“Transfer Talk” in Talk about Writing in Progress: Two Propositions about Transfer of Learning

This article tracks the emergence of the concept of “transfer talk”—a concept distinct from transfer of learning—and teases out the implications of transfer talk for theories of transfer of learning. The concept of transfer talk was developed through a systematic examination of 30 writing center transcripts and is defined as “the talk through which individuals make visible their prior learning (in this case, about writing) or try to access the prior learning of someone else.” In addition to including a taxonomy of transfer talk and analysis of which types occur most often in this set of conferences, this article advances two propositions about the nature of transfer of learning: (1) transfer of learning may have an important social, even collaborative, component and (2) although meta-awareness about writing has long been recognized as valuable for transfer of learning, more automatized knowledge may play an important role as well

Toward Explaining the Transformative Power of Talk About, Around, and for Writing

This article provides an initial approach for capturing moments of talk about, around, and for writing to explain why writing groups and writing conferences are so often considered “transformative” for the people involved. After describing the widespread and yet disparate transformations so often attributed to collaborative writing talk, I introduce applied conversation analysis (CA) as a method for getting at what is often difficult to identify, document, and explain: the intricacies of moments that underlie, if not directly account for, transformations. At the core of this article, I present a case study of a writer, Susan, and tutor, Kim, and analyze their talk and embodied interactions around writing. In particular, two sequences of their talk—the first an example of “troubles telling,” or attending to a reported trouble (Jefferson, 1981, 1984, 1988) and the second an enactment of humor that names asymmetrical power relations (Holmes, 2000)—illustrate the ways in which building affiliative relationships might allow for naming and poking fun at, if not restructuring, power relations. Further, self-reports from interview data indicate how the occasions of talk between Susan and Kim mark shifts in thinking about themselves, their writing, and their commitments—shifts that can be attributed to their relational, affiliative interactions and that provide supporting evidence for the transformative power of collaborative writing talk

Warren McCulloch and the British cyberneticians

Warren McCulloch was a significant influence on a number of British cyberneticians, as some British pioneers in this area were on him. He interacted regularly with most of the main figures on the British cybernetics scene, forming close friendships and collaborations with several, as well as mentoring others. Many of these interactions stemmed from a 1949 visit to London during which he gave the opening talk at the inaugural meeting of the Ratio Club, a gathering of brilliant, mainly young, British scientists working in areas related to cybernetics. This paper traces some of these relationships and interaction

Conversation with Anne Dix, 1992

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Equity Before "Equity": Catalytic Mentoring and Professional Development For An Openly Gay Writing Center Tutor

This essay is inspired by two of the questions from the editors’ CFP: 1. “What is the lived experience around graduate writing, especially for students from underserved populations?” 2. “What kinds of support do ‘graduate student writers’ from underserved populations need and want?” I confess to having put the words “graduate student writers” in scare quotes. That’s because I am writing about my own experiences as an openly gay graduate student who was, at times, under- and over-served by the academy. In this text, I discuss my work and professional identity formation as a writing center consultant at New York University (NYU) from 1986 to 1988. I will discuss how, at that particular urban writing center directed by Professor Lil Brannon, there was equity— “the quality of being fair and impartial” (Dictionary.com)—for this gay, out graduate student before the concept of “equity” was valued and long before it gained the compelling currency it holds in contemporary academe. I hope to show what the experience taught me and how it signified a transformation in my understanding of what it could mean to tutor other students and study student writing. This essay will be pointillist in approach. It will light on brief narratives of key events and move to a discussion of how these events influenced my work and sense of professional self. The following preamble is intended to offer some context for my early intellectual and professional development, as I experienced it.University Writing Cente

Ben Bernanke and the Zero Bound

From 2000 to 2003, when Ben Bernanke was a professor and then a Fed Governor, he wrote extensively about monetary policy at the zero bound on interest rates. He advocated aggressive stimulus policies, such as a money-financed tax cut and an inflation target of 3-4%. Yet, since U.S. interest rates hit zero in 2008, the Fed under Chairman Bernanke has taken more cautious actions. This paper asks when and why Bernanke changed his mind about zero-bound policy. The answer, at one level, is that he was influenced by analysis from the Fed staff that was presented at the FOMC meeting of June 2003. This answer raises another question: why did the staff’s views influence Bernanke so strongly? I seek answers to this question in the social psychology literature on group decision-making.

