developing academic writing across countries and between English and Spanish (OLMOS-LÓPEZ, 2019). We discuss the value of team autoethnography in researching academic writing (TUSTING et al., 2019). And we reflect together on our own journey of development as academic writers, showing how a mentoring relationship has been part of both of our trajectories. The paper aims to argue for the value of autoethnography as an approach to studying academic literacy practices, particularly in providing insight into identity and personal experience.

scholarly journals Letramento acadêmico em inglês e em português: um estudo de atividades avaliativas provenientes de disciplinas de um curso de graduação de uma instituição americana e uma brasileira

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 257
Author(s):  
Luciana Lorandi Honorato de Ornellas
Keyword(s):  
Biological Sciences ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Social Practice ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Academic Literacy ◽  
Writing In The Disciplines ◽  
Writing Assignments ◽  
American Institution ◽  
Know How ◽  
Teaching Of Writing

The paper analyses how academic literacy is promoted in academic writing assignments using genres. The context of the study is that of undergraduate disciplines in the field of Biological Sciences. The disciplines take place in an American institution and in a Brazilian federal one. The data were drawn from pedagogical and evaluative documents that were analysed by content analysis. The data collected from the American institution showed that genres are used as a vehicle to integrate knowledge, and also todemonstrate information. Relating to national context, genres are used to demonstrate information. It can be concluded that, in the American institution, academic literacy occurs in an ideological way in the disciplines, since writing is developed making use of genres that are explored as a social practice. Nevertheless, in the Brazilian institution, academic literacy is developed in an autonomous way, due to the absence of the teaching of writing in the disciplines, probably because it is considered thatstudents already know how to write. In brief, this investigation intends to clarify academic literacy practices in different academic contexts in order to bring insight to other researchers and practitioners on how this issue has been dealt with, and what are the strengths and the weaknesses of such practices.

scholarly journals That's writing talk: An insight into the Academic Writing Readers Group

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Bell
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Community Of Practice ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Good Practice ◽  
Student Writing ◽  
Academic Communities ◽  
Common Practices ◽  
Practice Approach ◽  
New Ideas ◽  
Insight Into

Despite being comprised of 'academic communities' Higher Education often provides academics from different disciplines with few opportunities to discuss common practices or concerns.. Some issues, such as student writing, are so widespread, that there is however a need for staff to have the opportunity to work collaboratively. A focused community or network provides staff with the opportunity to share good practice and develop new ideas. Such a group has been established at Nottingham Trent University to explore the issue of student writing. This article examines the 'Academic Writing Readers Group' and discusses the challenges and benefits of using a community of practice approach to the issue of student writing.

Re-crafting an Academic Literacies approach to pedagogic communication in higher education

2011 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 45-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Sutton
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Academic Literacy ◽  
Reproductive Function ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Academic Literacies ◽  
Theoretical Synthesis ◽  
Institutional Dimension ◽  
Institutional Contexts ◽  
Critical Hope ◽  
Communicative Relationship

The communicative relationship between learners and teachers in higher education, particularly as manifested in assessment and feedback, is often problematic. I begin from an Academic Literacies approach that positions academic literacy as requiring learners to acquire a complex set of literacy skills and abilities within specific discursive and institutional contexts. Whilst acknowledging the institutional dimension of academic literacy, I argue that the Academic Literacies approach tends to underestimate its significance. This shortcoming can be addressed by considering student speaking and writing as powerfully constrained by what Bourdieu refers to as the authority of pedagogic institutions, which function in what Sennett calls the culture of the new capitalism. Synthesising Bourdieu and Sennett, I argue, opens up possibilities for creating a pedagogy for itself: a pedagogy conscious of its reproductive function but able to provide both learners and teachers with what Canaan terms critical hope. Through this theoretical synthesis I seek to re-craft the Academic Literacies approach to pedagogic communication so that our understanding of the problems experienced by learners in acquiring academic literacy can be enhanced.

scholarly journals Academic literacies twenty years on: a community-sourced literature review

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Hilsdon ◽  
Cathy Malone ◽  
Alicja Syska
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
English For Academic Purposes ◽  
Student Writing ◽  
Academic Literacies ◽  
Diverse Range ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Learning Development ◽  
Professional Fields

