Revising canons of writing skills development in the academic setting: Towards a synergy of teacher and student creative effort

Abstract

It is stipulated that the model of writing typically implemented in the academic context, with its traditional delineation of the respective roles of teacher as expert and student as imitator, demonstrates considerable limitations. Advocated in the article is its replacement through a paradigm of instruction which shifts its emphasis from the presentation of writing forms, genres and conventions of writing, and the evaluation of students’ texts with reference to the input models, to the teacher’s assistance, mediation and co-authorship in the students’ writing process. In this model, the aims of instruction go beyond the solitary pursuit of academic excellence to tap into learner creativity in a dynamic interactive classwork environment which acts as a stimulus to their individual composing and editing endeavours. Two pedagogic instruments underpin the model: the first is the student-executed Portfolio, comprising records of writing in the form of drafts and re-drafts, and the teacher’s interventions in and feedback on them; the second - the teacher-developed Class File, chronicling significant classroom activities and students’ written or spoken contributions, made available to the students after the lessons and serving as a link between the texts which have been generated and those which are still in the making.