praxis wc presentation - final version - 2-19-2016
TRANSCRIPT
FACILITATING INDEPENDENT LEARNING IN AND BEYOND THE WRITING CENTER
Ryan Burt, Johnson Deng, Caitlin Lowe, Olivia Michaels, Gail Parsons, Sushen Tu
(slides designed by Olivia and Johnson)
Academic Support Programs (ASP) ■ Unit in Undergraduate Academic Affairs (UAA) ■ Supports students in transition through academic
achievement courses. ■ Classes offered:
– General Studies 101 (High-challenge, high support) – Education 401: Tutoring and Mentoring in Higher
Education (one-on-one, holistic mentoring)■ Runs the Center for Learning and Undergraduate
Enrichment (CLUE)
The Center for Learning and Undergraduate Enrichment (CLUE)■ Free late-night multidisciplinary study center located
in Mary Gates Hall■ Offers drop in tutoring for a variety of subjects
(math, chemistry, computer science, languages, etc.)■ CLUE Writing Center: the second largest writing
center on campus– An important year for us: a wonderful new
Writing Center cohort!
Overview5min 10min 10min 10min 10min 5min
IntroductionHypothesis Metacognition
Question 1:Present
Question 2:Future
Question 3:Implications
Take-awayPracticalstrategies
ConclusionQuestions Contact
QUESTION:How do students learn beyond the writing centers?• How can we nurture their independent writing skills?
HYPOTHESIS: METACOGNITION—
“the awareness and understanding of one's own thought processes”
We conducted both academic research and personal interviews with multiple other campus writing centers, dividing our overall investigation into 3 sub-questions:
Question 3:
What are the implications of our findings from 1 and 2relating to our work in the writing center?
Question 1:
What did our research and interviews tell us about metacognition?
Question 2:
What did our research and interviews reveal about how we can encourage metacognition?
1a) What did our research tell us about metacognition?
Motivational Interviewing: Client-centered counseling
style Focus on resolving
ambivalence Support the student through
the process; validation, reflection Non-directive style
(SAMHSA, 2007)
“Critical thinking has to be something more than just plain good thinking. And here it should be acknowledged that just plain good thinking is itself difficult.” (Johnson & Hamby, 423)
1b) What did our interviews reveal about metacognition?
Most tutors are at least indirectly aware of the concept• Reading materials were
helpful to a certain extent• However, most writing
centers’ training seems to take place on-the-job, between tutors.
Was meta-cognition ever addressed? Surprisingly, it was
addressed very little. Current practices
border on including metacognition—but not explicitly.
2a) What did our research reveal about how we can encourage metacognition?
Motivational Scaffolding:the feedback tutors use to buildrapport and solidarity with students and consistently engagethem in sessions. Positive politeness strategies Praise, encouragement,
concern, sympathy, empathy, reinforcement of student control
“Tutors in writing center conferences can use motivational scaffolding … as “a kind of social accelerator” where the speaker indicates he or she wants to strengthen the connection he or she has with the hearer (103).”
both left and above:(Mackiewicz and Thompson, 2013)
2b) What did our interviews reveal about how we can encourage metacognition?
Many students who visit writing centers are English Language Learners (ELLs)
Interviewees noted their difficulty in overcoming language barriers
Due to these barriers, structural concerns sometimes take a backseat in sessions with ELLs
Most common tutoring approach described: asking neutral questions to open up discussion about a paper’s structural elements.
Students have generally been capable of addressing structural concerns—when they are pointed out.
Whether they continue by asking themselves helpful questions for later papers remains to be seen.
Tutors don’t see the same students enough to track if they substantially improved their writing skills.
2b) What did our interviews reveal about how we can encourage metacognition?
For Native speakers, over-confidence in their own compositional quality occasionally blinds them to the structural critiques tutors proffered.
Some arrive with an understanding that the tutor’s role was not that of a peer educator but that of a subordinate.
If anything, breaking through these mental barriers in unreceptive students is key to helping them on their way to better writing.
ELLs prioritize seeking grammar help without recognizing or addressing the underlying linguistic causes for their mistakes.
Interestingly, interviewees cited the students least receptive to tutoring as being usually native English speakers. Why?
3a) What are the implications of 1a) and 2a) regarding our work in the writing center?
OARS
Open Questions: invite others to “tell their story” in their own words without leading them in a specific direction.
Affirmations: genuine statements of client strengths which acknowledge and promote behaviors that enable positive change.
Reflective Listening: method of building trusting relationships and fostering motivation to change. (repeating, rephrasing/paraphrasing, reflection of feeling)
Summaries: special applications of reflective listening. They can be used throughout a conversation, but are particularly helpful at transition points.
(SAMHSA.gov, 2007)
3a) What are the implications of 1a) and 2a)regarding our work in the writing center?
Philosophy: “Wittgenstein (1980, p. 74e) said ‘‘denkenist schewer,’’ thinking is hard: there is a tendency to float on the surface and not to take a real effort to dive down below it.” (Johnson & Hamby, 423)
“The problem, as we conceive it, [with defining critical thinking] is not that there are no good definitions, but that there are an overabundance of problematic definitions.”(Johnson & Hamby, 417)
3b) What are the implications of 1b) and 2b)regarding our work in the writing center?
Current process-oriented methods are effective at helping students adjust their writing to the specific requirements their coursework expects.
However, a consistent focus on encouraging students to engage in continuous meta-cogitation when approaching a paper is not always present.
Some students are more receptive to discussion-based approaches than others
However, a tutor’s structural approach to a paper is insufficient for handling less-receptive students.
Stressing ‘metacognition’ means heightening and reinforcing the already established ideologies of a ‘process oriented’ writing critique into a more potent set of real methods.
TAKE-AWAY POINTS
Gail: “Tutors can improve their tutoring
by being better counselors.”
Sushen: “Explicitly discussing metacognition with
students encourages them to connect what they already know with what they're learning
and writing about.”
Johnson: “Openly talk about metacognition with students.
Get them to understand their own writing process by questioning how and if their methods achieve
their intended purpose.”
Olivia: “Encouraging metacognition in students
is crucial--but we must also remind ourselves to step back and re-evaluate
our own thoughts and methods.”
QUESTIONS?
Thank you for listening!
Contact Information:Caitlin Lowe – Writing Center Lead [email protected] Burt - Program Manager/ELL [email protected] Michaels – CLUE Writing [email protected] Deng – CLUE Writing [email protected] Tu – CLUE Writing [email protected] Parsons – CLUE Writing [email protected]
Writing Center Email:[email protected]
Bibliography:
Homelessness Resource Center. "Motivational Interviewing: Open Questions, Affirmation, Reflective Listening, and Summary Reflections (OARS)." SAMHSA, 2007. Web. 19 Feb. 2016.
Johnson, Ralph H., and Benjamin Hamby. "A Meta-Level Approach to the Problem of Defining ‘Critical Thinking’." UW Libraries Database. Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht, 17 Apr. 2015. Web. 11 Feb. 2015.
Mackiewicz, Jo, and Isabelle Thompson. "Motivational Scaffolding, Politeness, and Writing Center Tutoring." The Writing Center Journal 33.1 (n.d.): 38-73. Web. 19 Feb. 2016.
Rao, Zhenhui. "Training in Brainstorming and Developing Writing Skills." UW Libraries Database. Oxford University Press, 2 Apr. 2007. Web. 2 Feb. 2015.
Sheldon, Lisa. "Using Motivational Interviewing to Help Your Students." The National Education Association Higher Education Journal (2010): 153-158. Web. 19 Feb. 2016.