Approaches to teaching writing

About the book: Student academic writing is at the heart of teaching and learning in higher education. Students are assessed largely by what they write, and need to learn both general academic conventions as well as disciplinary writing requirements in order to be successful in higher education. Teaching Academic Writing is a 'toolkit' designed to help higher education lecturers and tutors teach writing to their students. Containing a range of diverse teaching strategies, the book offers both practical activities to help students develop their writing abilities and guidelines to help lecturers and tutors think in more depth about the assessment tasks they set and the feedback they give to students. The authors explore a wide variety of text types, from essays and reflective diaries to research projects and laboratory reports. The book draws on recent research in the fields of academic literacy, second language learning, and linguistics. It is grounded in recent developments such as the increasing diversity of the student body, the use of the Internet, electronic tuition, and issues related to distance learning in an era of increasing globalisation. Written by experienced teachers of writing, language, and linguistics, Teaching Academic Writing will be of interest to anyone involved in teaching academic writing in higher education

A Model for Scaffolding Academic IELTS Writing Task 2: MMPIPE

The study uses the theory of scaffolding and ZPD (Vygotsky, 1978) as the guidelines to explain in what ways scaffolding can help the teacher to improve the EFL students’academic writing. To make it easier, the author formulates the scaffolding-based activity namely MMPIPE. It stands for Motivating, Modelling, Peer Brainstorming, Independent Writing, Peer Feedback, and Evaluation which are elaborated within theories of sociocultural framework. The model of MMPIPE scaffolding was used at the one-week Intensive Classes for IELTS Writing in Jakarta, Indonesia.The classes were for the EFL learners aged varied between 18 up to 28 years old coming from various backgrounds who want to continue studying at English speaking countries. The past results of applying the MMPIPE scaffolding writing have shown that the learners achieve the optimal Zone Proximal Development by successfully gaining the increased score band between 0.5 and 1.5 band scale. However, the MMPIPE model also has some limitations in ways that it may lead to the different results if the activity uses the different material sources. Furthermore, due to some considerations, it is only applicable to intermediate up to advanced level

A student-facing dashboard for supporting sensemaking about the brainstorm process at a multi-surface space

© 2017 Association for Computing Machinery. All rights reserved. We developed a student-facing dashboard tuned to support posthoc sensemaking in terms of participation and group effects in the context of collocated brainstorming. Grounding on foundations of small-group collaboration, open learner modelling and brainstorming at large interactive displays, we designed a set of models from behavioural data that can be visually presented to students. We validated the effectiveness of our dashboard in provoking group reflection by addressing two questions: (1) What do group members gain from studying measures of egalitarian contribution? and (2) What do group members gain from modelling how they sparked ideas off each other? We report on outcomes from a study with higher education students performing brainstorming. We present evidence from i) descriptive quantitative usage patterns; and ii) qualitative experiential descriptions reported by the students. We conclude the paper with a discussion that can be useful for the community in the design of collective reflection systems

Impacts of directed tutorial activities in computer conferencing: a case study

This paper describes a qualitative study of asynchronous electronic conferencing by three tutorial groups on the same postgraduate course (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages Worldwide), forming part of an MA in Applied Linguistics (via Distance Education) at the Open University, UK. The groups varied in the degree to which the tutor participated in the discussion and in whether the tutor's input took the form of responding to student posts or the setting of tasks to scaffold the learners' development of academic skills. It is argued that the least interventionist strategy in terms of tutor response and task-setting resulted in the least productive conference discussion in terms of both communicative interaction and academic development, while a more interventionist role by the tutor depended for its success on characteristics of the tutor input and the task set

Utilizing FM software in collaborative design-learning

In this paper, we describe a case study of computer-supported collaborative learning in design using OpenLearn FlashMeeting software, a video conferencing tool. This 6-week experiment, involving Open University students and staff, aimed at exploring the capabilities of FlashMeeting software to support several phases of the design process including formulating a design brief, discovering user requirements, setting design specifications, concept generation, design embodiment and implementation of proposed concepts. We conclude this paper with lessons learned from using FlashMeeting in a design e-learning project

Utilising Flash Meeting software in collaborative design-learning

In this paper, we describe a case study of computer-supported collaborative learning in design using FM (FlashMeeting), a Web-based video-conferencing tool offered freely on OpenLearn. This 6-week experiment, involving Open University students and staff, aimed to explore the capabilities of FM software to support several phases of the design process including formulating a design brief, discovering user requirements, setting design specifications, concept generation, design embodiment and implementation of proposed concepts. We conclude this paper with lessons learned from using FM in a design e-learning project

Teaching Hidden History: A Case Study of Dialogic Scaffolding in a Hybrid Graduate Course

Using an expanded version of Alexander’s (2008) theory of dialogic teaching developed by Rojas-Drummond, Torreblanca, Pedraza, Vélez, and Guzmán (2013), this case study explored how instructors and students in a hybrid graduate course engaged in the process of dialogic teaching and learning (DTL). In particular, we examined the ways in which scaffolding strategies used in the course supported inquiry-based learning. Our findings suggest that instructors and students engaged in all five dimensions of DTL as defined by Rojas-Drummond et al. (2013), and illuminate the ways in which scaffolding can facilitate inquiry-based learning in interdisciplinary instructional settings

“Help Me Play”: a teacher training program to facilitate social play in preschoolers

“Help Me Play,” an evidence-based, client-centered and theory-driven training program facilitated by an occupational therapist, provides educational opportunities for early childhood educators to support the development of social play among preschool students in an inclusive classroom setting. Despite the belief of early childhood educators of the importance of social play, research suggests lack of pre-service or in-service training focusing on how they can support social play effectively in the classroom (Vu, Han, & Buell, 2015). “Help Me Play” consists of four weekly two-hour workshop sessions and an individualized 30-minute coaching and feedback training session. The workshop sessions are held in small groups of eight to 12 individuals, and cover the following topics: definition and benefits of social play, assessment of social play needs, environmental supports and barriers, and strategies to facilitate social play. The coaching and feedback session is held upon completion of the workshops and scheduled at the participants’ convenience. During this session, the facilitator may use prompting, modeling, feedback and encouragement to support the teacher in using scaffolding strategies. In line with adult learning principles highlighting active participation, the workshop sessions are organized using Kolb’s (1984) Model of Experiential Learning, which posits that experience is the building block of learning. Each session begins with concrete experience (i.e. engaging in an activity), followed by reflective observation (i.e. relating the activity to past experience), abstract conceptualization (i.e. gaining knowledge and skills) and active experimentation (i.e. testing out new skills and abilities). Another theoretical framework that guides the program relates to the concepts of zone of proximal development and scaffolding in Vygotsky’s (1978) social development theory. Vygotsky (1978) defined the zone of proximal development as the distance between the developmental level by independent problem solving and under adult guidance, while scaffolding is the process by which adults tailor their guidance with the just-right support to enable the child to perform at a higher level. “Help Me Play” presents a unique opportunity for occupational therapists to engage in a collaborative consultative model of service delivery in preschool settings to foster children’s social play by collaborating and providing training to preschool teachers.  REFERENCES Kolb, D. A. (1984). Experiential learning: Experience at the source of learning and development. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Vu, J. A., Han, M., & Buell, M. J. (2015). The effects of in-service training on teachers’ beliefs and practices in children’s play. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 23(4), 444–460. doi: 10.1080/1350293X.2015.1087144 Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher mental processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press