Article

Scaffolding in the Writing Center: A Microanalysis of an Experienced Tutor's Verbal and Nonverbal Tutoring Strategies

September 2009
Written Communication 26(4):417-453

Authors:

In this microanalysis, a university writing center conference with an experienced tutor and a student he has never met before is analyzed for the tutor’s use of direct instruction, cognitive scaffolding, and motivational scaffolding. Along with verbal expressions of scaffolding, this analysis also considers the tutor’s hand gestures—topic gestures, which operationalize instruction and cognitive scaffolding, and interactive gestures, which operationalize motivational scaffolding. As defined in this analysis, instruction is the most directive of the three strategies and includes telling. Also directive, cognitive scaffolding leads and supports the student in making correct and useful responses, while motivational scaffolding provides feedback and helps maintain focus on the task and motivation. The microanalysis points to the importance of the student’s cognitive and motivational readiness to learn and the need for the student to control the agenda throughout the conference. It also contextualizes admonitions against tutor directiveness.

A Promising Candidate: An Exploration of Graduate Matriculation Genres

Article

Aug 2016

Megan D Bishop Gervais

This study emerges from the author’s personal experience of interacting with unfamiliar genres as she prepared her application for a graduate program in English. In a liminal space between graduating from her undergraduate program and applying for admission to a graduate program, her interaction with graduate admission genres was fraught with tension and a lack of the assumed knowledge that would inform her on how to strategically interact with these genres. This lack of tacit knowledge and absence of scaffolding lead her to compose a “statement of purpose” that did not adequately demonstrate that she was a “promising” graduate student, possibly indicating that facets of the “statement of purpose” genre might affect some populations of candidates for graduate admissions. Thus, in an effort to better understand this experience, she studies graduate matriculation genres and asks (1) what genres are most commonly asked for in matriculation assessment examinations?, (2) what kinds of writing does the “statement of purpose” genre promote?, and (3) what are the hidden or occluded tensions that might then hinder student performance with the “statement of purpose?” 122 public institutions are studied to reach a consensus on the current canon of matriculation genres for graduate English programs. The genre of the “statement of purpose” is further analyzed through a recursive coding process and analysis of these codes to cultivate an understanding of what conventions this genre consists of and what kinds of writing this genre promotes. This knowledge will then give stakeholders a better understanding of this genre and how it functions, informing their future interactions with this genre. The author finds that five genres are most commonly required in application for graduate programs: GPA/Transcripts, Letters of Recommendation, GRE General Test, Writing Sample, and “Statement of Purpose.” After her analysis of codes used in “statement of purpose” prompts, she finds which codes are most commonly used, indicating that length-driven writing is promoted and asking candidates to most commonly discuss her/his purposes, goals, and interests. She further finds that there is a tension around the inclusion of the “personal” in a “statement of purpose,” indicating an invisible tension that candidates might encounter when applying to graduate programs, creating another possible barrier to their composition of this text. The author ends with a discussion on the lack of scaffolding in these prompts, which suggests prompt designers assume that candidates have a understanding of expectations and tensions when some populations of candidates (such as candidates from low SES or from racial minorities) may not have this tacit understanding, leading to these candidates being in a position in which they are unable to construct a “statement of purpose” that adequately reflects their “goodness of fit” and “potential” to be a successful graduate student. As a result of this assumed knowledge, these candidates’ texts might potentially lead to qualified candidates being turned down for admissions.

Embodying Resilience in the Writing Center: A Study of Tutor Training Handbooks and Videos Towards an Understanding of the "Ideal" Tutoring Session

Article

Aug 2021

Katelyn Emily Parsons

This thesis examines two distinct datasets (handbooks and videos) to explore whether writing tutors embody their training. This research project was grounded in Bruffee’s (1984; 1995) work with collaboration and its link to conversation (both verbal and nonverbal communicative acts) to analyze the peer-to-peer relationships that are observable in writing center tutorials. Research on collaboration and conversation provided a useful framework for qualitatively coding six (6) tutor training handbooks and sixteen (16) tutor training videos. In taking up Thompson’s (2009) and Olinger’s (2014; 2020) calls for further research on writers’ embodied understandings of language, the video component of this research project shows the necessity for supplemental multimodal training texts to accompany the handbooks for new tutors. This study found that an underlying assumption persists across tutor training handbooks that most of tutors’ knowledge will be gained across time, through experience. The analysis of different types of tutor training texts found that the notion of the “ideal” tutor, “ideal” writer, and “ideal” tutorial is baked into tutor training. This finding suggests that tutors’ resilience is a means of maintaining tutorial productivity toward these ideals. While Driscoll and Wells (2020) call for writing centers to focus on “tutoring the whole person,” This thesis argues that tutors can be responsive to writers’ emotions without being responsible for those emotions. While researchers in the fields of writing studies and writing center studies argue that writing is, in fact, an activity that impacts both the physiological and psychological, we must create boundaries for tutors to protect their emotional and mental well-being, as well as ensure they are not overextending themselves beyond their training. Without analyzing multimodal tutor training texts (both handbooks and videos), the gap between the different kinds of training both the handbooks and the videos provide novice tutors would not be apparent to me. This connection would also not be apparent to novice tutors had they been trained solely with one or the other; novice tutors can benefit from engaging with multimodal tutor training texts.

Las tutorías de escritura académica: estrategias didácticas de una tutora novel

Article

Full-text available

Sep 2020

Juan Antonio Núñez Cortés

Las tutorías de escritura son una iniciativa de alfabetización académica en muchas universidades del mundo y en los últimos años han proliferado en universidades del ámbito hispano en general a través de los centros de escritura u otros programas o proyectos de enseñanza de la escritura académica. El presente trabajo tiene como objetivo dar cuenta del tipo de estrategias didácticas que ponen en práctica los tutores noveles durante las tutorías. Para ello, mediante una investigación de corte cualitativo, se ha realizado un análisis de contenido de las transcripciones de cuatro tutorías grabadas en audio. Los textos analizados se obtuvieron a partir de cuatro tutorías ofrecidas por una tutora de 4º año de carrera a estudiantes recién ingresados en la universidad. Las estrategias se han clasificado en tres tipos: instructivas, cognitivas y motivacionales. Los resultados muestran un predominio de estrategias cognitivas, si bien la secuencia de estrategias más utilizada (lectura en voz alta del tutor – pregunta – solución del error – explicación – elogio) da cuenta de una tendencia hacia un modelo de tutoría centrada en el tutor y el producto del texto. Esto muestra la importancia de una formación modelada de los tutores a partir de la reflexión sobre lo realizado en tutorías ajenas y propias, al margen de la instrucción explícita sobre la didáctica del proceso de escritura y de los géneros discursivos académicos. Debatir sobre estas estrategias, asimismo, puede ser útil en actividades de revisión entre pares y en tutorías académicas entre profesores universitarios y estudiantes.

Diversity in Education - crossing cultural, disciplinary and professional divides

Book

Full-text available

Feb 2017

According to UNESCO, the number of university students studying abroad has doubled since the beginning of the century, from 2 million in 2000 to more than 4 million in 2012. Interdisciplinary studies, which first appeared in the middle of the 20th century to address various complex issues, have continued to grow and today cover wide range of topics, from engineering and public health to environmental and development studies. Interdisciplinary educational programmes tend to attract diverse student groups with varying academic and professional backgrounds. Lund University, one of the largest universities in northern Europe, is among many higher education institutions that have experienced the growth of and gained experience in interdisciplinary educational programmes for international students with diverse academic and professional backgrounds. One of its longterm quality assurance works from 2011 specifically highlighted this experience in some institutions at the University. Despite the long experience and various efforts taken by personnel to improve the quality of education, as of 2015, Lund University however still lacks pedagogy courses tailored for interdisciplinary education, or for students with diverse cultural, academic and professional backgrounds. Reflecting upon this situation, we initiated this book to document and share essential experiences and learning of personnel engaged in these types of educational activities within the University. The book has three key features. First, it seeks to simultaneously tackle multiple aspects of “diversity”. It discusses issues not only related to international students and cultural diversity, but also interdisciplinarity and students with diverse academic and professional backgrounds. Second, it is written from the perspective of (mostly) non-native English speaking staff working in an environment where English is not the national language. Third, the content of the book represents not only the views and experiences of teaching staff, but also administrative staff facilitating the smooth and effective implementation of teaching activities. In order to facilitate the communication of our main message, we also created a short video for each chapter and an e-book is in the pipeline. We hope that the different voices and perspectives provide the reader with a useful and enjoyable reading experience. We also hope that this book gives food for thought on improving the learning environment and the teaching practice of our colleagues engaged in interdisciplinary, international education in Sweden and around the world. We would like to thank the Lund University Educational Board for funding this project, and the office of University Special Activities for supporting the process. To the authors, thank you all for your invaluable contributions, collaboration and patience, both regarding your own chapters and reviewing the common chapters. Our cordial gratitude is also directed to everyone who has been supporting the development of this book. Special thanks goes to Katarina Mårtensson and Åsa Lindberg-Sand at the Division for Higher Education Development for their support and guidance throughout the project and to Kristina Miolin at the Faculty of Science for sharing her experience as an international coordinator for different departments and reviewing our draft chapter. We would also like to thank to Lucas Playford and Carl Salk for their efficient proofreading, and Julius Kvissberg and Dan Rozenberg for creating fantastic films on the written chapters. Happy reading! Lund and Hong Kong, December 2016 Naoko Tojo & Bernadett Kiss

“Oops! I can’t express this in English!”: managing epistemic challenges by Chinese EFL peer tutors in writing tutorials

Article

Apr 2022

This study focuses on Chinese EFL (English as a Foreign Language) peer tutors’ discursive behavior to manage epistemic challenges in writing tutorials at a local university in China’s Mainland. Based on approximately 24 h of audio-recorded interactions involving eight tutorial groups over six weeks, we searched different types of epistemic challenges to Chinese EFL peer tutors and explored how they managed them discursively. Our findings, in adopting a CA (Conversational Analysis) approach, show that Chinese EFL peer tutors mainly experience two types of epistemic challenges – the language proficiency-based challenges and the resistance-based challenges. They construct different identities to cope with these challenges – EFL learners, careless but competent tutors, and authoritative and trustworthy experts. These practices are realized through valuable pragma-linguistic devices, including advising and assessing speech acts, deontic modality, self-mocking expressions, imperative and assertive tones, narrative discourse, and smiley voice and laughter. These findings highlight the need for writing center instructors to follow tutor training guides suitable for EFL peer tutors instead of following a universal training recipe.