In 1998, the paper ‘Student writing in higher education: an academic literacies approach’ by Mary Lea and Brian Street reinvigorated debate concerning ‘what it means to be academically literate’ (1998, p.158). It proposed a new way of examining how students learn at university and introduced the term ‘academic literacies’. Subsequently, a body of literature has emerged reflecting the significant theoretical and practical impact Lea and Street’s paper has had on a range of academic and professional fields. This literature review covers articles selected by colleagues in our professional communities of the Association for Learning Development in Higher Education (ALDinHE), the association for lecturers in English for Academic Purposes (BALEAP), and the European Association of Teachers of Academic Writing (EATAW). As a community-sourced literature review, this text brings together reviews of wide range of texts and a diverse range of voices reflecting a multiplicity of perspectives and understandings of academic literacies. We have organised the material according to the themes: Modality, Identity, Focus on text, Implications for research, and Implications for practice. We conclude with observations relevant to these themes, which we hope will stimulate further debate, research and professional collaborations between our members and subscribers.

scholarly journals The appearance of voice: EAP and academic literacies approaches to teaching reflective writing

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon A. Williams
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
English For Academic Purposes ◽  
Reflective Writing ◽  
Assessment Practices ◽  
Academic Literacies ◽  
Student Writers ◽  
Student Cohorts ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
Novice Writers

The increasingly common requirement for higher education courses to include reflective writing as part of assessment practices places additional demands on novice writers. Complex and self-referential assessment criteria mean that students on foundation and pre-sessional courses in particular find it hard to decode and match descriptors, and to balance subjectivity and critical analysis. English for Academic Purposes (EAP), the most widely adopted approach to teaching academic writing in higher education, prioritises objectivity, and teaches students to recognise generic patterns of text organisation – though it seldom includes reflective writing itself as a genre. In contrast, the less familiar teaching approach of academic literacies explores students’ subjectivity, more obviously relevant to reflection, often through the development of an authentic narrative voice. As in other forms of academic writing, voice in reflective writing can be seen as a construct. It conveys a persona via the narrative, and an ethos via its specialised content. However, unlike other forms of academic writing, the personain reflective writing must simultaneously communicate the author’s private and public self.With the purpose of developing students’ persona, an academic literacies intervention in two transition courses invited students to complete a piece of timed writing in response to an autobiographical prompt. Compared with the EAP writing produced by the same student cohorts, the autobiographical writing contained a clear persona and consistent ethos. The assessed reflective writing later produced by the same students showed little change, however, particularly in its handling of ethos. The findings suggest that teachers of reflective writing need simultaneously to develop students’ ability to communicate a credible persona and to handle a specialised ethos of formal academic content. A more principled combination of the two approaches, EAP and academic literacies, could best provide the optimum learning environment for novice student writers to develop a balanced voice and achieve reflective writing fluency

scholarly journals “What kind of paper do you want from us?”: developing genre knowledge in one Kazakhstani university postgraduate school

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Montgomery ◽  
Jason Sparks ◽  
Bridget Goodman
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Academic Literacy ◽  
Knowledge Development ◽  
Student Experiences ◽  
Academic Literacies ◽  
Literacy Practice ◽  
Genre Awareness ◽  
Science School ◽  
Genre Knowledge

Drawing on the Academic Literacies perspectives of Lea and Street and key genre theorists, this mixed-methods case study explored multilingual student experiences of academic literacy practices in one postgraduate social-science school in an English-medium university in Kazakhstan. Two questions guided the research: (1) To what extent and in what ways do students develop genre knowledge in their school EMI contexts?; (2) Which pedagogical approaches and strategies do students identify as beneficial in supporting genre knowledge development? The study found students developed genre awareness for research-related literacy practices, involving field-, tenor- and mode-related genre knowledge. The study also found student capacity to apply genre knowledge successfully across a range of text genres. Another finding was that challenge and success in genre knowledge development was a function of the extent of explicit feedback from instructors and peers and explicit assignment expectations. Each of our findings are consistent with the critique and recommendations of Lea and Street (1998; 2006) on the importance of a situated approach to developing student academic literacy practice that accounts for the larger institutional contexts and epistemological traditions in which those practices have meaning. These findings have important value for discussions and debates on student academic literacy learning and practice in higher education in Kazakhstan, across Central Asia and in other countries where policies for internationalization and research universities are rapidly transforming higher education literacy practice in the current era of globalization.

