Across the Disciplines最新文献

{"title":"Designing High-Impact \"Writing-to-Learn\" Math Assignments for Killer Courses.","authors":"Cristyn L. Elder, Karen Champine","doi":"10.37514/ATD-J.2016.13.4.16","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.37514/ATD-J.2016.13.4.16","url":null,"abstract":"The body of literature on a Writing-to-Learn (WTL) approach in math courses offers up a variety of assignment types from which to choose. However, few of these articles provide empirical evidence on the ways these writing assignments contribute to students' learning. This mixed-methods study, conducted at the University of New Mexico, a Hispanic-Serving Institution, examines the effect of WTL assignments on students' success in two \"killer courses\": a Survey of Math class for non-STEM majors and a Calculus I class for STEM majors. While the quantitative results did not prove statistically significant, the qualitative results suggest that high-impact assignments are those that ask students to focus on procedural knowledge, or analyzing the process, rather than simply solving for the right answer. At the start of the 2013 academic year, the University of New Mexico (UNM), a \"very high research\" Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI), published internally a list of undergraduate \"killer courses\" offered in the fall 2012 semester. These killer courses, which often serve as the \"gateway\" to the major in that subject, are known, as the moniker suggests, to \"'kill' a student's GPA, motivation, academic progress, scholarship eligibility and interest in remaining in college\" (Barefoot, 2013). The anecdotal causes for these effects include students' lack of academic preparation in a subject (especially mathematics), a lack of placement procedures for a class, (large) class size, and a lack of early feedback to students (Barefoot, 2013). At UNM, the \"killer course\" designation was given to those aggregated sections of a particular course with a total fail rate of 20% or higher, where failing is a grade of Cor below. Seventy-nine courses at UNM made the list in fall 2012, with STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) courses making up 33% of these. Among the killer STEM courses, 42% were math classes (or 11% of all killer courses). Students' difficulty in the STEM courses at UNM reflects a larger trend as seen in the nationwide attrition of STEM students (see Chen & Soldner, 2014). Of particular concern is the high dropout rate or switching out of STEM majors by women and minority students, as illustrated in the 2010 U.S. Commission on Civil Rights briefing report \"Encouraging Minority Students to Pursue Science, Technology, Engineering and Math Careers\".[1] Recently Cristyn had co-developed a new first-year Stretch/Studio composition curriculum[2] that focused on providing students with additional in-class support on their writing assignments. The new curriculum resulted in the elimination of \"remedial\" writing courses at UNM and increased student pass rates that exceed those of the traditional composition courses offered. Following this experience, Cristyn became interested in the possible intersectionality between \"killer courses,\" as a framework for identifying courses where students could use more support, and writing, as a tool for increasing stud","PeriodicalId":201634,"journal":{"name":"Across the Disciplines","volume":"540 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-12-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124263887","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Writing-related Attitudes of L1 and L2 Students Who Receive Help from Writing Fellows","authors":"M. Gallagher, C. Galindo, Sarah J. Shin","doi":"10.13016/M22W0O-65YF","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.13016/M22W0O-65YF","url":null,"abstract":"This study examines the writing-related attitudes of L1 and L2 students who receive individual discipline-based writing help from Writing Fellows. It investigates changes in the students' attitudes toward writing through a survey administered at the beginning and end of the semester in which the students worked with their Writing Fellows. Four-hundred-ninety-six (496) students in 23 writing-intensive classes completed the survey at the beginning of the semester, and a smaller subset of these students (363) completed the survey at the end of the semester. In comparison to L1 and monolingual English writers, L2 English and multilingual writers started the semester with more positive writing-related attitudes and were more likely to engage in constructive writing behaviors. In addition, while students from all language groups showed improvement in their writing-related attitudes over the semester, L2 and multilingual writers had significantly greater gains, even after controlling for their more efficacious start. These results suggest that, while Writing Fellows may benefit all students, the program may be particularly effective for L2 and multilingual writers.[1]","PeriodicalId":201634,"journal":{"name":"Across the Disciplines","volume":"51 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-08-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115782164","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Engaging Sources through Reading-Writing Connections across the Disciplines.","authors":"Ellen C. Carillo","doi":"10.37514/ATD-J.2016.13.2.06","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.37514/ATD-J.2016.13.2.06","url":null,"abstract":"This essay argues that what might otherwise be considered \"plagiarism\" in student writing is a symptom of the difficulties students encounter in their reading and writing, moments in which students' inabilities to critically assess, read, and respond to sources through the act of writing come to the surface. Expanding the context within which we discuss plagiarism by looking at how poor reading skills contribute to students' misuse of sources, this essay underscores the importance of focusing on reading-writing connections as a means to preparing students in all disciplines to engage more productively with sources. Ultimately, this essay details campus-wide, curricular, and pedagogical interventions that support this work.","PeriodicalId":201634,"journal":{"name":"Across the Disciplines","volume":"12 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127112771","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Towards an Integrated Graduate Student (Training Program)","authors":"E. Shapiro","doi":"10.37514/atd-b.2020.0407.2.05","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.37514/atd-b.2020.0407.2.05","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter argues that teaching writing helps graduate students