Using as a Consulting Tool at the Writing Centre: Students’ perceptions and challenges

Writing Centre Goals and Pedagogy Goal: development of students as good academic writers by offering access and support through individual or group consultations, workshops and class seminars

Social Constructivist pedagogy Principles i)validating students as knowers; ii) situating learning in students’ experiences, and iii)defining learning as mutually constructing meaning (Marcia Baxter-Magolda, 26).

Implications for our practice students and not their writing is our priority. not a first- aid station” (North, 1984: 437) to fix ‘special problems’ – read grammar, punctuation, and spelling. we are not teachers, we are collaborators with our students. consultations are student centred, offering the students an opportunity to think and talk with someone about their writing in a supportive and non-threatening manner.

Accessibility issues: What prompted the use of ? Best practice demands of us to be accessible to most students at all stages of writing. Students are advised to book appointments. However, most will ‘drop- in’. Students visit because they need help now, and are keen to ‘get on with it’.

Accessibility issues cont… only one delivery site at Buffalo City has a Writing Centre where students can walk-in and receive help on the spot. Other sites are 25km – 30 km away from the main Writing Centre. the consultant will visit on invitation by lecturers or when she has appointments with students.

The pilot group The pilot group was a Communications II class in the Fine Arts Department. Contact was lecturer initiated. One-on-one consultation sessions with the students after workshop in the lecture venue. Follow up contact session a week later

The pilot group Students were encouraged to their drafts to the Writing Centre for further review. The size of the class (25 students) allowed for a quicker turn-around time of less than 72 hours. Two different tasks were submitted via during Term 3.

Evaluation tool A questionnaire was administered at the beginning of 4 th term to: Assess the effectiveness of consultation Assess the attitude of students towards the new tool. The assessment tool had 15 items.

The Questionnaire The items included questions on: (i) students’ access to computers; (ii)proficiency using popular applications especially MS Word; (iii) the use of advanced Word tools; (iv)the quality of service from the Writing Centre; (v) students’ preferred form of consultation.

Findings and Discussion

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Findings and Discussion

Conclusions Both forms of consultation are important ; none can replace the other. consultation directly addresses the issues of accessibility for part-time students and post graduate. More training is essential for all consultants and the students.