scholarly journals Investigating Indonesian Master's Students’ Perception of Critical Thinking in Academic Writing in a British University

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Millatul Islamiyah ◽  
Muchamad Sholakhuddin Al Fajri
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Educational Background ◽  
University Graduates ◽  
Educational Context ◽  
Master's Students ◽  
Writing Practices ◽  
Writing Instructions ◽  
The University ◽  
Experience Difficulty

Critical thinking is generally valued as expected outcomes of university graduates although the concept of it is controversial. Students are required to display it in academic writing which is the default of university assessment. However, international students from “non-Western” backgrounds in particular, frequently experience difficulty in demonstrating critical expression in their written texts. The current study, in the light of interviews with four Indonesian master’s students, therefore, aims at investigating their perception of critical thinking, exposing some factors perceived to be influencing the application of critical thinking in academic writing, and exploring their development of critical thinking. The results of the analysis reveal that although they were raised and educated in different cultural and educational context, they have a sufficient understanding of the concept and passionately engage with critical thinking. The findings also show that despite the influence of culture and educational background on their writing style, the participant have ability to adequately adapt to a new discourse. The challenges they faced include a lack of evaluation and synthesis skills, structuring ideas, and grammatical problems. The study suggests the need for the university and tutors to evaluate their writing instructions to focus more on providing writing practices and review the custom of conventional form of essay to accommodate more a range of divers yet unique expression.

Academic Integrity

2017 ◽  
pp. 306-326
Author(s):  
Mingsheng Li
Keyword(s):  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Academic Dishonesty ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Academic Integrity ◽  
Group Discussion ◽  
University Graduates ◽  
Situational Variables ◽  
Student Plagiarism ◽  
Language Writing ◽  
The University

Student plagiarism is a pervasive issue at all levels of study in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) around the world. Plagiarism is considered as a cultural phenomenon and students from certain cultures are often stereotyped as ‘persistent plagiarists'. This chapter reports the findings of a research project and examines the issues of academic dishonesty reported by Chinese students in New Zealand universities. Four lecturers and six university graduates participated in the interviews and the focus group discussion. The study has identified seven forms of disguised plagiarism deriving from four interrelated variables: inadequate language proficiency, lack of discipline knowledge and conventions, issues of assessment, and situational variables. The university is morally responsible to teach the students the concept of Academic Integrity (AI) and plagiarism, discipline conventions and rules of games in academic writing, and develop their language, writing, and research skills to help them avoid the traps of plagiarism.

scholarly journals Students’ Perspectives on Academic Writing in European Higher Education (Based on 2019 Erasmus Teaching Experience in Slovak and Hungarian University)

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 87-102
Author(s):  
Olena Hundarenko ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
English Language ◽  
Teaching Experience ◽  
English Language Acquisition ◽  
Writing Assignments ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
European Universities ◽  
Writing Instructions ◽  
English Academic Writing ◽  
The University

Although studies on the approaches and methods of teaching Academic Writing in university classroom are extensive, comparative studies on students’ evaluation of the classroom strategies and techniques applied are still scant. Therefore, this research implies a quantitative study based on comparative analysis of Slovak and Hungarian EFL learners’ responses on a special questionnaire in English Academic Writing. The objective of the study was to explore senior university students’ attitude to the academic writing tasks, specificity of a writing program at the university, its advantages and disadvantages; to evaluate their own writing abilities and provide recommendations concerning feedback and writing instructions in class along with the ways of their improvement. It accords to the area of study on effective writing assignments, techniques and methods involved in everyday practice in Central European universities, which can make academic writing both a productive and joyful tool in English language acquisition process.

scholarly journals Educational Turning Point in Albania: No More Mechanic Parrots but Critical Thinkers

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 117
Author(s):  
Mirela Dubali Alhasani
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
University Graduates ◽  
Educational Transformation ◽  
Critical Writing ◽  
Writing Courses ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Shed Light