become better writers. Every year, more than 100 graduate students from more than 30 departments participate in one of two required six-week training courses offered through Cornell’s John S. Knight Institute for Writing in the Disciplines. This chapter describes specific features of the training curricula that help graduate students learn to write as academic professionals. Primary source material is drawn from graduate writing produced for course evaluations, assignments, or in response to surveys sent to current and former graduate students. Graduate student observations that figure prominently in this article include a focus on writing process, the connection between teaching writing and learning writing, the value of reflection, and the efficacy of building communities where writers read each other’s work.","PeriodicalId":201634,"journal":{"name":"Across the Disciplines","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-08-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127383816","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Camping in the Disciplines: Assessing the Effect of Writing Camps on Graduate Student Writers","authors":"Gretchen Busl, K. Donnelly, Matthew Capdevielle","doi":"10.37514/atd-b.2020.0407.2.10","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.37514/atd-b.2020.0407.2.10","url":null,"abstract":"In the past ten years, an increasing number of universities have begun organizing writing \"camps,\" or full-week immersion experiences, in an effort to address the increased need to support graduate student writing. Outside of anecdotes and testimonials, we have previously had very little data about these camps' success. This study, conducted over the course of three such camps, attempts to address this lack by measuring graduate student writing confidence levels and self-regulation efforts both before and after attendance. An analysis of our results suggests that writing camps that include process-oriented programming result in small but meaningful improvements in attitudes and behaviors that positively affect graduate student writing. Introduction As this special issue attests, over the last decade our field has seen an increase in the attention given to the unique writing challenges facing graduate students. Also within the last ten years, but not necessarily keeping step with emerging research into graduate writing challenges, we have seen graduate schools devoting more resources to supporting graduate students as writers, supplementing departmental training with interdisciplinary instruction and support. One significant innovation is the writing camp, a full-week immersion experience modeled on the \"Dissertation Boot Camp\" that began at the University of Pennsylvania in 2005 (Lee and Golde, 2013). Many schools across the country offer similar camps, often run by partnerships of graduate schools, writing centers, libraries, and other support units. Camp participants and administrators are generally positive about these writing immersion experiences, and there is extensive anecdotal evidence of these camps' positive results. However, with a few notable exceptions (Simpson, 2013), we have very little data about the success of these camps outside of anecdotes and testimonials. Still less is known about how these camps affect writers over the long term and whether their impact varies across the disciplines. This is partly because, in spite of the growing body of research into graduate student writing, we still lack sufficient data on the behaviors and attitudes of graduate student writers in general and on how these behaviors and attitudes typically differ across disciplines. This paper adds to the discussion of graduate student writing support by offering a report on ongoing research into the shortand long-term impact of writing camps. Our emerging results highlight important design considerations for the construction of effective graduate writing camps. This article begins with an overview of research on graduate student writing camps and the positive attitudes and behaviors about writing that we teach in our camps. We articulate our hypothesis that instruction regarding these behaviors and attitudes will make students more confident and better able to manage their writing process. In the following section, we describe the camps we hold and the ","PeriodicalId":201634,"journal":{"name":"Across the Disciplines","volume":"19 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-08-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132258848","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Developing an English for Academic Purposes Course for L2 Graduate Students in the Sciences","authors":"Jennifer Douglas","doi":"10.37514/atd-b.2020.0407.2.03","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.37514/atd-b.2020.0407.2.03","url":null,"abstract":"Graduate students face a fundamental change in identity when transitioning from undergraduate writers to graduate writers. In their new role as graduate writers and researchers, they must move from consuming knowledge to producing knowledge through their writing. Often, they must learn new genres of writing, new disciplinary conventions, and new rhetorical models. For non-native English speakers, these tasks are even more complex because of the advanced language skills required and the cultural differences in rhetorical models. This article explains teaching strategies for an interdisciplinary, graduate-level scientific writing course for non-native English speakers. For Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) instructors who are accustomed to general undergraduate writing, this article will offer suggestions for scientific writing at the graduate level. For composition instructors who do not specialize in TESOL, this article provides ways of adapting graduate-level scientific writing conventions to an audience of international students.","PeriodicalId":201634,"journal":{"name":"Across the Disciplines","volume":"48 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-08-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122169008","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"\"Reading to Write\" in East Asian Studies.","authors":"Leora Freedman","doi":"10.37514/atd-b.2017.0001.2.09","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.37514/atd-b.2017.0001.2.09","url":null,"abstract":"A reading-writing initiative called “Reading to Write” began in 2011‒12 at the University of Toronto as a partnership between an East Asian Studies (EAS) department and an English Language Learning (ELL) Program. In this institution, students are expected to enter into scholarly discussions in their first year essays, yet many (both native English speakers and nonnative