Evaluating the Synthesis Model of tutoring across the educational spectrum

Article

Full-text available

Nov 2019

The goal of this study is to verify a grounded theory model of tutoring developed by Babcock, Manning and Rogers (2012) using qualitative research literature as data. The four participants in the current study (three females) were recruited using a convenience sample as they were current or former tutees of the authors. One participant was a middle-school student while the others were college students. To obtain data, participants were tutored by the researchers either online (asynchronously) or face-to-face. Researchers coded the data based on audio recordings of face-to-face sessions and written artefacts of online tutoring sessions. The results support the model developed by Babcock et al. (2012). It is important to verify the grounded theory model since it will close the circle with grounded theory research to apply it to authentic tutoring data. Researchers have proposed grounded theory in tutoring but no one has yet attempted to verify a model. While the original model covered extensive topics such as communication, personal characteristics, outside influences, emotions, temperament, and outcomes, in this brief report we focus mainly on personal characteristics and outside influences. The model fits the data except in the case of asynchronous online tutoring, likely because the original data was from 1983 to 2006 and did not cover much online tutoring.

Exploration of Graduate Health Care Student Writing Skills Using a Transformational Learning Approach to a Literacy Enrichment Program

Article

Full-text available

Oct 2019

Background: Health care educators are obligated to ensure that student writing skills are current, appropriate, and integrated into their role as future practitioners. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact and satisfaction of a transformational learning approach in a literacy-enriched health professions program on student's writing skills. Methods: Two different cohorts of occupational therapy students enrolled in a literacy program embedded in the first year of the professional phase of the occupational therapy program curriculum. The literacy-enriched program was based on transformative learning theories and was delivered by program faculty and writing tutors from the university writing center. Effectiveness was assessed using the ASSET writing test and a student satisfaction survey. Paired t-tests compared pre- and post-curriculum implementation scores on the ASSET. The association between student satisfaction post-program and pre- and post-writing scores were analyzed using Pearson correlations. Results: Significant differences were found in the pre- and-post ASSET scores. Additionally, many students reported satisfaction with the writing program regarding their ability to revise, edit, proofread, and paraphrase content. Conclusion: This study demonstrated continuity of improved writing skill development across three different years of students using a transformational learning approach in a literacy-enriched curriculum, suggesting a potential positive outcome of the program.

The role of questioning in writing tutorials: a critical approach to student-centered learning in peer tutorials in higher education

Article

Full-text available

Aug 2018

Peer tutoring in higher education aims to enhance student learning, and confidence. In writing centres, peer writing tutors use critical questioning to make the tutorial sessions student-focused and productive. The nature of questions influences the outcomes of the tutorials, yet research has not devoted sufficient time to unpacking what form this questioning takes, and the potential value for students and tutors. This paper explores the kinds of questions asked, the challenges posed to students and tutors, and implications for the learning process. Tutors’ experiences during tutorials and their reflections in written reports are used to unpack and explore questioning in tutorials. The paper highlights questioning as relevant in writing centre spaces due to its central role in shaping student learning about writing. The findings have relevance for peer tutoring in higher education generally, and indicate the importance of peer tutors learning to use questions to engage effectively with students.

Mentoring & Tutoring: Partnership in Learning The role of questioning in writing tutorials: a critical approach to student-centered learning in peer tutorials in higher education

Article

Aug 2018

Mentoring & Tutoring: Partnership in Learning The role of questioning in writing tutorials: a critical approach to student-centered learning in peer tutorials in higher education

Article

Aug 2018

Peer tutoring in higher education aims to enhance student learning, and confidence. In writing centres, peer writing tutors use critical questioning to make the tutorial sessions student-focused and productive. The nature of questions influences the outcomes of the tutorials, yet research has not devoted sufficient time to unpacking what form this questioning takes, and the potential value for students and tutors. This paper explores the kinds of questions asked, the challenges posed to students and tutors, and implications for the learning process. Tutors' experiences during tutorials and their reflections in written reports are used to unpack and explore questioning in tutorials. The paper highlights questioning as relevant in writing centre spaces due to its central role in shaping student learning about writing. The findings have relevance for peer tutoring in higher education generally, and indicate the importance of peer tutors learning to use questions to engage effectively with students.

Distributed Cognition and Embodiment in Text Planning: A Situated Study of Collaborative Writing in the Workplace

Article

Apr 2018
WRIT COMMUN

Ashley Clayson

Through a study of collaborative writing at a student advocacy nonprofit, this article explores how writers distribute their text planning across tools, artifacts, and gestures, with a particular focus on how embodied representations of texts are present in text planning. Findings indicate that these and other representations generated by the writers move through a spectrum of durability, from provisional to more persistent representations. The author argues that these findings offer useful insights into the relationships among distributed cognition, materiality, embodiment, and text planning and have implications for practitioners and students of writing. Additionally, the author recommends that scholars further investigate the ways in which embodied representations of texts are generated through lived experiences with the materials of writing.

Enhancing Student Learning Through Scaffolded Client Projects

Article

Jan 2017

Elizabeth C Tomlinson

This article reports on the current status of client projects (CPs) in business communication courses, provides a scaffolded model for implementing CP, and assesses student learning in CPs. Using a longitudinal mixed method research design, survey data and qualitative materials from six semesters are presented. The instructor survey indicated need for a model for CPs, assistance identifying community partners, and advice on tailoring CPs to course objectives, all of which are provided here. Results from assessing the model’s application indicate that students expressed higher levels of confidence as communicators and felt better prepared to engage in workplace communication.

Perceptions of the Student-Tutor Relationship with Chinese International Students at a UK University Self-Access Writing Centre

Article

Sep 2024

Chang Liu

This paper discusses the findings of a study of the student-tutor relationship with reference to Chinese international students in a UK university self-access writing centre. The study collected semi-structured interview data from multiple cohorts, including Chinese students, writing tutors (professional English for Academic Purposes (EAP) teachers rather than student peer tutors) and the writing centre director. Three types of relationships (asymmetrical, symmetrical and quasi-symmetrical) are thereby identified and discussed. The most reported relationship found in this study was an equal/symmetrical relationship. This egalitarianism was interpreted from the perspectives of a) the learning atmosphere; b) responsibility distribution; and c) differences between the writing tutor and the degree programme lecturer (i.e., disciplinary faculty). The findings enhance the understanding of the student-tutor relationship between professional EAP writing tutors and international students in the UK higher education (HE) context, and pedagogical implications are duly put forward.

The Efficiency of Writing Centre on Student Academic Performance in a Selected Public Higher Institution

Article

Full-text available

Aug 2024

Various studies reveal that students who come from disadvantaged backgrounds often struggle to adapt learning and teaching practices in tertiary institutions. To this end, tertiary institutions had to come up with innovative methods to equip these students to cope with the academic pressure at a tertiary level. The introduction of the writing centre office as a throughput strategy to curb this problem is thus investigated in this paper, to find out whether the writing centre office assists students to cope with the new methods of learning and teaching practised in institutions of Higher learning. This study is underpinned by two theories namely the socio-cognitive and sociocultural theories. Various studies in the form of literature were consulted in this paper with the aim of getting rich information on the critical role played by the writing centre in assisting marginalised students to cope with the new ways of learning and teaching. The literature revealed that the writing centre plays a significant role in assisting students but is not acknowledged in the academic field. In light of this, a mixed-method research approach was employed in this study and a cluster sampling strategy was adopted in a sample of Two Hundred (200) participants. The study thus found that lecturers appreciate the existence of the writing centre and that they are committed to sending their students to get assistance in terms of academic writing. The study further found that students find the writing centre useful in assisting them to improve on their writing, reading, and presentation skills. Due to the influence of the writing centre on student performance the study thus recommended that the writing centre should be made compulsory and that the Department of Higher Education and Training should increase its support to capacitate the writing centre.

Contributions of tutoring to the development of academic writing in graduate education

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2023

Earning a master’s or doctoral degree often requires writing scientific articles, a challenging task for graduate students. A review of existing literature on writing in higher education underscores the need to learn more about the strategies tutors use when teaching their tutees how to prepare their theses and academic articles. Objective: Explore the contribution of tutoring to the composition of academic articles as graduation requirements and thereby to the development of academic literacies among master’s degree students. Methodology: Descriptive case study following the interpretive paradigm. This qualitative study was conducted in a master’s degree program in education at a private university in Medellin, Colombia. The data were collected through semistructured interviews with three tutors, two students, and one graduate student. The content was analyzed by utilizing open and axial coding. Results: The study revealed three pivotal functions performed by tutors in fostering academic literacies during their support for article writing: adept management of the tutor-tutee relationship concerning co-authorship, skillful guidance in navigating interactions with external agents who regulate publication, and proactive promotion of the tutees’ relationship with writing and research, thereby fostering the configuration of their identity as authors and researchers.

Tutor Perceptions of a University Writing Centre’s Program of Skills Development for Supporting Multilingual Students using English as an Additional LanguagePerceptions des tuteurs sur le programme de développement des compétences offert par un centre d’écriture où on utilise l’anglais langue additionnelle pour soutenir les étudiants et les étudiantes multilingues

Article

Oct 2023

With growing numbers of multilingual students who have first or primary languages other than English seeking the services of Canadian university writing centres where English is the language of instruction, providing these students with supportive and effective teaching and learning experiences is an important part of their post-secondary education. However, little research has been carried out to examine the impact of writing centre tutor skill development programs to foster meaningful teaching and learning experiences for multilingual students. This qualitative study employed focus group research methods to gather the writing centre tutors’ shared perceptions of their skill development opportunities for working with multilingual students. Data were coded and analyzed using a thematic approach. Findings point to multilingual student expectations, tutoring challenges, program effectiveness, and program applicability as elements that impact the tutors’ overall impressions of the skill development opportunities they encountered. While there were still areas for improvement, implementing a program of skill development for working with multilingual students in a writing centre was generally beneficial for the tutors in this study.