<p>Since 2004 Albanian academics have been making efforts to establish the best Western practices of academic writing associated with critical thinking and writing skills for university students. In this article, I will shed light upon the special challenges and peculiarities the establishment of Academic Writing discipline has encountered in Albania over the years of educational transformation in the broad framework of democratic political transition. I argue that the socio-political indoctrination of the society during five decades of communist dictatorship has delayed the cultivation of critical thinking, reading and, consequently, critical writing skills for academic and occupational opportunities. Moreover, the research will not be limited only to causal factors of delay, instead, it will pave the way to recommendations that accelerate the successful acquisition and possession of such crucial academic writing skills for Albanian university graduates and academia in general.</p><p>First, I provide literature on definition of critical thinking and its improvement through writing courses; next I depict the typical political indoctrination of students during communist dictatorship tracing the legacy of mechanic reading and the huge lack of critical discourse even among the academic staffs themselves; later on I discuss the contemporary academic focus being placed upon the need of critical academic writing to prepare independent thinkers successful to face the democratic transition. Finally, and most importantly, I offer substantial suggestions and recommendations how to implement successfully the Western Academic writing tradition in the higher education curricula by taking into consideration Albania’s educational legacy.</p>

scholarly journals Writing Instructions at a University and Identity Issues: A Systemic Functional Linguistics Perspective

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (06) ◽  
pp. 275
Author(s):  
Nagina Kanwal ◽  
Samina Amin Qadir ◽  
Kamran Shaukat
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Systemic Functional Linguistics ◽  
Linguistic Analysis ◽  
Academic Community ◽  
Functional Linguistics ◽  
Institutional Goals ◽  
Academic Texts ◽  
Writing Instructions ◽  
The University

In this paper, we explore the discoursal identity in the academic writing of a postgraduate student from the University of Pakistan where English is the medium of instruction as well as taught as a foreign language. The study aims to find out the extent and the specific ways dominant conventions and practices enable and constrain meaning-making. It also helps to identify the role of social and institutional goals in shaping the discoursal identity of students. To achieve our objectives, we have conducted a linguistic analysis of the student’s academic texts by using Systemic Functional Linguistics. The findings from the linguistic analysis of academic texts are quite significant because the lexico-grammatical and discoursal choices in the academic texts reflect their writer’s desired disposition and their orientation within academia and their socio-cultural setting. Thus they reveal the writer’s discoursal identity and his positioning and affiliation with the academic community. The findings of the study provide significant implications for the reconceptualization of writing instructions at universities, also they point to the need to employ emerging technologies in the writing instructions program while not ignoring the students’ identity issues.

scholarly journals Academic writing in higher education: focusing on courses of graduate programs of a public Brazilian university

2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 577
Author(s):  
Carlla Dall’Igna ◽  
Maria Ester Wollstein Moritz
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Graduate Program ◽  
Graduate Programs ◽  
New Literacy ◽  
New Literacy Studies ◽  
Academic Context ◽  
Writing Practices ◽  
Content Organization ◽  
The University

In the last twenty years researchers have been concerned with the development of higher education students writing literacy (CRISTOVÃO; VIEIRA, 2016; BAZERMAN; MORITZ, 2016). Approaches based on the new literacy studies (LEA; STREET, 1998) recognize the need to learn specific forms of acting in the academic context to successfully participate in such sphere. Considering the importance of academic writing in higher education, this research aims at investigating how academic writing literacy is approached in sixteen graduate programs at a public Brazilian university. One quarter of the university graduate programs were explored as a manner to find courses dealing with academic writing and the content organization of their course plans. Results showed that only fifty percent of the programs investigated offer courses on academic writing and each graduate program approaches academic writing literacy differently. It seems that writing practices in the academic context investigated are still not considered a major issue.

scholarly journals TEACHING ACADEMIC WRITING IN ENGLISH TO STUDENTS OF ECONOMICS THROUGH CONCEPTUAL METAPHORS

2022 ◽  
pp. 587
Author(s):  
Tatiana Utkina
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Conceptual Metaphor ◽  
Economic Knowledge ◽  
Conceptual Metaphors ◽  
Knowledge Domains ◽  
Writing Practices ◽  
Metaphor Theory ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
The University ◽  
Writing Competence

The article addresses EFL students’ academic writing competence by fostering and evaluating their writing practices through conceptual metaphors. The research dataset comprised 102 Russian students majoring in economics. The students received the instruction based on the framework of the Conceptual Metaphor Theory during their EAP, ESP and EMI courses in economics. Metaphor Identification Procedure VU University Amsterdam (MIPVU) and the method of metaphoric modeling were used to assess EFL writing competence in economic knowledge domains – knowledge of terms and specific concepts, represented as conceptual metaphors. The statistical analysis did not show significant changes in the writing competence level of students when their EAP and ESP writing was compared. However, statistical differences were revealed in the use of metaphors when the students progressed from their EAP to EMI course and from their ESP to EMI course. The qualitative analysis demonstrated main differences within the conceptual metaphor domains in ESP and EMI writing. On the whole, the results reported here suggest the dynamics of FL writing competence of the Russian students specializing in economics when attending an EAP course, an ESP course and an EMI course in economics at the university.

