Disconnects! Public Understanding of Writing (POW!) Students’ Understanding of College Writing Teachers’ Understanding of College Writing

Telling Our Stories Better What Is It That We Do? Why Does It Matter? What Is College Writing? THE “MOVES DOCUMENT” (IU Comp Directors Group) – Comprehend and represent reading – Contextual and Recursive Analysis: critique, interpretation, reflection, and rhetoricizing – Critical Synthesis – Formulating, Testing and Developing Nuanced Claims Based on Inter- textual Analysis

QUESTIONS: What does “the public” think “writing” is? What do people coming to college think they will learn? What do teachers think they will be teaching?

DISCONNECT? HYPOTHESIS: There will be significant differences between what entering first-year students think they will be learning and what instructors of first-year college writing courses plan to teach.

What I Did An IRB Approved Study of “Student Expectations of College Writing Courses”: – Draft student survey – Pilot in 2011 to refine survey and develop “themes” – Recruitment of Instructors in 2012 (8 sections) – Administer Survey (N = 164) – Recruitment of Instructors to take companion survey (N = 18) – Compare student and instructor responses using SPSS

How This Study Differs Students participating in this study – Took the survey in the first half hour on the first day of class in the fall semester of their first year – Had not seen a syllabus – Had not had an introduction to the course

The Student Survey QUALTRICS LINK: – I asked (demographics): – Gender – How long since graduated from HS – Family Educational History – Whether had taken previous writing courses – Whether had learned of college writing from others – Whether took AP or dual-credit courses – Whether wrote on job – AND whether confident could make an A or B in the course

Student Survey cont’d Forced Choice: Which of the following do you expect this course to do for you? – Make me a more thoughtful, better-informed citizen – Make me a better thinker – Prepare me for future college writing courses – Help me get a better job – Help me write better on my job – Increase my creativity as a writer – Begin preparing me for a career as a professional writer – Begin preparing me for a career as a novelist, poet, or other creative writer – Teach me to do literary analysis – Allow me to complete a requirement for graduation from college – Other (please specify):

Student Survey Cont’d Open-ended elaboration For example: – a. Please discuss the skills or abilities that you think future writing courses will require of you that many beginning college students may not have now. – b. Discuss three specific things that you think your instructor will do to help you prepare for future college writing courses when he or she plans assignments for this class. – c. Discuss three specific things that you think your instructor will do to help you prepare for future college writing courses when he or she reads your writing for this class.

Companion Instructor Survey Qualtrics Link: Demographics – Ever taught entry-level writing in post-secondary institution – Academic training – Professional Experience – How many years teaching – Other teaching experience Same forced choice and open-ended questions

Participants 164 First-year students: – 15 in developmental course – 61 in preparatory course – 88 in required FY course 18 instructors

Analysis Extracted “themes” from 2011 pilot Organized themes into clusters Trained two raters on pilot data Three raters on 2012 student data Two raters on teacher data Question: Was this theme present or not present? (“Mentioned X”)

Results Used SPSS (with help of Dr. Dahlgren) to compare student and teacher mention of themes No significant difference across all student demographic categories Sample of instructors too small to assess correlations between themes and demographics statistically Significant differences between students and instructors

Forced Choice Responses (%)

Themes (Mention of) (I) Basics. Write Better Advanced Types of Writing Enhanced Thinking Conveying Information, Making Clear Structure, Organization, Paragraphs, Sentences Specific Genres Collaborative, Group Work Fix My Grammar Teacher Guidance (Lecture, Conferencing, Explaining, Showing)

Themes (Mention of) (II) Revision, Drafts Exercises, Quizzes Grading (Strictness) Synthesis, Enhanced Understanding (Cognitive) Evidence in Writing Audience, Interesting to Readers Holistic (Philosophical Approach) Voice, Own Views

Significant Differences in Themes Mentioned (I) ThemeInstructor % MentionedStudent % Mentioned Basics, Write Better030.2 Advanced Types of Writing Enhanced Thinking Specific Genre Collaborative, Group Work Teacher Guidance Revision, Drafts

Significant Differences in Themes Mentioned (II) ThemeInstructor % MentionedStudent % Mentioned Enhanced Understanding, Synthesis Evidence27.80 Audience, Interesting to Readers Holistic22.20 Own Voice, Opinions27.80

Themes with No Significant Difference ThemeInstructor % MentionedStudent % Mentioned Conveying Information, Making Clear Organization and Structure. Sentences, Paragraphs Fix My Grammar Exercises, Quizzes Grading5.67.1

Most/Least Frequent Mentions by Students Most Frequent (>35%) ThemeStudent % Fix My Grammar36.7 Teacher Guidance36.7 Least Frequent (>0%) Revision, Drafts5.3 Grading (Strictness)7.1 Synthesis, Understanding7.7 Audience, Making Interesting for Readers1.8

Most/Least Frequent Mentions by Instructors ThemeInstructor % Most Frequent Enhanced Thinking50.0 Specific Genre61.1 Collaboration, Group Work61.1 Teacher Guidance77.8 Revision, Drafts55.6 Understanding, Synthesis61.1 Least Frequent Grading5.6