Entering a Community of Writers: The Writing Center, Doctoral Students, and Going Public with Scholarly Writing

Article

Full-text available

Nov 2019

In addition to taking advanced courses, graduate students navigate a potentially challenging transition of learning to write for publication. We, the authors, explored solutions to this transition with a study designed to explore the research questions: How does a systematic effort to help doctoral students enter a community of writers via writing center collaboration influence doctoral students’: (1) proficiency with academic writing, (2) writing apprehension, (3) self-efficacy as writers, and (4) comfort with “going public” with their writing? We used a collaborative, multi-layered self-study research approach because it allowed us to focus on critical examination of teaching practices that are of interest to the practitioner/researcher and to the greater educational community. Authors/participants include the co-director of a university Writing Center; two professors of a doctoral-level qualitative research methods course; four doctoral students who participated in a series of writing center collaborations; and one master’s student who served as a writing center consultant. These four perspectives provide unique insights into how writing center collaborations supported graduate students in developing their writing proficiency and efficacy, helping to initiate them into a community of writers who “go public” with their scholarship.

Praising Papers, Clarifying Concerns: How Writers Respond to Praise in Writing Center Tutorials

Article

Dec 2021

Mike Haen

Examining the efficacy of reflection and metacognitive support in high stakes testing preparation

Article

Oct 2022

The purpose of those papers to examine the effectiveness I have two strategies that were integrated within a 13-week pilot study course of 15 students. This course focused on the alignment of study materials to exam competencies and the use of exam wrappers as a metacognitive tool.

Review: Mass Literacy and Writing Centers: Deborah Brandt's The Rise of Writing

Article

Jan 2016

Using a hybrid card sorting-affinity diagramming method to teach content analysis: experience report

Article

Full-text available

Sep 2021

In this teaching experience report, we describe a research experience for undergraduates (REUs) designed to cognitively support the work of two student research assistants (RAs) from a two-year college (2YC) on a funded project that involved analyzing user-generated content for an mHealth app. First, we suggest partnerships between two- and four-year institutions as a move toward REU equity because students from 2YCs are not typically afforded these opportunities. We then review the role of research in undergraduate learning and posit the importance of scaffolding to sequence cognitive leaps. Finally, we present the cognitive scaffolding we created and connect it to our hybrid card sorting-affinity diagramming content analysis method.

Las tutorías de escritura académica presenciales y virtuales: ¿qué podemos aprender sobre sus estrategias didácticas?

Article

Full-text available

Sep 2021

En el contexto hispánico, han surgido los centros de escritura y las tutorías, los cuales se han debido adaptar a la educación a distancia, por causa de la emergencia sanitaria de la covid-19. No obstante, aún hay pocas evidencias con respecto a cómo funcionan las tutorías en esa modalidad de educación. A partir de lo anterior, este trabajo tuvo como objetivo analizar las estrategias didácticas que utilizaron dos tutoras pares durante las tutorías de escritura presenciales que ofrecieron antes de la pandemia y las virtuales, realizadas durante la pandemia, luego de un programa específico de formación. Para ello, mediante una investigación cuantitativa-cualitativa, se realizó un análisis de contenido, por medio del software maxqda, de las transcripciones de 16 tutorías (8 presenciales y 8 virtuales). Los resultados dan cuenta de una prevalencia general de estrategias cognitivas, sobre todo la pregunta, junto con instructivas, como la sugerencia y la explicación. No obstante, se perciben diferencias en los tipos de tutorías y se confirma una tendencia a centrarse más en el estudiante y en el proceso en las tutorías virtuales. Estos resultados sugieren que las tutorías virtuales son una alternativa útil en el acompañamiento del proceso de escritura a estudiantes universitarios.

Las tutorías de escritura académica presenciales y virtuales: ¿qué podemos aprender sobre sus estrategias didácticas? Íkala 2021

Article

Full-text available

Sep 2021

The impact of inclusiveness and rurality in developmental student writing needs and curricular responses: A Pasifika community college case study

Article

Full-text available

Nov 2020

Charles Allen Brown/白任遠

This qualitative case study considered the following question: How did an open door policy combined with limitations of a rural setting impact students' developmental English writing needs and curricular responses at one Pacific island community college? The focus institution was a small community college serving several Micronesian islands with a total population of around 50,000. Guided by a Context, Input, Process, Output (CIPO) model, I employed institutional document analysis, on-site observation, discussions and interviews with teachers, samples of students' work, and interviews with students to understand the social setting (Context), learner skills and experiences (Input), the curriculum (Process), and how institutional responses (Output) addressed students' needs. Results indicated that students' writing needs were complex as a result of unreadiness for college writing combined with their wide-ranging goals. Although the institution responded with a developmental English writing sequence, resources constrained this response. Course offerings were slender, and teachers possessed limited qualifications for this work. Thus, more innovative and responsive practices in developmental English were not enacted. Also, all teachers were off-island cultural outsiders; this had important pedagogical implications. Overall, since the community college open-door policy invites the developmental learner, providing for the needs of these individuals is critical. Yet, this is a resource-intensive undertaking. This demonstration of how resource constraints impacted developmental English learners is important in foregrounding challenges for other The impact of inclusiveness and rurality in developmental student writing needs and curricular responses: A Pasifika community college case study 764 small-scale, high-diversity, rural schools. It also sheds light on one more challenge facing Pacific Island people.

Writing With Data: A Study of Coding on a Data-Journalism Team

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2021
WRIT COMMUN

Chris Lindgren

Coding has typically been understood as an engineering practice, where the meaning of code has discrete boundaries as a technology that does precisely what it says. Multidisciplinary code studies reframed this technological perspective by positing code as the latest form of writing, where code’s meaning is always partial and dependent on situational factors. Building out from this premise, this article theorizes coding as a form of writing with data through a qualitative case study of a web developer’s coding on a data-journalism team. I specifically theorize code as a form of intermediary writing to examine how his coding to process and analyze data sets involved the construction and negotiation of emergent problems throughout his coding tasks. Findings suggest how he integrated previous coding experience with an emerging sense of how code helped him write and revise the data. I conclude by considering the implications of these findings and discuss how writing and code studies could develop mutually informative approaches to coding as a situated and relational writing activity.

How Do Chemistry Teachers Deal with Students' Incorrect/Undesired Responses to Oral Classroom Questions? Exploring Effective Feedback Practices

Article

Full-text available

Oct 2021
RES SCI EDUC

In this paper, chemistry teachers’ reactions/behavior or actions following students’ undesired, unexpected or incorrect responses/answers to the posed teacher oral questions are reported. This study which was carried out in Tanzania in Iringa Municipality involved three chemistry teachers teaching in three different secondary schools. Actual teaching situations of the three teachers were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed interpretively. We also performed semi-structured interviews with these teachers to bring forth the teachers’ inherent perceptions about their practice in relation to what was observed of the teachers’ individual actual teaching situations. Up to eight different forms of teachers’ responses or reactions to students’ undesired responses or incorrect answers are discussed with respect to how each is perceived to either positively or negatively affect students’ progressive learning. From the study, productive questioning is affected by teachers’ inability to effectively use classroom powers to trigger students’ thinking, as well as not being able to use students’ varied views to achieve the set learning goals. Instead of using their power strategies to facilitate students’ engagement with the scientific matter, the teachers used their classroom powers to guard themselves against classroom insecurities during the teaching process, such as preventing students from questioning their subject knowledge competencies.

From physical to online spaces in the age of the #FeesMustFall protests: A Critical Interpretative Synthesis of writing centres in emergency situations

Article

Full-text available

Nov 2019

Robert Nanima

Writing centres play a vital role in guiding students in their academic writing. Central to this role is their physical location at tertiary institutions, where students usually walk in and schedule appointments with writing tutors. The recent #FeesMustFall protests saw the temporary closure of universities across South Africa. As a result, the functionality of the writing centres as physical locations was disrupted to the detriment of student development. This article evaluates the application of the principles that underscore the operation of physical writing centres as online spaces. First, it evaluates the writing centre as a physical space, and the resulting shift to an online space as a result of the #FeesMustFall protests. Secondly, with the methodological aids of Critical Interpretative Synthesis and my personal reflections as a tutor, I analyse the possible application of the principles that guide physical writing centres to the online environment.

Session Notes as a Professionalization Tool for Writing Center Staff: Conducting Discourse Analysis to Determine Training Efficacy and Tutor Growth

Article

Full-text available

Jun 2019

A common practice in writing centers is to record the events of a tutoring session after it has occurred. Commonly written by tutors, “session notes” can be a useful resource for the day-to-day support work in which tutors engage. Currently, however, little research exists on how session notes can be used to measure tutor development and change over time. Instead, research focuses predominantly how particular audiences interact with session notes, rather than the linguistic content therein. This study addresses the gap in research between the conceptual and practical uses of session notes. The researchers implemented semesterly training modules for tutors, and then conducted a longitudinal discourse analysis of 1,261 session notes that were collected over six semesters. Session notes were coded for 12 variables to include behavioral, semantic, and affective reflections on writing center work. From this analysis, we were able to conceptualize how, in completing these forms, tutors describe their tutoring practice and demonstrate their tutoring knowledge. Findings show that, for many aspects of note taking, a semester of experience has an effect on tutors, such that they start to conform on note taking practices; however, specific trainings can change the behavior of experienced tutors.