scholarly journals Writing Groups as Dialogic Spaces

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Kathrin Kaufhold ◽  
Daniel Egil Yencken
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Writing Groups ◽  
Master's Students ◽  
Writing Group ◽  
Writing Practices ◽  
Student Talk

Facilitating sustained dialogic engagement in writing groups to support postgraduates’ research-based writing can be challenging. So far there is little research on dialogic strategies in such groups. Studies of tutor-student talk around texts highlight that different dialogic strategies can invite or exclude contributions. This article investigates how writing group participants negotiate different perspectives on academic writing practices in a multidisciplinary writing group. The study analyses six recorded meetings of multilingual master’s students writing in English at a Swedish university. It identifies dialogue patterns with diverging or converging perspectives, where students refer to a range of universal or discipline-specific norms. Reference to a generic yet unspecific norm creates a space for sharing diverging perspectives while reflecting on ones’ own writing. Applying perceived universal norms to others’ texts can close down dialogue. Awareness of dialogue patterns can help facilitators to decide when to step back and when to step in as moderators.

Academic Integrity

2019 ◽  
pp. 582-601
Author(s):  
Mingsheng Li
Keyword(s):  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Academic Dishonesty ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Academic Integrity ◽  
Group Discussion ◽  
University Graduates ◽  
Situational Variables ◽  
Student Plagiarism ◽  
Language Writing ◽  
The University

Student plagiarism is a pervasive issue at all levels of study in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) around the world. Plagiarism is considered as a cultural phenomenon and students from certain cultures are often stereotyped as ‘persistent plagiarists'. This chapter reports the findings of a research project and examines the issues of academic dishonesty reported by Chinese students in New Zealand universities. Four lecturers and six university graduates participated in the interviews and the focus group discussion. The study has identified seven forms of disguised plagiarism deriving from four interrelated variables: inadequate language proficiency, lack of discipline knowledge and conventions, issues of assessment, and situational variables. The university is morally responsible to teach the students the concept of Academic Integrity (AI) and plagiarism, discipline conventions and rules of games in academic writing, and develop their language, writing, and research skills to help them avoid the traps of plagiarism.

scholarly journals Academic Reading and Writing Challenges Among International EFL Master’s Students in a Malaysian University

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 972-992
Author(s):  
Manjet Kaur Mehar Singh
Keyword(s):  
Academic Success ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
English Language ◽  
Graduate Programs ◽  
Reading Practices ◽  
Master's Students ◽  
Reading And Writing ◽  
Academic Reading ◽  
Writing Practices ◽  
Policies And Programs

Focusing on the perspective of lecturers, this qualitative research investigated the academic reading and writing challenges faced by international English-as-a-foreign-language master’s students at a Malaysian university. Data was collected through semi-structured, in-depth, one-on-one interviews with 16 lecturers who taught international students from various graduate programs. The findings from the lecturers’ perspectives indicate that the students faced acute challenges in their academic reading and writing practices such as adhering to academic writing conventions and interpreting text in an English language instructional setting. This study suggests policies and programs to overcome the challenges of the international EFL students’ academic writing and reading practices to ensure their academic success in as they learn in graduate programs.

Wikipedia Practices, Quick Facts, and Plagiarism in Higher Education

2020 ◽  
pp. 199-221
Author(s):  
Christophe Emmanuel Premat
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Learning Strategies ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Academic Context ◽  
Detection Systems ◽  
Sensitive Issue ◽  
Efficient Detection ◽  
The University

Plagiarism has been a sensitive issue in higher education in Sweden, as many cases were reported during the last years. It depends partly on resources that are devoted to have efficient detection systems, but it is deeply related to how students are prepared for academic exercises. Many freshmen and sophomores are not familiar with academic requirements and can get used to plagiarizing instead of developing critical thinking. The first step in academic writing is to present guidelines to search relevant sources. The chapter is based on an experimentation on sources made at the University of Stockholm with students enrolled in a course in “Culture and Society in France.” By inviting students to work with second hand sources such as Wikipedia and evaluate their validity, it is possible to analyze their learning strategies. The result of the study shows a paradox: if students acknowledge that Wikipedia sources are inappropriate in an academic context, they confirm that they use these sources to have access to other references. A reflection on the quick access to sources is then necessary.

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