Coventry University: E-Journals
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'Aargh! This Essay Makes Me Want to Poke Sticks in My Eyes!' Developing a Reader Engagement Framework to Help Emerging Writers Understand Why Readers Might (Not) Want to Read Texts
Get PDFThis paper outlines the development of the “Reader Engagement framework”, a tool for helping emerging writers understand what might keep readers reading – or stop readers from reading – a text. The Reader Engagement framework has been under development for the past five years, primarily in the context of undergraduate English proficiency classes at a large university in Flanders. Using the principles of constructivist grounded theory (Charmaz 2014), a preliminary framework was sketched using as data the margin comments of one reader who noted points of engagement or disengagement while reading student texts. Additional rounds of data collection included the engagement perceptions of student-readers, as well as those of teacher-readers from various disciplines. Thus far 1087 readers have been consulted, and the categories in the framework seem to be largely saturated. Though further refinement is necessary, the framework has been found successful as a teaching tool, and as an assessment and feedback tool. It also seems to have potential for offering writers a new way of conceptualising writing
Writing a Master’s Dissertation – Students’ Perspectives
Get PDFStudents are expected to write complex text genres in higher education contexts. Such complexity stems not only from the nature of the knowledge they convey but also from the norms and conventions adopted by the academic communities that use such texts. Among those genres, the dissertation seems particularly complex, considering both the set of problems related to its configuration (structure, language, norms of reference), and the factors that constrain its production (methodological procedures, student/supervisor relationship, time management, institutional constraints, individual nature of the writing process). The present study seeks to identify and analyze (i) students’ perspectives and representations of the dissertation writing process, and (ii) the problems that arise in the writing process. It is based on semi-structured interviews with students, at three different universities in the North of Portugal, who recently completed their dissertations in Humanities, Education and Engineering. The analysis is based on the assumption that writing a dissertation involves not only cognitive, linguistic and social dimensions, but also emotional aspects that can condition it decisively
Academic Writing as Embedded Skills Acquisition for Transition to Higher Education: An Example from a UK University Classics Department
Get PDFThis paper presents an intervention that was created in a United Kingdom university Classics department where approximately 60% of undergraduate students came from diverse educational backgrounds to study classical Greco-Roman culture, but had not studied it before at school/college. To equip these more than usually diverse ‘transition’ students with a skills base to aid both their academic progress and future employability, a team-taught mandatory module was designed for first term, first-year undergraduates, which embedded two workshops and an assessment exercise on academic writing with eight workshops on other skills, most of which are both discipline-specific and ‘transferable’. The in-term assessments tested understanding of the skills taught, while a final exercise required students to reflect on their longer learning process over the term, evaluating development in their academic writing in the context of other discipline-specific skills. This module serves as a model for adoption both within academic departments and also at an institutional level for early stage academic writing training in a subject-related context, which can serve as a first step on a longer ladder of skills acquisition over the degree for enhancing both academic success and employability awareness
Writing and Risk: Magic, Occult, Exorcisms
Get PDFWhat does it mean to take a risk when I write? Can I? Should I? The idea of risk has preoccupied a number of scholars recently, including those interested in discourse, writing and education (e.g. McWilliam 2009 and Thesen and Cooper 2014). This paper attempts to trace a concept of risk in academic writing, by asking questions about what “belongs” in academic texts and making use of bodies of knowledge that seem to be beyond the pale of academic discourse – magic, the occult, exorcisms. By thinking of risk as a side-effect of genres and traditions, I use the language of magic and the occult as a device to apprehend what academic reading cannot usually perceive, when there may be more in a text than academic reading can deal with. I draw examples from three inventive academic writers (Mary Scott, Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi and Nick Sousanis) to think about the benefits and consequences of risk in academic writing, and the limits of what Karen Bennett (2007) calls English Academic Discourse (EAD). I argue for a kind of writing that might, in the words of Jacques Derrida, anticipate the future ‘in the form of an absolute danger’ (1997: 5)
Raising Attainment With Diverse Students: An Inclusive Approach to the Teaching of Academic Literacy
Get PDFThis research aims to evaluate the impact of an inclusive writing approach, which strives to embed academic literacy into subject curriculum, an initiative that ran across schools at a UK-based post-1992 university in 2015-16. As an exploratory investigation, this research drew on a redesigned social science transitional module, where academic writing provision is closely in line with the subject content and assessments. This project explores student perceptions and experiences of the embedded writing provision and the extent to which the intervention contributed to student attainment. Data were drawn from focus group discussions, where 41 students participated, and from student grades for the comparison of attainment rates across 2014-15 and 2015-16. The focus groups were analysed using NVivo 11 to identify key themes in relation to student views of the embedded academic literacy provision. Student grades were explored using MS Excel for the relative progress across academic years. The findings reveal the positive impact of the provision on students’ attainment and confidence as learners and writers in higher education. This paper concludes with pedagogical implications and a discussion of potential areas for further research to investigate the diversification of support modes as to accommodate different learning styles of students
Are There Threshold Concepts Associated with Learning to Become ‘Interprofessional’ and What Are the Implications for Exploring Practice-Based Learning?