Universal Design for Learning and Its Application to Clinical Placements in Health Science Courses (Practice Brief)

Article

Full-text available

Feb 2019

n 2013 Ireland's Association for Higher Education, Access and Disability (AHEAD), in partnership with the School of Nursing University College Dublin (UCD), hosted a summer school for professionals working in the Health Sciences sector who have responsibility for including students with disabilities in the health professions, including clinical placements. The topic of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) was explored and particular emphasis was given to how these principles could translate into practice on clinical placements sites. The summer school used a positive enquiry method to open a detailed dialogue about the inclusion of a diverse range of students in Health Sciences, especially students with disability. The participants comprised 25 academics working across a number of health-related sciences including nursing, medicine, and physiotherapy. While each participant is an expert in their occupational area, they attended the workshop because of an interest in inclusive practice. Using a framework presented by Dr. Joan McGuire from the University of Connecticut, the group explored how Universal Design interacts with the performance standards to be achieved by students in clinical placements. The rich discussion generated a wide variety of examples of the application of UDL. The paper is a summary of the findings of the summer school.

Teaching research writing at exit-level undergraduate programmes in South Africa

Article

Full-text available

Dec 2018

Emmanuel Esambe

Not enough writing support is being provided to Baccalaureus Technologiae (BTech) students in vocational-intensive universities in South Africa. Even worse, not enough research is being done to investigate the writing attitudes of BTech students or how their lecturers support them in writing-intensive subjects. This view represents an unfair and a discriminatory approach to providing learning support to BTech students. This article explores the use of dialogical formative feedback in the teaching of research writing to BTech students in a health sciences department at a university of technology in South Africa. The article uses Engeström’s (1987) concept of an activity system in cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) and Boud and Molloy’s (2013a; 2013b) dialogical feedback approach to examine how formative feedback is being negotiated in a class of 14 Dental Technology students at a university of technology. Qualitative data was collected through focus group interviews, and from the written feedback on the students’ assignment drafts. This data is read diffractively using activity theory, and dialogical feedback approach. This diffractive approach enables one to use theories to challenge hegemonic, discriminatory, and often unproductive models of feedback support in the teaching of research writing to students in difficult and uneven conditions. By diffractively reading practitioners’ thoughts and actions iteratively over time through the relational ontological frameworks of activity theory and dialogical feedback, this article proposes a breakaway from the formal, prosaic, linear, and bureaucratic approach of giving feedback to students’ writing which often does not impact student learning.

Intersections between Tutorial Engagement, Directive Feedback, and Critical Reflection

Article

Full-text available

May 2018

A handful of research studies have investigated the effect of writing centre tutorials on subsequent revisions. This classroom-based study adds to that research by reporting results from a collaborative study between a composition professor and a writing centre tutor. The aim of the study was to examine the influence of writing centre tutorials on immediate student revisions as well as final drafts. The analysis was extensively framed by the Vygotskyan sociocultural model of language and cognitive development with an emphasis on tutor-student engagement as reciprocal interaction which include directive feedback and consequential revision. This study employed a qualitative design with students in a sophomore-level core composition course. Participants attended a writing centre session concerning their major writing assignment. Data triangulation included analysis of assignment drafts, observation notes, and tutorial transcripts. Findings revealed that students attended to feedback that was directive and straightforward. Additionally, students did not attend to citation feedback unless it was direct and explicit. Furthermore, students sometimes overgeneralized and misapplied the feedback. The findings highlight the impact of individual learner factors as well as the results of directive feedback on revisions.

Role Reversals: A Case Study of Dialogic Interactions and Feedback on L2 Writing

Article

Mar 2018
J SECOND LANG WRIT

Warren Merkel

Much scholarship on second language writing feedback has focused on teacher-L2 writer dialogic interactions. Many of these studies, however, adopt the concept of scaffolding (Hyland & Hyland, 2006) which in its application could be considered a deficit model as the teacher addresses linguistic limitations of the learner. This study explored reversing these roles, drawing on the Bakhtin (1981) concept of dialogism to explore feedback interactions where the L2 writer and I (the researcher) were both developing understanding. An 11-week participant-researcher case study sought to examine the role of dialogic interactions in which I had more advanced English language skills, but had less extensive knowledge about the content, while the participant was developing (an already advanced) English proficiency, but held critical knowledge in the content area. Results showed that dialogic interactions facilitated the linguistic revisions of the participant’s writing by contributing to the participant’s increased awareness of audience, and also providing her a channel, through speech, to clarify text excerpts that I struggled to understand in writing.

Development of soft scaffolding strategy to improve student’s creative thinking ability in physics

Article

Full-text available

Nov 2017

Student's creative thinking ability in physics learning can be developed through a learning experience. However, many students fail to gain a learning experience because of the lack of teacher roles in providing assistance to students when they face learning difficulties. In this study, a soft scaffolding strategy developed to improve student's creative thinking ability in physics, especially in optical instruments. The methods used were qualitative and quantitative. The soft scaffolding strategy developed was called the 6E Soft Scaffolding Strategy where 6E stands for Explore real-life problems, Engage students with web technology, Enable experiment using analogies, Elaborate data through multiple representations, Encourage questioning, and Ensure the feedback. The strategy was applied to 60 students in secondary school through cooperative learning. As a comparison, conventional strategies were also applied to 60 students in the same school and grade. The result of the study showed that the soft scaffolding strategy was effective in improving student's creative thinking ability.

Talking about writing in China: Examining tutor-writer interaction during individualized writing center tutorials at Chinese universities

Article

May 2024
Ling Educ

Talk lies at the heart of writing center work, yet studies on tutorial interaction have predominantly focused on tutor talk while largely neglecting writer talk, especially at English as a Foreign Language (EFL) writing centers. To investigate tutorial interaction in a holistic manner, this study examined tutor-writer interaction during individualized writing tutorials at two university English writing centers in China—an EFL context where writing centers have garnered increasing scholarly attention yet scant empirical research. Based on recorded tutorials and retrospective interviews with faculty tutors and student writers, this study: 1) highlighted the co-constructed nature of tutorial interaction by expanding Mackiewicz and Thompson's (2015) spectrum of tutoring strategies and by proposing a systematic coding scheme for student writers’ interaction strategies, and 2) investigated tutors’ and student writers’ perceptions and evaluation of their tutorial interaction to offer context-specific implications on individualized writing support provision and tutorial interaction research in EFL contexts.

Peer Tutoring As “Identification”: A Burkean Perspective

Article

Apr 2024

Joshua Clements

Learner-centered EAP practices: Managing agenda in tutorial interaction

Article

Feb 2024

A Cognitive Load Theory Approach to Understanding Expert Scaffolding of Visual Problem-Solving Tasks: A Scoping Review

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2024
EDUC PSYCHOL REV

Visual problem-solving is an essential skill for professionals in various visual domains. Novices in these domains acquire such skills through interactions with experts (e.g., apprenticeships). Experts guide novice visual problem-solving with scaffolding behaviours. However, there is little consensus about the description and classification of scaffolding behaviours in practice, and to our knowledge, no framework connects scaffolding to underlying cognitive mechanisms. Understanding effective scaffolding is particularly relevant to domain-specific expert-novice research regarding visual problem-solving, where in-person scaffolding by an expert is a primary teaching method. Scaffolding regulates the flow of information within the learner’s working memory, thereby reducing cognitive load. By examining scaffolding research from the perspective of cognitive load theory, we aspire to classify scaffolding behaviours as cognitive behaviours of cueing (which involves attention allocation) and chunking (the practice of grouping information, often in conjunction with prior knowledge), into a cohesive and unified framework. In this scoping review, 6533 articles were considered, from which 18 were included. From these 18 articles, 164 excerpts describing expert-novice interaction were examined and categorised based on cognitive strategy (cueing or chunking) and method of expression (verbal or nonverbal). An inductive category (active or passive) was also identified and coded. Most scaffolding behaviours were categorised as active verbal cueing and active verbal chunking. Qualitative patterns in excerpts were collated into 12 findings. Our framework may help to integrate existing and new scaffolding research, form the basis for future expert-novice interaction research, and provide insights into the fine-grained processes that comprise scaffolded visual problem-solving.

Motivation, Emotion und die Rolle der Schreibberatung : Wissenschaftliches Schreiben aus Studierendensicht

Thesis

Jan 2022

Maria Katharina Muster

Die vorliegende Dissertation beleuchtet die Auswirkungen der Schreibberatung auf ratsuchende Personen in Bezug auf Motivation und Emotion beim wissenschaftlichen Schreiben an der Universität Bayreuth. Ausgehend von Erfahrungen beim wissenschaftlichen Schreiben aus Studierendensicht soll illustriert werden, wie die Schreibberatung auf die Situation der Studierenden eingeht und somit Faktoren beeinflusst, die dazu beitragen können, Studierenden ein motiviertes wissenschaftliches Arbeiten und Schreiben, das vorrangig mit positiven Emotionen verknüpft ist, zu ermöglichen. Grundlage dieser Untersuchung sind 17 digital durchgeführte qualitative Interviews, die nach erfolgter digitaler Schreibberatung durch Mitarbeitende des Schreibzentrums der Universität Bayreuth mit ratsuchenden Personen geführt wurden. Die Ergebnisse dieser Studie sollen dazu beitragen, die Notwendigkeit von Schreibzentren und Schreibberatung im universitären Kontext zu untermauern: Es soll gezeigt werden, dass die Schreibberatung mögliche Schwachstellen im System Universität ausgleichen kann. Auch dieses Potenzial der Schreibberatung gilt es weiterhin zu nutzen und zu fördern.

Warm-Ups 2.0 - Produktion von Tutorials als digitale Alternative zum Anleiten von Gruppen

Article

Apr 2022

Teaching a canon, a dance, a body percussion arrangement or guiding students through music-based listening tasks is usually based on direct interaction between all participants as well as the interplay of instruction and execution. Therefore, developing a self-confident, well-trained handling of heterogeneous groups is and must be part of music teacher training in universities. Initiated by the corona-driven switch from presence to online learning and teaching, two questions arose: How can we transfer interactive musical practices into a digital setting? And which potentials and challenges do those formats offer for both teachers and learners? In order to answers these questions , we decided to ask the students of our seminar Introduction to Music Education to produce video tutorials on musical topics. Drawing on an analysis of our students' products and their feedback, we will give an outlook on the potentials and challenges of planning, producing and reflecting tutorials.