scholarly journals Creating “transdisciplinary spaces” for a real-world scenario: A practical teaching collaboration

2021 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 219-247
Author(s):  
Ilse Fouché ◽  
A.D. Corbett ◽  
Susan Immelman
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Academic Literacy ◽  
Student Feedback ◽  
English For Specific Purposes ◽  
Project Work ◽  
Academic Literacies ◽  
Collaborative Intervention ◽  
Key Stakeholders ◽  
Successful Collaboration ◽  
Interpretative Framework

A lack of transfer of academic literacy competencies was identified by academic literacy and Statistics lecturers involved in an extended  programme course. This paper reports on one attempt at a workable collaborative solution to this challenge. The collaborative attempt is situated within the academic literacies framework, and is described. Thereafter, student feedback as well as critical self-reflections from participating lecturers are qualitatively analysed in an interpretative framework, to determine how key stakeholders experienced the collaborative intervention. The collaborative attempt was found to be valuable in more effectively achieving the outcomes of both courses, and in helping students see the relevance of academic literacy in content subjects – this is in line with an academic literacies frameworkwhich holds that academic literacy cannot be divorced from the contexts in which it is practiced. The primary factors that led to a successful collaboration were a willingness of all partners to participate in the project and regular communication between collaborators.Main problems encountered revolved around miscommunication between lecturers and students, and an insufficiently detailed timetable that resulted in pressure at certain stages. Keywords: Teaching collaboration, academic literacy, academic writing, English for specific purposes, project work

scholarly journals The Writing Exam as Index of Policy, Curriculum, and Assessment: An Academic Literacies Perspective on High Stakes Testing in an American University

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Freeman Smith
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Writing Assessment ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Academic Literacy ◽  
High Stakes Testing ◽  
Academic Literacies ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
American University ◽  
Composition Classrooms ◽  
Assessment Decisions

Academic literacy is a policy goal universities implement through curricular and assessment decisions that are generally discipline-based. Disciplinary genres are traditionally seen as relatively fixed entities, easily evaluated by practiced members of the field and able to be emulated and mastered by students with training. This study examines the interplay of policy, curriculum, and assessment as they concern academic literacy in higher education and explore how writing assessment is employed in the maintenance and verification of academic literacy. The research took place at a small university known primarily for its pharmacy school and preparation for careers in the sciences and health sciences. The university is unusual in that it requires that students pass a writing proficiency exam in order to graduate. This research employed ethnographic methods and textual analysis to discover the interaction between university writing policy and its real-world effects. Data was collected in the form of fieldnotes of my observations of the Writing Center and interactions on-campus; ethnographic interviews with faculty, administrators, and students; course syllabi and other site documents; and exam bluebooks.This study looks at the use of the five-paragraph theme as an assessment tool, an academic genre rarely seen outside of composition classrooms and essay exams. It also evaluates the social and institutional function of a high-stakes testing policy, and how the policy serves to balance curricular ideologies with other constraints. It shows how universities, increasingly working under a business model, make curricular and assessment decisions in the interest of balancing hiring costs, academic ideology, and so on, in an iterative process. The results of this research have implications for evaluating writing policy in higher education institutions, and the use and structure of writing assessment in other arenas as well.

scholarly journals Plagiarism and attribution: an academic literacies approach?

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Eva Magyar
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Student Success ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Academic Literacies ◽  
Postgraduate Students ◽  
Context Sensitive ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Education Courses

In many Higher Education courses in the UK the ability to write extended academic prose is central to assessment and therefore to student success. One aspect of academic writing which students struggle with is incorporating the work and ideas of others, using appropriate attribution conventions. This can lead them to fall foul of  institutions’ plagiarism policies. Advice on plagiarism often consists of discussions around what is or is not plagiaristic behaviour while advice on attribution has tended to focus on referencing. This paper explores what an academic literacies approach to plagiarism might look like. It discusses and illustrates how an academic literacies approach was used in the design, analysis and application of a small-scale ethnographic research which set out to explore international postgraduate students' understandings of and questions about plagiarism across the disciplines in one UK university. The intention of the research was to use the findings in developing more culturally and context sensitive explanations of our attribution practices.    

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