speakers) did not seem to adequately comprehend or to complete the assigned reading. With a large number of multilingual students enrolled in its courses, EAS was seen as the ideal site to pilot integrated support for English language proficiency. Language-teaching methodology related to reading comprehension, vocabulary expansion, and academic writing was adapted to the disciplinary material and embedded in the curriculum of weekly tutorial (small group) sessions led by TAs. The initiative has resulted in a rapid development in TAs’ teaching ability as well as a rise in EAS department morale. Although a formal study has not been undertaken, the perception among TAs and faculty is that the quality of students’ reading and writing has also improved.","PeriodicalId":201634,"journal":{"name":"Across the Disciplines","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-12-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133344393","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"High Profile Football Players' Reading at a Research University: ACT Scores, Interview Responses, and Personal Preferences.","authors":"Martha A. Townsend","doi":"10.37514/atd-b.2017.0001.2.05","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.37514/atd-b.2017.0001.2.05","url":null,"abstract":"This qualitative case study examines the reading acumen of a cohort of 26 senior football players at a Mid-western public research university. Data related to three indices—ACT scores, interview responses, and personal preferences—were collected as part of a larger IRB-approved study aimed at determining the factors that led to the entire cohort graduating within their NCAA eligibility period. In general, the players’ interview responses and their preferences for recreational reading reveal more about their reading habits than do the ACT data. This feedback, coupled with objective ACT scores, portrays a rich, complex picture of scholarship athletes’ literate lives, a picture that defies easy explanation. Overall, the study suggests that college reading and writing instructors may want to reconsider the overwhelmingly negative stereotypes often held about high-profile athletes.","PeriodicalId":201634,"journal":{"name":"Across the Disciplines","volume":"108 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-12-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131517784","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Deconstructing Whiteliness in the Globalized Classroom.","authors":"Dae-joong Kim, Bobbi Olson","doi":"10.37514/atd-b.2016.0933.2.06","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.37514/atd-b.2016.0933.2.06","url":null,"abstract":": In this essay, we share our own experiences of enacting whiteliness and its effects for teaching in the globalized classroom. We engage in a dialogue to deconstruct our own whitely identities and consider the unearned authority imbued in this position, which left unchecked, reinscribes oppressive race relations in the globalized classroom.","PeriodicalId":201634,"journal":{"name":"Across the Disciplines","volume":"30 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-08-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115444236","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Making Commitments to Racial Justice Actionable","authors":"Rasha Diab, Thomas Ferrel, Beth Godbee, N. Simpkins","doi":"10.37514/atd-b.2016.0933.2.01","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.37514/atd-b.2016.0933.2.01","url":null,"abstract":"In this article, we articulate a framework for making our commitments to racial justice actionable, a framework that moves from narrating confessional accounts to articulating our commitments and then acting on them through both self-work and work-with-others, a dialectic possibility we identify and explore. We model a method for moving beyond originary confessional narratives and engage in dialogue with \"the willingness to be disturbed,\" (Wheatley, 2002) believing that disturbances are productive places from which we can more clearly articulate and act from our commitments. Drawing on our own experiences, we engage the political, systemic, and enduring nature of racism as we together chart an educational frame that counters the macro-logics of oppression enacted daily through micro-inequities. As we advocate for additional and ongoing considerations of the work of anti-racism in educational settings, we invite others to embrace, along with us, both the willingness to be disturbed and the attention to making commitments actionable. This article is inspired by conversations we've had about how our shared commitments to racial justice become manifest and actionable in our everyday lives. We have long been in conversation in overlapping groups of colleagues and friends about embodying transformative racial justice in our personal and professional lives. As the personal and professional so often blur, we collectively decided we'd document these reflections for this special issue of Across the Disciplines—that is, to share our articulations of commitment and our efforts to make commitments actionable. We hope to open dialogue and engage with others similarly involved in conversations with friends and colleagues and, in doing so, to emphasize the processual nature of the work. The unified voice that follows is a product of recursive, dialogic process that cannot be captured by the linear development or unfolding of the argument of this article, but which we hope you will see as part of the conversation—a step along the way. Our work hinges on dialectic thinking, which engages the necessary tension between the critique against racism and the critique for social and racial justice. Critique is differently defined but is always considered an essential condition to making change. Like Porter et al. (2000), \"[we] are not interested in simply reporting how evil institutions are; we think critique needs an action plan\" (p.613). Power structures and systems of oppression are not changed enough by critique alone, but can become more entrenched by each conversation, presentation, and article that reveals oppression (Kincaid, 2003). As The New London Group (2000/2002), Porter et al. (2000), and Kincaid (2000) all argue, change requires new stories, new ways of collaborating, and new ways of living. In other words, critique (in its many forms) should dovetail with opportunities to take action (also in its many forms). Alongside our conversations about critique aga","PeriodicalId":201634,"journal":{"name":"Across the Disciplines","volume":"32 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-08-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126030830","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}