scholarly journals Cultivating a Process Approach to Writing: Student Experiences in a Developmental Course

Author(s):  
James Pacello

Many developmental writing courses in colleges focus on teaching students isolated skills, with little emphasis on how such skills are applicable to the actual process of writing. This article focuses on capturing the perspectives of students enrolled in a developmental writing course designed around an explicit process-oriented pedagogy. The instructor assigned metacognitive tasks and aimed to be transparent with students about the purpose of all course activities and assignments. The findings point to the various ways students can learn to value and use a process approach when writing. The paper concludes with recommendations for helping both instructors and institutions foster a process-oriented writing culture in college classrooms. It also points to future research possibilities.

2016 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ding Yu

AbstractPeer review is widely used in writing courses for both practical and pedagogical reasons, but little has been published on the characteristics of Chinese EFL learners’ review patterns. This study aimed to explore the types of peer comments, their distribution, and related factors in a Chinese context. It collected and analyzed in NVivo and SPSS 829 peer reviews, survey data, and students’ writing and reading scores. Results show that more than half of the comments focused on language, one third on social talk, and about ten percent on content and organization. Multiple regression results show that content score, organization score, good attitude, procrastination, and assignment type were related to the distribution and the length of comments, but many other influencing factors are to be revealed in future research.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 4121
Author(s):  
Hana Tomaskova ◽  
Erfan Babaee Tirkolaee

The purpose of this article was to demonstrate the difference between a pandemic plan’s textual prescription and its effective processing using graphical notation. Before creating a case study of the Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) of the Czech Republic’s pandemic plan, we conducted a systematic review of the process approach in pandemic planning and a document analysis of relevant public documents. The authors emphasized the opacity of hundreds of pages of text records in an explanatory case study and demonstrated the effectiveness of the process approach in reengineering and improving the response to such a critical situation. A potential extension to the automation and involvement of SMART technologies or process optimization through process mining techniques is presented as a future research topic.


Author(s):  
Kathleen R. Brazeal ◽  
Tanya L. Brown ◽  
Brian A. Couch

AbstractWhile formative assessments (FAs) can facilitate learning within undergraduate STEM courses, their impact likely depends on many factors, including how instructors implement them, whether students buy-in to them, and how students utilize them. FAs have many different implementation characteristics, including what kinds of questions are asked, whether questions are asked before or after covering the material in class, how feedback is provided, how students are graded, and other logistical considerations. We conducted 38 semi-structured interviews with students from eight undergraduate biology courses to explore how various implementation characteristics of in-class and out-of-class FAs can influence student perceptions and behaviors. We also interviewed course instructors to provide context for understanding student experiences. Using thematic analysis, we outlined various FA implementation characteristics, characterized the range of FA utilization behaviors reported by students, and identified emergent themes regarding the impact of certain implementation characteristics on student buy-in and utilization. Furthermore, we found that implementation characteristics have combined effects on student engagement and that students will tolerate a degree of “acceptable discomfort” with implementation features that contradict their learning preferences. These results can aid instructor reflection and guide future research on the complex connections between activity implementation and student engagement within STEM disciplines.


Open Praxis ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 469
Author(s):  
Judy Corinne Noeline Pullenayegem ◽  
K. Radhika M. De Silva ◽  
Buddhini Gayathri Jayatilleke

This paper presents the results of a study conducted to ascertain the extent to which participants studying in an open and distance learning context utilized the mediation tools provided in an Advanced Writing Skills course, conducted in a blended-learning mode in Sri Lanka. Sixty-four participants engaged in the online component of the writing course using the Process Approach. The course consisted of seven sessions; four addressing the stages of the Process Approach to writing an essay, and three practice sessions. Data were gathered from log-files of the Learning Management System, questionnaires, and interviews related to five mediation tools provided to learners. The data were analyzed utilizing Engeström’s activity theory framework (1987); with focus on the contradictions that emerged in the use of each tool. First, the contradictions that emerged in participants’ engagement with the tools is presented, secondly, the factors that need to be taken into account to ensure greater engagement.