Get PDFNewly graduating health and social care professionals are expected to be able to work in ways that exemplify being interprofessional, that is, learning and working with others with an aim to improve collaboration and the quality of care. The threshold concepts framework (TCF) offers an approach to explore how to support students’ learning in relation to those elements of professional working. In particular, the TCF places focus on understanding how students navigate gateways or threshold concepts (TCs), which are viewed as learning experiences resulting in a transformed view of a discipline and of self: a transformation that is essential to development as a professional. This discussion piece draws upon a growing body of literature (grey literature, empirical, and theoretical work) to propose that there are TCs associated with learning to become interprofessional; for example, respect for interprofessional partnerships and person centred care. Building on the analysis of that work and the literature associated with interprofessional education, the discussion moves to consider how practice-based placements may be particularly rich sites for further exploration of becoming ‘interprofessional’ using the TCF
Threshold Concepts, Action Poetry and the Health Professions: An Interview with Ray Land
Get PDFNote: Hilary Neve and Linda Martindale, members of the editorial team for this special Issue of the International Journal of Practice-based Learning in Health and Social Care, undertook this interview with Ray Land in June 2018. The interview was transcribed verbatim and subsequently edited for publication. In this, Ray Land considers the impact of threshold concepts generally as well as key implications for the healthcare education and practice
‘We would be well advised to agree on our own basic principles’: Schreiben as an Agent of Discipline-Building in Writing Studies in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and Liechtenstein
Get PDFAlthough writing centers in Germany are among the oldest and fastest growing outside of North America, scholarship produced within them remains largely unknown outside national borders due to challenges inherent in translingual research. This article helps remedy this gap by rendering accessible debates in ‘writing studies’ (‘Schreibwissenschaft’) in German-speaking countries, where a number of projects are underway to define the field at this moment of its maturation. By focusing on one such initiative in Germany, Stephanie Dreyfürst and Nadja Sennewald’s edited collection Schreiben: Grundlagentexte zur Theorie, Didaktik und Beratung (Writing: Foundational Texts on Theory, Pedagogy, and Consultations) (2014), I use the monograph as a case study for investigating larger scholarly conversations about the state of writing studies in the region. In doing so, I propose a new genre for transnational research—the translingual review. More thickly descriptive than the book review, the translingual review situates the edited or authored monograph within local disciplinary and institutional contexts. This particular translingual review adopts a comparative framework, examining how German-language scholarship extends Anglo-American research in innovative ways, particularly in its uses of writing process research
Continuum of Care in Speech-Language Pathology Student Placements: Identifying Key Learning Themes
Get PDFDespite growing evidence in favour of longitudinal integrated clerkships (LICs) for medical student placements, allied health student placements continue to address single caseload types, often representing one stage of the patient journey. This study explored perceptions of speech-language pathology (SLP) students in a continuum of care placement in Australia, following the patient journey of stroke survivors from acute admission to rehabilitation. Four pairs of students participated in 24-day continuum of care placements. Student clinical competence was assessed in the usual way using the COMPASS® tool to ascertain if students achieved required levels of competency and were not disadvantaged by the new placement structure. Student satisfaction was assessed with a 5-point Likert scale. Learning outcomes were explored in individual semi-structured interviews at conclusion of placement. Thematic analysis was undertaken on interview transcripts to identify key themes from interviews. All students achieved entry-level competency upon completion of their placement. Positive learning outcomes reported included improvement in understanding of the post-stroke journey, broadened clinical knowledge, improved adaptability to different clinical settings, and awareness of and ability to deliver patient-centred care. As a result of this placement model, students reported developing an increased sense of their professional role and responsibility in advocacy for the patient. It is recommended that continuum of care placements be considered as an alternative placement experience structure in hospital settings to enhance student learning of the patient journey