scholarly journals Genre Knowledge and Writing Development: Results From the Writing Transfer Project

2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dana Lynn Driscoll ◽  
Joseph Paszek ◽  
Gwen Gorzelsky ◽  
Carol L. Hayes ◽  
Edmund Jones
Keyword(s):  
General Education ◽  
Institutional Design ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Theoretical Work ◽  
Writing Development ◽  
First Year ◽  
Writing Courses ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
Genre Knowledge ◽  
Audience Awareness

Using a mixed-methods, multi-institutional design of general education writing courses at four institutions, this study examined genre as a key factor for understanding and promoting writing development. It thus aims to provide empirical validation of decades of theoretical work on and qualitative studies of genre and the nature of genre knowledge. While showing that both simplistic and nuanced genre knowledge promote writing development, our findings suggest that nuanced genre knowledge correlates with writing development over the course of a semester. Based on these findings, we propose an expanded view of Tardy’s four genre knowledge components and argue for their explanatory power. We recognize these genre components can be cultivated by using three particular strategies: writing for nonclassroom audiences, using source texts explicitly to join existing disciplinary conversations, and cultivating two types of metacognitive awareness (awareness of the writing strategies used to complete specific tasks and awareness of one’s levels of proficiency in particular types of writing knowledge). Findings can be used to enrich first-year or upper-division writing curricula in the areas of genre knowledge, audience awareness, and source use.

scholarly journals Spatial Disparities of COVID-19 Cases and Fatalities in United States Counties

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (16) ◽  
pp. 8259
Author(s):  
Sarah L. Jackson ◽  
Sahar Derakhshan ◽  
Leah Blackwood ◽  
Logan Lee ◽  
Qian Huang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Great Plains ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Temporal Trends ◽  
The United States ◽  
First Year ◽  
Significant Case ◽  
Urban Rural ◽  
Spatial And Temporal Trends ◽  
Mitigation Policies

This paper examines the spatial and temporal trends in county-level COVID-19 cases and fatalities in the United States during the first year of the pandemic (January 2020–January 2021). Statistical and geospatial analyses highlight greater impacts in the Great Plains, Southwestern and Southern regions based on cases and fatalities per 100,000 population. Significant case and fatality spatial clusters were most prevalent between November 2020 and January 2021. Distinct urban–rural differences in COVID-19 experiences uncovered higher rural cases and fatalities per 100,000 population and fewer government mitigation actions enacted in rural counties. High levels of social vulnerability and the absence of mitigation policies were significantly associated with higher fatalities, while existing community resilience had more influential spatial explanatory power. Using differences in percentage unemployment changes between 2019 and 2020 as a proxy for pre-emergent recovery revealed urban counties were hit harder in the early months of the pandemic, corresponding with imposed government mitigation policies. This longitudinal, place-based study confirms some early urban–rural patterns initially observed in the pandemic, as well as the disparate COVID-19 experiences among socially vulnerable populations. The results are critical in identifying geographic disparities in COVID-19 exposures and outcomes and providing the evidentiary basis for targeting pandemic recovery.

scholarly journals Do High-Achieving Students Benefit From Honors College Participation? A Look at Student Engagement for First-Year Students and Seniors

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 217-241 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angie L. Miller ◽  
Amber D. Dumford
Keyword(s):  
Student Engagement ◽  
General Education ◽  
First Year ◽  
Integrative Learning ◽  
Education Students ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
General Education Students ◽  
Honors College ◽  
Faculty Interaction ◽  
College Participation

This study investigates findings from the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), comparing various aspects of student engagement between honors college and general education students. Responses from 1,339 honors college students and 7,191 general education students across 15 different universities suggest a positive impact for honors college participation on reflective and integrative learning, use of learning strategies, collaborative learning, diverse discussions, student–faculty interaction, and quality of interactions for first-year students, even when controlling for student and institutional characteristics. For senior students, honors college participation was related to more frequent student–faculty interaction. Potential experiential and curricular reasons for these differences are discussed, along with implications for educators, researchers, parents, and students.

scholarly journals Thai Undergraduate Student Awareness of Regular and Irregular Grapheme-Phoneme Correspondence

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
David D. Perrodin
Keyword(s):  
General Education ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Private University ◽  
First Year ◽  
Long Term Effects ◽  
Data Set ◽  
English Classes ◽  
Frequency Occurrence ◽  
First Year University ◽  
Letter Sound

<p>Recent events in Thailand in reference to the teaching of phonics for better comprehension of English vocabulary have highlighted the overuse of identifying letter-sound relationships in English by utilizing the familiar Thai orthography to assist developing Thai EFL learners. This paper investigated the long-term effects of using such pedagogy on recognizing regular and irregular Grapheme-Phoneme Correspondences (GPC) in English by Thai undergraduate students. To address this matter, the study used a convenience sampling of 373 first-year university students from 11 general education English classes at a mid-sized private university near Bangkok, Thailand. The familiar English poem <em>I Take It You Already Know</em> was employed for data collection, for it consists of a practical ratio of frequent and infrequent English grapheme-phoneme correspondences. Extensive lists of recognized grapheme-phoneme correspondences were used to identify the frequent or regular, and the infrequent or irregular main phoneme present in each of the 60 most frequently queried content words of the poem. Point-Biserial Correlation was employed to measure the strength of association between the frequency occurrence of the most queried content words from the data set, and the examined weighted word frequency data. The findings suggest that, in general, the Thai undergraduate students demonstrated an overall lack of recognition of regular and irregular Grapheme-Phoneme Correspondences of English. </p>

scholarly journals Re-Imagining the First Year as Catalyst for First-Year Writing Program Curricular Change