A Strategy Based on Scaffolding to Develop EFL Essay Writing and Reduce Writing Anxiety Level among Secondary Stage Students

Article

Jun 2021

Laila Hashem

REPLICATION OF A TUTOR-TRAINING METHOD FOR IMPROVING INTERACTION BETWEEN WRITING TUTORS AND STEM STUDENTS

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2020

The improvement of tutor training programs can impact the important work of writing centers. Tutors often feel less comfortable tutoring in genres different from their own discipline. A previous study introduced an assignment-specific tutor training model to improve writing center tutoring sessions between engineering students and writing tutors. The results of the previous study indicated a valuable addition to the resources available for engineering students. This model has now been replicated at two universities to assess the potential for wider dissemination. Preliminary data analysis suggests a relationship between initial tutor rating of student work, student perceptions of tutoring, and tutor perception of student engagement in the tutorial. Plans for future research include continued replication and expansion to test larger sample sizes, analysis of impact within and adaptations for other STEM areas, and continued study of the impact on tutoring team projects.

Student Peer Feedback in a Translation Task: Experiences With Questionnaires and Focus Group Interviews

Chapter

Jan 2019

Carmen Heine

Social science research methods can help shed light on students' peer feedback performance. They can also help enlighten researchers on students' reception and repercussion to feedback tasks. The operationalizability of these methods for future peer activities in Translation Didactics is examined in this chapter. Multiple peer feedback data from undergraduate Business Communication students is compared with questionnaire and interview data. The data derives from peer feedback loops and provides insights into the students' perception of working with peer feedback on a web-text localization and translation commentary task performed to mirror professional practice. The analysis of the wording of student feedback, of the revisions suggested and the analysis of whether or not—and how—students implement their peer's suggestions, allows qualitative evaluation and interpretation. The methods applied are compared and their feasibility for further research into peer feedback in Translation Studies is explored.

Beyond Dichotomy: Synergizing Writing Center and Classroom Pedagogies

Book

Jan 2015

Steven J. Corbett

What makes a Successful Tutorial? Tutors' and Tutees' Perceptions of Successful Writing Centre Tutorial

Article

Full-text available

May 2019

Maiko Nakatake

This case study qualitatively investigated tutors' and tutees' perceptions of successful tutorials through questionnaire and interview evaluation at an English as a foreign language writing centre in Japan. Participants were six tutoring pairs who were asked to answer Thompson’s (2010) questionnaires on the writing centre tutorial they engaged in and were interviewed based on their responses. The results showed that tutors perceived tutorial success in terms of their contribution as a tutor, including whether they addressed the students’ needs during a session or adequately answered the students’ questions. Additionally, some tutors also defined tutorial success in terms of their student’s development as a writer. On the other hand, the key factors that contributed to tutees’ perceptions of tutorial success included satisfaction with their session, satisfaction with their revised paper, and their writing development.

Visual Embodied Actions in Interview-Based Writing Research: A Methodological Argument for Video

Article

Feb 2020
WRIT COMMUN

Andrea Olinger

People communicate through language as well as visual embodied actions like gestures, yet audio remains the default recording technology in interview-based writing research. Given that texts and writing processes are understood to involve semiotic resources beyond language, interview talk should receive similar treatment. In this article, I synthesize research that examines how visual embodied actions reveal and construct embodied knowledge and stance, and I apply these lenses to my own study, showing how visual embodied actions are essential to understanding three writers’ experiences with particular writing styles. I conclude by discussing the benefits of videorecording for writing research, offering guidance on how video can help researchers explore the interview as a social practice, and suggesting ways to design the consent process with transparency and democratic practice in mind. Ultimately, this article serves as a guide for writing researchers who wish to challenge the audio default when conducting interviews.

A Study of the One-to-One Writing Tutoring Effects: A Perspective of Intercultural Contrastive Rhetoric

Chapter

Jan 2020

This chapter is motivated by the fact that few studies have been made about the effects of one-on-one writing tutoring in English writing centers in Chinese universities. It intends to examine the effects through the evaluation of tutors' performance by students. A sample of 57 students responded to the questionnaires designed based on Kaplan's 7 EFL writing objectives proposed in his theory of contrastive rhetoric with minor revision, and 12 participated the structured in-depth interviews. Results demonstrate that tutors have achieved higher level of satisfaction in objectives of vocabulary and expressions (86%), sentence and grammar(85%), etc., but lower satisfaction level in those of awareness of audience(37%), discourse structure (34%), and rhetoric and writing knowledge (40%). The findings indicate no significant correlation between tutoring duration and students' improvement extent, yet a strong negative association between students' language proficiency and their improvement. Finally, some measures about enhancing tutoring effects are suggested.

Discourse strategies that co-construct relational identities in STEM peer tutoring

Article

Apr 2019

This study is a discourse analysis of the transcribed talk recorded between tutors and students in a university peer tutoring program. We focus on STEM tutoring sessions, showing how tutors and students co-construct relational identities in and among the technical, highly task-oriented work of solving math and science problems. Using Grounded Practical Theory as a theoretical framework, we propose that understanding the co-creation of relational identities provides insight into an important component of STEM tutoring sessions. Through the process of Action Implicative Discourse Analysis, we describe three conversational practices with which tutors and students negotiate their relational identity—encouragement talk, sensemaking checks, and metadisciplinary talk. We discuss implications in terms of tutoring sessions’ situated ideals and participants engaging in a community of practice.

A relational approach to building knowledge through academic writing:: Facilitating and reflecting on peer writing tutorials

Chapter

Full-text available

Oct 2017

Sherran Clarence

In 1984, Stephen North wrote a paper in which he argued that writing centres need to focus on the writer, rather than more narrowly on the writing tasks students seek their help with. This now-famous paper in the writing centre field speaks about an approach to writing support and development that focuses on who is doing the writing, and what they are learning about writing both in the context of each task they are working on, and also more conceptually in terms of looking at their writing from a ‘macro’ level as well. North essentially contends that students will find growing as a writer and a thinker in higher education difficult if they are not enabled or encouraged to think about writing both conceptually and contextually. This chapter picks up on that argument to look at how this might be achieved in writing tutorials, where writing tutors sit outside of the disciplines, and act as students’ critical friends who prompt, question, guide and advise student writers, focusing ideally on both the writer and the writing. What is conceptual about writing? How can a more conceptual understanding of genres, forms, or the purposes of academic writing be useful in terms of drawing our focus in writing centres from the texts, to the writers and their writing practices at a more macro level? Using a tool drawn from Legitimation Code Theory, Semantics, which can be used to look at movement between conceptual and contextual learning and knowledge, and how to enable students to move more effectively between the two. Data drawn from writing tutors’ reports written following writing tutorials with undergraduate students, this paper applies Semantics to consider how tutors’ conversations with students about their writing move between the very local context of their essay and more conceptual notions of the forms and purposes of genres or parts of genres, like reports or essays. This chapter will conclude by arguing that equipping writing tutors with analytical tools, like Semantics, that can help them see what is contextual and what is conceptual in the writing they are working with, and move between the two in their conversations with students, can provide them with powerful tools for enabling a focus on the writer as well as the writing.

Spoken written-language in writing center talk

Article

Oct 2018
Ling Educ

Our goals are to examine the validity of concerns about plagiarism and, more speculatively, about short circuiting students’ thinking in writing center tutoring. Specifically, we describe spoken written-language (SWL), the oral language that writing center tutors produce for potential use in the student writers’ written products. We analyze SWL from a specialized corpus of 37 conferences in terms of three variables: (1) the length of each SWL occurrence, (2) the frequency with which SWL occurs in a given conference, and (3) the extent to which an SWL occurrence is ready for placement in a written text. Our analysis indicates that student writers’ use of tutors’ SWL in their papers does not represent plagiarism and that, in fact, it may help student writers move forward in their writing.

Distributed writing as a lens for examining writing as embodied practice

Article

May 2018

Ashley Clayson

The author argues for a reinvigorated focus on writing “as material, corporeal action” (Haas & Witte, 2001) and proposes a framework of “distributed writing” through which to enact this focus. This framework highlights writing’s simultaneously material and embodied nature and can help scholars further examine and understand interactions among tools, artifacts, and writing bodies. Continuing to study writing “as material, corporeal action” is necessary as twenty-first century tools for writing continue to change.

Learning from human tutoring

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2001

Human one-to-one tutoring has been shown to be a very effective form of instruction. Three contrasting hypotheses, a tutor-centered one, a student-centered one, and an interactive one could all potentially explain the effectiveness of tutoring. To test these hypotheses, analyses focused not only on the effectiveness of the tutors' moves, but also on the effectiveness of the students' construction on learning, as well as their interaction. The interaction hypothesis is further tested in the second study by manipulating the kind of tutoring tactics tutors were permitted to use. In order to promote a more interactive style of dialogue, rather than a didactic style, tutors were suppressed from giving explanations and feedback. Instead, tutors were encouraged to prompt the students. Surprisingly, students learned just as effectively even when tutors were suppressed from giving explanations and feedback. Their learning in the interactive style of tutoring is attributed to construction from deeper and a greater amount of scaffolding episodes, as well as their greater effort to take control of their own learning by reading more. What they learned from reading was limited, however, by their reading abilities.

Tools for Scaffolding Students in a Complex Learning Environment: What Have We Gained and What Have We Missed?

Article

Full-text available

Jun 2010

This article discusses the change in the notion of scaffolding from a description of the interactions between a tutor and a student to the design of tools to support student learning in project-based and design-based classrooms. The notion of scaffolding is now increasingly being used to describe various forms of support provided by software tools, curricula, and other resources designed to help students learn successfully in a classroom. However, some of the critical elements of scaffolding are missing in the current use of the scaffolding construct. Although new curricula and software tools now described as scaffolds have provided us with novel techniques to support student learning, the important theoretical features of scaffolding such as ongoing diagnosis, calibrated support, and fading are being neglected. This article discusses how to implement these critical features of scaffolding in tools, resources, and curricula. It is suggested that if tools are designed based on the multiple levels of the student understanding found in a classroom, tools themselves might be removed to achieve fading.