2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 84 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcela G. Cuellar ◽  
Vanessa Segundo ◽  
Yvonne Muñoz

Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) play a critical role in advancing postsecondary access and success for Latinx students. Scholarship has begun to examine how HSIs influence Latinx student experiences and outcomes, yet much remains to be explored. In an effort to inform future research of Latinx students at HSIs, we argue that student experiences and outcomes should be based on notions of empowerment given the historically marginalized status of this group. We propose a model to guide assessment on Latinx empowerment at HSIs, which builds on the Inputs-Environments-Outcomes (IEO) model (Astin & antonio, 2012) and integrates critical theoretical frameworks, namely critical race theory and community cultural wealth. In proposing an adapted IEO model assessing Latinx empowerment, we encourage scholars and practitioners to expand notions of what constitutes success and excellence at HSIs in terms of how they educate and empower Latinx students.


Author(s):  
Virginia Crank ◽  
Sara Heaser ◽  
Darci L. Thoune

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.  


Author(s):  
George Veletsianos ◽  
Aaron Doering

<span>In this paper we investigate the experiences of elementary school children over a two-year period during which they engaged with a hybrid Adventure Learning program. In addition to delineating Adventure Learning experiences, we report on educational technology implementations in ecologically valid and complex environments, while drawing inferences on the design of sustainable and successful innovations. Our research indicates that the Adventure Learning experience over the two-year period was dynamic, participatory, engaging, collaborative, and social. Students eagerly became part of the experience both inside and outside of the classroom, and it quickly became apparent that they saw themselves as valued members of the unfolding storyline that mediated their learning. Our recommendations for future research and practice include a call to evaluate "authenticity," focus on the learner experience and narrative, and consider the interplay between pedagogy, technology, and design.</span>


Author(s):  
Clemente Quinones

The purpose of this chapter is to analyze the possible factors that determined a relatively relaxed process of transforming the author's two courses into i-courses. The argument is that some GGC's institutional mechanisms smoothed the process. To support the argument, the chapter first introduces a conceptual framework, followed by the presentation of other scholars' findings on factors of internationalization of the curriculum. The introduction of GGC's process approach to internationalization and the author's intrinsic motivation were the major institutional arrangements and natural factors, respectively, that explain the relatively relaxed process of transforming the author's two courses into i-courses. The chapter concludes with a description of venues for future research and some student evaluations of the two i-courses.


2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Belinda Mendelowitz

This study explores how collaborative writing for a digital platform can enable students to (re) imagine audience. Although in the context of process writing peer feedback is foreground, in practice, its effectiveness is uneven. The digital revolution offers new opportunities for alternative peer feedback through collaborative writing and re-imagining self and other in the process. This study examines data from a creative writing course in which pre-service teachers wrote collaborative short stories for the FunDza digital site and individual reflective essays about the process. The study’s research questions are the following: (1) what were the affordances of this multilayered audience for engaging the students’ imaginations? (2) How did this process of (re)imagining audience impact on students’ conceptions of themselves as writers? The data set comprised 16 collaboratively authored stories (published on the site) and 34 individual reflective essays. Six of the latter were selected for detailed analysis. Hence, the data for this study encompass detailed analysis of two groups’ reflective essays on the process of writing their stories. These groups were selected because they exemplified contrasting collaborative, imaginative writing processes. Group 1 was familiar with the FunDza audience and context, while Group 2 struggled to imagine it. Thematic content analysis was used for analysis. Each essay was read first in relation to the entire data set, then in relation to the other reflections in the author’s group. The combination of gearing stories towards the FunDza audience and writing stories collaboratively created two sets of audiences that writers needed to hold in mind simultaneously. Analysis indicates that both audiences challenged students to make imaginative leaps into the minds of an unfamiliar audience, deepening their understanding of the writing process. It also highlights students’ mastery of writing discourses and increasing awareness of the choices authors make for specific audiences. Theoretically, this study theorises audience in relation to imagination. A number of concepts have emerged from this research that may enable a more fine-tuned analysis of the audience – imagination nexus. Structured freedom is an important thread that connects the central concepts of audience, imagination and collaboration, foregrounding the idea that imaginative freedom needs to be understood and worked with in nuanced ways. While freedom and imagination are closely related, the provision of free pedagogic spaces with specific constraints in creative writing courses can be extremely productive, as illustrated by the data analysed in this study.


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