The Development of Sports Medicine in Twentieth-century Britain

Annotated and edited transcript of a Witness Seminar held on 29 June 2007. Introduction by Dr John Lloyd Parry, Institute of Sports and Exercise Medicine. First published by the Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at UCL, 2009. ©The Trustee of the Wellcome Trust, London, 2009. All volumes are freely available online at: www.history.qmul.ac.uk/research/modbiomed/wellcome_witnesses/Annotated and edited transcript of a Witness Seminar held on 29 June 2007. Introduction by Dr John Lloyd Parry, Institute of Sports and Exercise Medicine.Annotated and edited transcript of a Witness Seminar held on 29 June 2007. Introduction by Dr John Lloyd Parry, Institute of Sports and Exercise Medicine.Annotated and edited transcript of a Witness Seminar held on 29 June 2007. Introduction by Dr John Lloyd Parry, Institute of Sports and Exercise Medicine.Annotated and edited transcript of a Witness Seminar held on 29 June 2007. Introduction by Dr John Lloyd Parry, Institute of Sports and Exercise Medicine.Sports medicine has grown in importance and visibility in recent years, yet as a discipline it struggled to gain broad recognition within the medical profession from c.1952 until specialty status was granted in 2005. It has also been neglected by historians: we have little beyond the image of a coach with his ‘magic sponge’ as a cure for all injuries, although the late twentieth-century picture is of new specialists developing high-tech interventions for elite athletes. This Witness Seminar arose from the Wellcome Trust-funded project on ‘Sport and Medicine in Britain, 1920–2000’ at the University of Manchester and examined the establishment of a recognizably modern specialty. Chaired by Professor Domhnall MacAuley, topics addressed included the importance of the 1948 London Olympics; the first 4-minute mile; training and altitude physiology; the postwar institutionalization of sports medicine; the relationship between the different main bodies involved in sport and their aims; the changing practice of professionals including physiotherapists, etc.; the relationship of NHS and private sports medicine practitioners and insurance companies; and the key debates within the sports medicine community over the period. Contributors include: Sir Roger Bannister, Dr Malcolm Bottomley, Dr Ian Burney, Professor John Elfed Davies, Professor Charles Galasko, Dr Robin Harland, Dr Vanessa Heggie, Mr Barry Hill, Professor Michael Hobsley, Dr Michael Hutson, Professor Monty Losowsky, Professor Domhnall Macauley (chair), Mrs Rose Macdonald, Professor Donald Macleod, Professor Moira O’Brien, Dr Malcolm Read, Professor Peter Sperryn, Professor Harry Thomason, Dr Dan Tunstall Pedoe and Mrs Sally Williams. Reynolds L A, Tansey E M. (eds) (2009) The development of sports medicine in twentieth century Britain. Wellcome Witnesses to Twentieth Century Medicine, vol. 36. London: The Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at UCL. ISBN 978 085484 1219The Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at UCL is funded by the Wellcome Trust, which is a registered charity, no. 210183

The Market for Preclusion in Merger Litigation

The recent finding that corporate litigation involving Delaware companies very often takes place outside of Delaware has disturbed the long-settled understanding of how merger litigation works. With many, even most, cases being filed and ultimately resolved outside of Delaware, commentators warn that the trend is a threat to shareholders, to Delaware, and to the integrity of corporate law generally. Although the out-of-Delaware trend suggests that litigants are seeking to use the procedural rules of other jurisdictions to their advantage, we argue that the result need not threaten the interests of any of the stakeholders in deal litigation. We reframe the process of resolving merger litigation as a market for preclusion, in which plaintiffs seek to sell and defendants seek to buy an important element of transactional certainty. Moreover, this market has the potential to efficiently process and price shareholder complaints while also providing benefits to Delaware and to corporate law more generally. We are not blind to reality, however, and also address how a well-functioning market for preclusion can be distorted by the opportunistic conduct of plaintiffs’ and defense attorneys alike. Greater judicial oversight is necessary to preserve the benefits of this market while preventing the distortions brought on through opportunistic conduct. In order to make this a reality, however, judges in different courts must have a means of communicating and coordinating across state lines. We therefore offer a theory of horizontal comity in which judges build trust and cooperation through communication across jurisdictional boundaries. We use this theory to suggest a set of concrete policy proposals designed to provide for a more efficient market for preclusion

Facilitators' Perspectives on the Place of Offenders in Restorative Justice: a Grounded Theory Approach

This study sought to explore and develop a preliminary, yet substantive understanding of the ways in which the offender’s position within a Restorative Justice process is influenced and impacted by the wider system around them. In an RJ conference, a facilitator conducts a structured meeting between offenders, victims, and both supporters, to allow them to understand the consequences of an offence and decide how best to repair the harm. Little research has so far investigated the experience of getting to RJ conferences for offenders or considers how other participants may be positioning them within the wider system. The current study comprises fourteen semi-structured interviews with facilitators, managers, and offenders about their experiences with RJ conferences. Data was analysed using Constructivist Grounded Theory (Charmaz, 2014). A model was constructed which described the funnelling process of an offender moving towards or being excluded from attending a conference. Whether an offender made it to conference appeared to be most affected by an over-arching philosophy of victim-focus, the focus of the RJ system, the facilitators beliefs, the offenders’ motivations and relative powerlessness, and the victims’ motivations and perceived need for protection. Repairing harm is not easy in postmodern industrialized Western societies, even with the use of programmes designed to facilitate this. The findings of this study reveal just some of the difficulties with bringing in concepts of repair to a criminal justice system and a culture which is not necessarily used to focusing on community and restoration

Transcript of keynote speech, "Don't Lecture Me"

Keynote speech given by Donald Clark at “Into something rich and strange” – making sense of the sea-change, the 2010 Association for Learning Technology Conference in Nottingham, England. In the chair, Vanessa Pittard, Bect