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Virginia Crank ◽  
Sara Heaser ◽  
Darci L. Thoune
Keyword(s):  
College Retention ◽  
Habits Of Mind ◽  
Curricular Change ◽  
First Year ◽  
Writing Program ◽  
Research Project ◽  
First Year Writing ◽  
Writing Courses ◽  
Multiple Measures ◽  
Writing Course

This article describes a revision of a first-year writing program curriculum using the pillars of the Reimagining the First-Year Program. The authors adapted principles related to mindset and habits of mind from both college retention scholarship and composition scholarship. After developing a research project in order to understand what elements of mindset correlate with readiness for credit-bearing writing courses, the authors created a multiple measures placement system for enrolling students in a credit-bearing first-year writing course with co-requisite support.  

scholarly journals Designing for Students: Creating a Robust Interdisciplinary First Year Course

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Deborah E. Bordelon ◽  
Colleen M Sexton ◽  
Ann M Vendrely
Keyword(s):  
General Education ◽  
Course Design ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Assessment Process ◽  
First Year ◽  
Full Time ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Underserved Students ◽  
General Education Curriculum

Building a general education program from scratch for a population of first generation and underserved students provided both a challenge and opportunity. Faculty who had limited previous experience teaching and assessing first year students engaged in study of the best practices and research. Faculty designed a four-year general education curriculum that began with a robust First Year Seminar (FYS) course, the focus of this study. This required three-credit hour interdisciplinary humanities course (FYS) was designed to embrace the understanding of what it means to be human, including understanding oneself in relation to the natural world and to others. Full time faculty from all disciplines were selected through a competitive process to teach the FYS course with embedded High Impact Practices (HIPs). Four years of teaching FYS has provided qualitative and quantitative data on the effectiveness of the design, the role of faculty, and application of HIPs. Through the course assessment process and data analysis, faculty have expanded their repertoire of pedagogical strategies to engage the first year student, and as a result, positively influenced teaching in their other courses. This report offers insights on strategies for course design, the role of faculty, and the power of selected HIPs that may be replicated at other institutions.

scholarly journals A Case Study on Experiential Learning in a First-Year General Education Course

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Niki Weller ◽  
Julie Saam
Keyword(s):  
Experiential Learning ◽  
Student Success ◽  
General Education ◽  
High Impact ◽  
Faculty Members ◽  
First Year ◽  
Learning Collaborative ◽  
Indiana University ◽  
High Impact Practices

Experiential-learning provides opportunities for students that feature a variety of high-impact practices including first-year seminars, internships, community learning, collaborative projects, and capstone seminars. To offer these high-impact practices for students, faculty from across disciplines and majors must be willing to incorporate these opportunities within their courses and degrees. Indiana University Kokomo has offered two successful programs to support these high-impact practices. One program, the Kokomo Experience and You (KEY), supports faculty in the development and implementation of events and activities to support student learning. The other, the Student Success Academy Faculty Fellows Program, provided faculty members the opportunity to examine research and concepts so that they can better promote student success in their classrooms. Building on the success of these two programs, a third initiative, the Experiential Learning Academy (ELA), was launched in 2018, funded by a Reimagining the First Years mini-grant from AASCU.

scholarly journals Transformational school leadership as a key factor for teachers’ job attitudes during their first year in the profession

2018 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 106-132 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Thomas ◽  
Melissa Tuytens ◽  
Geert Devos ◽  
Geert Kelchtermans ◽  
Ruben Vanderlinde
Keyword(s):  
Transformational Leadership ◽  
Beginning Teachers ◽  
School Leadership ◽  
Self Efficacy ◽  
Job Attitudes ◽  
School Level ◽  
Dropping Out ◽  
First Year ◽  
Collegial Support ◽  
Key Factor

Teacher attrition is a global concern that is particularly prevalent among beginning teachers. Teachers’ intrinsic motivation to teach, affective organisational commitment and job satisfaction are considered job attitudes that stop them from dropping out of the profession. This study explores the interplay between factors at the school level (i.e. transformational leadership of the principal, professional collegial support) and the teacher level (i.e. self-efficacy) influencing these job attitudes. A sample of 292 first-year primary-school teachers participated. The results of the path analysis demonstrated that transformational leadership of the principal is directly related to teachers’ job attitudes in a positive way. Moreover, transformational leadership of the principal is also indirectly related to these attitudes, via both professional collegial support and teachers’ self-efficacy. Implications for the supportive role of the principal in the teachers’ first year in the profession are discussed.

Using Wikipedia to Teach Written Health Communication

2016 ◽  
pp. 247-258
Author(s):  
Melissa Vosen Callens
Keyword(s):  
Health Literacy ◽  
Health Information ◽  
Health Professions ◽  
First Year ◽  
Plain Language ◽  
First Year Writing ◽  
Writing Courses ◽  
The World ◽  
Patient Provider Communication ◽  
Student Apathy

Unlike first-year writing courses, upper-division writing courses often require students to engage in discipline specific writing. In the author's upper-division course, Writing in the Health Professions, students examine health literacy as it pertains to both oral and written patient-provider communication. Students edit and expand a Wikipedia article for the final course assignment. The advantages of this assignment are threefold. First, students write for an authentic audience, decreasing student apathy. Second, students engage civically, improving health information accessed by millions of people across the world. Finally, students improve content of existing articles and broaden the scope of new articles written, leading to more diverse content and perspectives. In this chapter, the author discusses the above assignment, providing descriptions of scaffolding activities. Potential drawbacks of using Wikipedia to teach students how to write using plain language is discussed, in addition to strategies that might limit these difficulties.

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