Visible Thought: The New Psychology of Body Language

Book

Full-text available

Jan 2003

Geoffrey Beattie

Are you saying one thing whilst your hands reveal another? Are you influenced by other people's body language without even knowing it? Darting through examples found anywhere from the controlled psychology laboratory to modern advertising and the Big Brother TV phenomenon, official Big Brother psychologist Geoffrey Beattie takes on the issue of what our everyday gestures mean and how they affect our relationships with other people. For a long time psychologists have misunderstood body language as an emotional nonverbal side effect. In this book Geoffrey Beattie ranges across the history of communication from Cicero to Chomsky to demonstrate that by adding to or even contradicting what we say, gestures literally make our true thoughts visible. A unique blend of popular examples and scientific research presented in language that everybody can understand, Visible Thought is an accessible and groundbreaking text that will appeal to those interested in social psychology and anyone who wants to delve beneath the surface of human interaction. Geoffrey Beattie is the official Big Brother psychologist and Professor at the Department of Psychology, University of Manchester. He is a recipient of the Spearman Medal awarded by the British Psychological Society for 'published psychological work of outstanding merit'.

Self-regulated learning and academic achievement: A Vygotskian view

Chapter

Full-text available

Jan 2001

Gesture and Collaborative Planning: A Case Study of a Student Writing Group

Article

Full-text available

Jul 2005
WRIT COMMUN

Joanna Wolfe

When writers plan a document together, they rely on gestures as well as speech and writing in constructing a common representation of their group document. This case study of a student technical writing group explores how group members used gestures to create a conversational interaction space that they then treated like a physical text that they manipulated, wrote on, and pointed at. These gestures suggested a group pretext that helped group members translate abstract goals into concrete plans. However, the close proximity of gesture to the physical act of writing may mislead students into thinking that the tricky work of translating abstract ideas into final written form had already been completed. Gestures and adaptor movements (such as fidgeting with a pen) also seemed to conspire to help individuals control the conversational space and call attention to themselves as writers. Implications for future research on gesture and collaborative writing, gender, and writing technologies are discussed.

A simple system for the organization of turn-taking im conversation

Article

Full-text available

Interactive Gestures

Article

Full-text available

Oct 1992

Illustrators are hand gestures made during conversation. Following Bavelas, Hagen, Lane, and Lawrie (1989), we propose a new division of illustrators, into topic and interactive gestures. Interactive gestures refer to the interlocutor rather than to the topic of conversation, and they help maintain the conversation as a social system. They subsume but are not limited to the category previously called beats or batons. Three tests of this theory are reported here. In Experiment 1, the same narrative task was assigned to both dyads and individuals: Dyads had a higher rate of interactive gestures than did individuals, but the opposite pattern was shown for topic gestures. In Experiment 2, we manipulated visual availability: The rate of interactive gestures was higher for partners interacting face‐to‐face than for those who could not see each other, but topic gestures were not significantly affected by condition. Thus, in both experiments, interactive and topic gestures responded differently to social variables, which strongly suggests they are functionally distinct groups. A final analysis showed that, in both data sets, interactive gestures were less redundant with the words they accompanied than were topic gestures, which supports our hypothesis that they maintain involvement with the interlocutor without interrupting the verbal flow of discourse.

Gesture: Visible Action as Utterance

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2004

Adam Kendon

Gesture, or visible bodily action that is seen as intimately involved in the activity of speaking, has long fascinated scholars and laymen alike. Written by a leading authority on the subject, this 2004 study provides a comprehensive treatment of gesture and its use in interaction, drawing on the analysis of everyday conversations to demonstrate its varied role in the construction of utterances. Adam Kendon accompanies his analyses with an extended discussion of the history of the study of gesture - a topic not dealt with in any previous publication - as well as exploring the relationship between gesture and sign language, and how the use of gesture varies according to cultural and language differences. Set to become the definitive account of the topic, Gesture will be invaluable to all those interested in human communication. Its publication marks a major development, both in semiotics and in the emerging field of gesture studies.

What's the use of 'triadic dialogue'?: an investigation of teacher-student interaction

Article

Full-text available

Sep 2000

The fact that the spoken texts of classroom interaction -particularly those involving the teacher with the whole class- are co-constructed relatively smoothly, despite the number of participants involved, suggests that they are organized in terms of standard strategies, embodied in typical forms of discourse that have evolved for responding to recurring types of rhetorical situation (Miller 1984; Kamberelis 1995). That is to say that, like written texts, they can be thought of as being constructed according to one of a set of educational genre specifications. One such rhetorical structure, the ubiquitous 'triadic dialogue' (Lemke 1990), also known as the IRE or IRF sequence (Mehan 1979; Sinclair and Coulthard 1975). It has attracted considerable attention in recent years, and has variously been seen as, on the one hand, essential for the co-construction of cultural knowledge (Heap 1985; Newman et al. 1989) and, on the other, as antithetical to the educational goal of encouraging students' intellectual-discursive initiative and creativity (Lemke 1990; Wood 1992). Drawing on episodes of teacher-whole-class interaction collected during a collaborative action research project, this paper will show, however, that the same basic IRF structure can take a variety of forms and be recruited by teachers for a wide variety of functions, depending on the goal of the activity that the discourse serves to mediate and, in particular, on the use that is made of the follow-up move

Collaboration and Ethics in Writing Center Pedagogy

Article

Full-text available

Jan 1988

Irene L. Clark

Discusses why writing centers are concerned about plagiarism, how this concern has influenced writing center pedagogy, and whether this concern has been counterproductive to student learning. (RS)

Perspectives on the Directive/Non-Directive Continuum in the Writing Center

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2001

Irene L. Clark

Presents the concept of directiveness (regarding the behavior of a consultant/tutor in a writing conference) as a continuum that can be defined in terms of particular characteristics. Examines students' and tutors' attitudes regarding the directiveness of tutors. Finds perceptions between consultants and students differed considerably on a number of elements of directiveness. Notes all students felt their visit was helpful. (SG)

Linguistic Influences on Gesture's Form

Article

Full-text available

Dec 2004

Hand gestures in face-to-face dialogue are symbolic acts, integrated with speech. Little is known about the factors that determine the physical form of these gestures. When the gesture depicts a previous nonsymbolic action, it obviously resembles this action; however, such gestures are not only noticeably different from the original action but, when they occur in a series, are different from each other. This paper presents an experiment with two separate analyses (one quantitative, one qualitative) testing the hypothesis that the immediate communicative function is a determinant of the symbolic form of the gesture. First, we manipulated whether the speaker was describing the previous action to an addressee who had done the same actions and therefore shared common ground or to one who had done different actions and therefore did not share common ground. The common ground gestures were judged to be significantly less complex, precise, or informative than the latter, a finding similar to the effects of common ground on words. In the qualitative analysis, we used the given versus new principle to analyze a series of gestures about the same actions by the same speaker. The speaker emphasized the new information in each gesture by making it larger, clearer, etc. When this information became given, a gesture for the same action became smaller or less precise, which is similar to findings for given versus new information in words. Thus the immediate communicative function (e.g., to convey information that is common ground or that is new) played a major role in determining the physical form of the gestures.

Pragmatic Aspects of Representational Gestures: Do Speakers Use Them to Clarify Verbal Ambiguity for the Listener?

Article

Full-text available

Dec 2003

Two studies are reported that investigate how speakers use gesture in association with verbal ambiguity in two communicational situations characteristic of everyday talk. The first study uses a design that mimics a speaker's self-repair initiated by the listener, while the second study involves speakers producing longer stretches of speech involving lexical ambiguity, without the listener interacting verbally with the speaker. The findings of both studies show that speakers do use gesture to clarify verbal ambiguity. Moreover, they suggest that the speaker's awareness of a potential communication problem, and the fact that this communication problem is associated with the speech itself, are crucial variables influencing speakers' gestural behaviour. Differences in the complexity of the form of the gestures are also observed and the theoretical implications of this are discussed. Overall, these studies provide important insights into semantic and pragmatic aspects of representational hand gestures and speech-gesture interaction in everyday talk.

Close Vertical Transcription in Writing Center Training and Research

Article

Jan 2003

The Function of Talk in the Writing Conference: A Study of Tutorial Conversation

Article

Jan 1988

Maintaining Chaos in The Writing Center: A Critical Perspective: A Critical Perspective on Writing Center Dogma

Article

Jan 1990

Irene Lurkis Clark

Examining Our Lore: A Survey of Students' and Tutors' Satisfaction with Writing Center Conferences

Article

Jan 2009

Teaching mind in society: Teaching, schooling, and literate discourse

Chapter

Aug 1990

The seminal work of Russian theorist Lev Vygotsky (1896–1934) has exerted a deep influence on psychology over the past 30 years. Vygotsky was an educator turned psychologist, and his writings clearly reflected his pedagogical concerns. For Vygotsky, schools and other informal educational situations represent the best cultural laboratories to study thinking. He emphasized the social organization of instruction, writing about the 'unique form of cooperation between the child and the adult that is the central element of the educational process'. Vygotsky's emphasis on the social context of thinking represents the reorganization of a key social system and associated modes of discourse, with potential consequences for developing new forms of thinking. This volume is devoted to analyzing Vygotsky's ideas as a means of bringing to light the relevance of his concepts to education. What does Vygotsky's approach have to offer education? Distinguished scholars from various countries and representing several disciplines discuss the essence and significance of Vygotsky's work, analyze the educational implications of his thoughts, and present applications in practice, addressing educational issues such as school organization, teacher training, educational achievement, literacy learning and development, uses of technology, community-based education, and special education.

Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes

Book

Jan 1978

Lev S Vygotsky

Teaching, schooling, and literate discourse

Article

Jan 1990

chapter 1. A Simplest Systematics for the Organization of Turn Taking for Conversation*

Chapter

Dec 1978

Turn taking is used for the ordering of moves in games, for allocating political office, for regulating traffic at intersections, for the servicing of customers at business establishments, and for talking in interviews, meetings, debates, ceremonies, conversations. This chapter discusses the turn-taking system for conversation. On the basis of research using audio recordings of naturally occurring conversations, the chapter highlights the organization of turn taking for conversation and extracts some of the interest that organization has. The turn-taking system for conversation can be described in terms of two components and a set of rules. These two components are turn-constructional component and turn-constructional component. Turn-allocational techniques are distributed into two groups: (1) those in which next turn is allocated by current speaker selecting a next speaker and (2) those in which next turn is allocated by self-selection. The turn-taking rule-set provides for the localization of gap and overlap possibilities at transition-relevance places and their immediate environment, cleansing the rest of a turn's space of systematic bases for their possibility.

The social origin of self-regulation

Article

Nov 1990

Theories of self-regulated learning and academic achievement: An overview and analysis

Article

Jan 2001

B.J. Zimmerman

The metaphor of scaffolding: Its utility for the field of learning disabilities

Article

Jul 1998

CA Stone

Over the past 20 years, an increasing number of psychologists and educators have used the notion of scaffolding as a metaphor for the process by which adults land more knowledgeable peers) guide children's learning and development. The purpose of the present article is to provide a critical analysis of the scaffolding metaphor, with particular emphasis on its applications to the case of atypical learners. In the initial sections of the article, the origins and early applications of the metaphor are sketched. With this as background, criticisms of the metaphor raised by others are reviewed, and a proposal for an enriched version of the metaphor is presented. At the heart of the proposed revision is an emphasis on the communicational dynamics and conceptual reorganization involved in adult-child interactions. With an enriched metaphor as a frame, the next section reviews applications of the scaffolding metaphor to the study of parent-child interactions and teacher-student instructional activities involving children with learning disabilities. The strengths and limitations of this work are evaluated, and proposals are made for how to reap further benefits from applications of the scaffolding metaphor to analyses of the development and instruction of children with learning disabilities.

The Function of Talk in the Writing Conference: A Study of Tutorial Conversation

Article

Jan 1988

Minimalist tutoring: Making the student do all the work

Article

Jan 1991

J. Brooks

What's the use of 'triadic dialogue'?: An investigation of teacher - student interaction

Article

Sep 2000

The fact that the spoken texts of classroom interaction - particularly those involving the teacher with the whole class - are co-constructed relatively smoothly, despite the number of participants involved, suggests that they are organized in terms of standard strategies, embodied in typical forms of discourse that have evolved for responding to recurring types of rhetorical situation (Miller 1984; Kamberelis 1995). That is to say that, like written texts, they can be thought of as being constructed according to one of a set of educational genre specifications. One such rhetorical structure, the ubiquitous 'triadic dialogue' (Lemke 1990), also known as the IRE or IRF sequence (Mehan 1979; Sinclair and Coulthard 1975). It has attracted considerable attention in recent years, and has variously been seen as, on the one hand, essential for the co-construction of cultural knowledge (Heap 1985; Newman et al. 1989) and, on the other, as antithetical to the educational goal of encouraging students' intellectual-discursive initiative and creativity (Lemke 1990; Wood 1992). Drawing on episodes of teacher - whole-class interaction collected during a collaborative action research project, this paper will show, however, that the same basic IRF structure can take a variety of forms and be recruited by teachers for a wide variety of functions, depending on the goal of the activity that the discourse serves to mediate and, in particular, on the use that is made of the follow-up move.

Exploring the Tutor/Client Conversation: A Linguistic Analysis

Article

Jan 1998

Help seeking, learning and contingent tutoring

Article

Sep 1999
COMPUT EDUC

The focus of this paper is the application of the theory of contingent tutoring to the design of a computer-based system designed to support learning in aspects of algebra. Analyses of interactions between a computer-based tutoring system and 42, 14- and 15-year-old pupils are used to explore and explain the relations between individual differences in learner–tutor interaction, learners’ prior knowledge and learning outcomes. Parallels between the results of these analyses and empirical investigations of help seeking in adult–child tutoring are drawn out. The theoretical significance of help seeking as a basis for studying the impact of individual learner differences in the collaborative construction of ‘zones of proximal development’ is assessed. In addition to demonstrating the significance of detailed analyses of learner–system interaction as a basis for inferences about learning processes, the investigation also attempts to show the value of exploiting measures of on-line help seeking as a means of assessing learning transfer. Finally, the implications of the findings for contingency theory are discussed, and the theoretical and practical benefits of integrating psychometric assessment, interaction process analyses, and knowledge-based learner modelling in the design and evaluation of computer-based tutoring are explored.

Question Asking During Tutoring

Article

Mar 1994

Whereas it is well documented that student question asking is infrequent in classroom environments, there is little research on questioning processes during tutoring. The present study investigated the questions asked in tutoring sessions on research methods (college students) and algebra (7th graders). Student questions were approximately 240 times as frequent in tutoring settings as classroom settings, whereas tutor questions were only slightly more frequent than teacher questions. Questions were classified by (a) degree of specification, (b) content, and (c) question-generation mechanism to analyze their quality. Student achievement was positively correlated with the quality of student questions after students had some experience with tutoring, but the frequency of questions was not correlated with achievement. Students partially self-regulated their learning by identifying knowledge deficits and asking questions to repair them, but they need training to improve these skills. We identified some ways that tutors and teachers might improve their question-asking skills.

Epistemological Appropriation in One High School Student’s Learning in Cooperative Education

Article

Jun 2004

In this study, detailed observations and interviews from a high school student’s semester-long cooperative (co-op) placement in a dental practice are used to exemplify Hung’s theoretical approach to understanding situated learning. Using Hung’s theory of epistemological appropriation in an analysis of the coop supervisor’s regulatory behaviors (scaffolding, modeling, and coaching) and of the novice’s corresponding regulatory behaviors (submitting, mirroring, and constructing) helped to explain the developments in this student’s learning, actions, and beliefs. In contrast to the progression suggested by Hung’s theory, this study reports daily examples of all types of regulatory behaviors, with scaffolding/submitting being most prominent. The discussion focuses on how Hung’s theory of regulatory behaviors informs supervisors’ improving opportunities for novices’ learning and informs novices’ engagement in epistemological appropriation in work-based learning.

Gesture's Role in the Learning Process

Article

Nov 2004
THEOR PRACT

Susan Goldin-Meadow

When children explain their answers to a problem, they convey their thoughts not only in speech but also in the gestures that accompany that speech. Teachers, when explaining problems to a child, also convey information in both speech and gesture. Thus, there is an undercurrent of conversation that takes place in gesture alongside the acknowledged conversation in speech. This article shows that these gestures can play a crucial, although typically unacknowledged, role in teaching and learning.

Gestural Enthymemes: Delivering Movement in 18th- and 19th-Century Medical Images

Article

Jun 2009
WRIT COMMUN

Sara Newman

This article contributes to recent efforts to add life and movement to rhetorical studies by focusing on the representation of movement in medical texts. More specifically, this study examines medical texts, illustrations, and photographs involving movement by Johann Casper Lavater, G. B. Duchenne de Bologne, Charles Darwin, and Étienne-Jules Marey. By identifying how figures of speech epitomize arguments, this examination follows a shift in the way arguments about movement are represented, a shift from static, visual arguments to gestural enthymemes, as they are named, arguments that are made in movements; these shifts are linked to developments in medical technologies involving photography. These arguments about and using movement attempt to “capture” or express the moments within which life, through the embodied gesture, resides. This extended understanding of the enthymeme broadens current understanding of argument to include delivery, links medical and rhetorical discursive practices, and informs how we make sense of and study the relationships between technology and rhetoric both in the past and present.

Embodied Knowledge: The Textual Representation of Embodied Sensory Information in a Dynamic and Uncertain Material Environment

Article

Apr 1998
WRIT COMMUN

BEVERLY SAUER

This article examines the highly specific problems of roof support in coal mines to construct a theoretical framework that describes how texts represent information that is embodied, sensory, and uncertain. As this analysis suggests, workers in risky environments may follow instructions and still fail as situations change. Engineering and management approaches also may fail unless they reflect the kinds of embodied sensory information decision makers need to assess risk in local contexts. This analysis then raises ethical questions about (a) textbook notions of instructions as systematic procedures designed to produce predictable outcomes, (b) limits of particular types of information as signs or indexes of risk, (c) the role of generalized knowledge in uncertain environments, (d) the role of texts in representing knowledge that is sensory and uncertain, and (e) the locus of responsibility for safety if knowledge exists outside of written texts.

Activity, Apprenticeship, and Epistemological Appropriation: Implications from the writings of Michael Polanyi

Article

Sep 1999

David Hung

Cultural psychology stresses the inexplicable relation between situational context and activity. By being engaged in an activity, individuals appropriate not only the explicit mediational signs and artifacts (participatory appropriation), but also the implicit contextual cultural beliefs and epistemologies held by the social individuals (referred to as epistemological appropriation). The appropriation of hidden "rules of the art" (Polanyi, 1964), such as beliefs, has not been emphasized in sociocultural studies, and the aim of this article is to describe the regulatory behaviors for epistemological appropriation. Polanyi's (1964) work on apprenticeship suggests some important regulatory behaviors for the learner-submitting to authority, following your master, and commitment to practicing-for epistemological appropriation. In this article, these self-regulatory processes have been referred to as submitting, mirroring, and constructing, and these processes are contrasted with the other-regulatory processes of scaffolding, modeling, and coaching, respectively. The article concludes with directions for future research.

Learning complex scientific information: Motivation theory and its relation to student perceptions

Article

Jan 2000
Read Writ Q

Three theories in educational research (Alexander, 1998; McCombs, 1996; Paris & Turner, 1994) that present interactive views of motivation relevant to conceptual change and the science learning of at-risk readers are reviewed and then related to two studies. One study examined motivation in high school students' conceptual change about physics principles. The other study examined students' motivation for biology learning in college. In both settings, students reported that grades and interest were important, but they did not report the importance of social support. In both settings, students used a variety of strategies, but were more successful if they focused on cognitive processes (e.g., applying information) rather than routine processes (e.g., making flash cards). These commonalities suggest that similar motivations are important in both conceptual change and assimilation and also help us to realize the motivational as well as cognitive dimensions of learning for students with reading difficulties. The findings also support the three theories with two exceptions . The role of grades was not emphasized by theorists, and the importance of social support was emphasized to a far greater degree by theorists than was reported.

Learning Lessons: The Social Organization of Classroom Behavior

Article

Dec 1979

Hugh Mehan

Classroom Discourse: The Language of Teaching and Learning

Article

Jan 2001

Courtney B Cazden

The Human Tutorial Dialogue Project: Issues in the design of instructional systems

Article

B. A. Fox

Pragmatics and Pedagogy: Conversational Rules and Politeness Strategies May Inhibit Effective Tutoring

Article

Jun 1995

In this article, we identify ways that Grice's (1975) conversational rules and P. Brown and Levinson's (1987) politeness strategies are commonly employed in one-to-one tutoring interactions. We examined two cross-aged tutoring corpora from research methods and algebra tutoring sessions to show how these rules and strategies can potentially enhance and inhibit effective tutoring. Examples of these costs and benefits are presented within a five-step dialogue frame proposed by Graesser and Person (1994). There appear to be differences in the use of these politeness strategies when algebra tutoring protocols are compared with research methods protocols. We suggest that politeness strategies are more prevalent in less constrained domains, even though their use may inhibit effective tutoring.

Effective Tutoring Techniques: A Comparison of Human Tutors and Intelligent Tutoring Systems

Article

Jul 1992

There has been much debate about instructional strategies for computerized learning environments. Many of the arguments designed to choose between the various philosophies have appealed, at least implicitly, to the behavior of effective human teachers. In this article, we compare the guidance and support offered by human tutors with that offered by intelligent tutoring systems. First, we review research on human tutoring strategies in various domains. Then we investigate the capabilities of a widely used technique for providing feedback, model tracing. Finally, we contrast the types of guidance and support provided by human tutors with those in intelligent tutoring systems, by examining the process of recovering from impasses encountered during problem solving. In general, the support offered by human tutors is more flexible and more subtle than that offered by model tracing tutors, but the two are more similar than sometimes argued.

Rousing Minds to Life: Teaching, Learning, and Schooling in Social Context

Article

Jun 1992

Learning Lessons, Social Organization in the Classroom

Article

Apr 1980

Writing as an Embodied PracticeThe Case of Engineering Standards

Article

Oct 2001

This article explores the role of embodied knowledge and embodied representation in the joint revision of a small section of a large technical document by personnel from two organizations: a city government and a consulting engineering firm. The article points to differences between the knowledge and the representation practices of personnel from the two organizations as manifested in their words and gestures during the revision task, and it points to the gestures of the city personnel as a principal means by which their greater embodied knowledge of channel easements becomes distributed across the group as a whole. The article concludes by pointing to some advantages of considering acts of writing as embodied practices and by indicating a number of related questions that should be pursued in subsequent investigations of literacy in modern workplaces.

What Makes Literacy Tutoring Effective?

Article

Jul 1996
READ RES QUART

Connie Juel

ABSTRACTS Juel (1991) reported that university student‐athletes who were poor readers seemed to be effective tutors of first‐grade children who were poor readers. The current study explored factors that may account for successful tutoring outcomes when poor readers tutor other poor readers. The form and content of tutoring in 30 tutoring dyads was closely examined. To determine what factors contributed to successful outcomes in individual dyads, tutoring sessions over a school year were tape‐recorded and videotaped. Tapes were analyzed into type of verbal interactions (i.e., scaffolded or modeled processes) and time spent engaged in seven tutoring activities (e.g., reading literature, writing, letter‐sound instruction). Multiple measures of reading, writing, and attitude towards school were administered at the beginning and end of the school year both to the children and to the older poor reader tutors (who also engaged in additional reading and writing activities outside of tutoring), and to control groups. Both tutors and children made significantly greater literacy growth than their respective control groups. Two activities were found to be particularly important in successful dyads: (a) the use of texts that gradually and repetitively introduced both high‐frequency vocabulary and words with common spelling patterns, and (b) activities in which children were engaged in direct letter‐sound instruction. Two forms of verbal interactions were found to be particularly important: (a) scaffolding of reading and writing, and (b) modeling of how to read and spell unknown words. A synergistic relationship was found to exist between the form and content of instruction. Juel (1991) reportó que atletas universitarios que eran malos lectores parecieron desempeñarse como tutores efectivos de niños de primer grado que tenían dificultades de lectura. El presente estudio exploró factores que podrían dar cuenta de los resultados exitosos cuando malos lectores son tutores de otros malos lectores. Se examinó cuidadosamente la forma y el contenido de las tutorías en treinta díadas. Para determinar qué factores contribuyeron a los resutados exitosos en díadas individuales, se hicieron grabaciones de audio y video de sesiones de tutoría durante un año escolar. Las grabaciones se analizaron en tipo de interacción verbal (procesos de andamiaje o modelado) y tiempo invertido en siete actividades de tutoría (por ej., leer literatura, escribir, enseñar relaciones letrasonido). Se administraron muchas medidas de lectura, escritura y actitudes hacia la escuela al comienzo y al final del año escolar, tanto a los pequeños como a los tutores (quienes también realizaron actividades adicionales de lectura y escritura) y a grupos de control. Tanto los tutores como los pequeños hicieron significativamente más progresos en lectoescritura que sus respectivos grupos de control. Se halló que dos actividades eran particularmente importantes en las díadas exitosas: (a) el uso de textos que gradual y repetitivamente introducían vocabulario de alta frecuencia y palabras con patrones ortográficos comunes y (b) actividades en las que los niños estaban involucrados en la enseñanza directa de las relaciones letra‐sonido. Se encontró que dos formas de interacción verbal eran particularmente importantes: (a) andamiaje de la lectura y escritura y (b) proporcionar un modelo sobre cómo leer y escribir palabras desconocidas. Se halló una relación sinérgica entre forma y contenido de la instrucción. Juel (1991) berichtete, daß Sportstudenten der Universität, die selbst schwache Leser waren, sich als besonders geeignete Tutoren für leseschwache Kinder der ersten Schulstufe erwiesen. Die vorliegende Studie entdeckte Faktoren, die entscheidend für eine erfolgreiche Tutorentätigkeit waren, wenn leseschwache Tutoren andere Leseschwache betreuten. Form und Inhalt der Betreuung in 30 Zweiergruppen wurden genau untersucht. Um zu bestimmen, welche Faktoren zu einem erfolgreichen Ergebnis in den einzelnen Zweiergruppen führten, wurden diese Tutorensitzungen über ein Schuljahr akustisch wie optisch aufgezeichnet. Die Tonträger und Videobänder wurden nach der Art der verbalen Interaktion analysiert (z.B. lernunterstützende und beispielgebende Verfahrensweisen) und die Zeit, die für die jeweils 7 Aufgabenbereiche aufgewendet wurde (z.B. aufs literarische Lesen, Schreiben, auf Diktate, Ansagen, …). Verschiedene Messungen der Leistungen im Lesen und Schreiben sowie eine Bewertung der Einstellung gegenüber der Schule wurden zu Beginn wie am Ende des Schuljahres vorgenom men, und zwar sowohl von den leseschwachen Kindern, den leseschwachen Tutoren (die sich außerhalb ihrer Tutorentätigkeit zusätzlichen Lese‐ und Schreibübungen unterzogen) als auch von den Kontrollgruppen. Sowohl die Tutoren als auch die Kinder zeigten ein signifikantes Wachstum ihrer Lese‐ und Schreibleistungen verglichen mit den ihnen zugeordneten Kontrollgruppen. Zwei Aktivitäten wurden als besonders zielführend in erfolgreichen Zweiergruppen erfahren: a) Die Verwendung von solchen Texten, in denen—schrittweise und wiederholend—häufig vorkommende Begriffe und Wörter aus dem allgemeinen Sprachgebrauch eingeführt wurden, und b) Aktivitäten, bei denen das Hörverständnis der Kinder besonders angesprochen wurde. Zwei Formen der verbalen Auseinandersetzung wurden als besonders bedeutsam empfunden: a) lernunterstützendes Lesen und Schreiben, b) beispielhaftes Vorzeigen, wie man unbekannte Wörter artikuliert, buchstabiert, liest und schreibt. Eine synergetische Beziehung zwischen Form und Inhalt des Unterrichts wurde nachgewiesen. Juel (1991) a rapporté que des athlètes étudiants d'université mauvais lecteurs semblaient être des tuteurs efficaces pour des enfants de première année mauvais lecteurs. L'étude présentée ici a exploré les facteurs susceptibles de rendre compte du succès des effets positifs d'un tutorat réalisé par des mauvais lecteurs avec des mauvais lecteurs. On a examiné attentivement la forme et le contenu du tutorat de trente dyades. Pour déterminer quels sont les facteurs qui contribuent aux effets positifs de chaque dyade, on a effectué un enregistrement audio et vidéo des sessions de tutorat pendant une année scolaire. On a analysé les enregistrements en fonction du type d'interactions verbales (i.e processus modélisants ou par étayage) et du temps consacré à sept activités de tutorat (à savoir lecture de la littérature, écriture, correspondances lettre‐son). On a effectué de multiples mesures de lecture, d'écriture, et d'attitude envers l'école en début et en fin d'année scolaire, avec les enfants, les tuteurs plus âgés (qui, en dehors du tutorat, étaient également engagés dans des activités complémentaires de lecture et d'écriture), et des groupes témoin. Les tuteurs aussi bien que les enfants ont fait plus de progrès en lecture‐écriture que leurs groupes témoin respectifs. Deux activités sont apparues particulièrement importantes dans les dyades efficaces: a) l'utilisation de textes introduisant graduellement et de manière répétée des mots très fréquents et des mots à structure graphique courante, et b) les activités qui impliquent les enfants dans un enseignement direct des activités grapho‐phonétiques. Deux formes d'interactions verbales sont apparues particulièrement importantes: a) l'étayage de la lecture et de l'écriture, et b) le modelage de la façon de lire et d'écrire des mots nouveaux. Il est apparu également une synergie entre la forme et le contenu de l'enseignement.

"Look Back and Say 'So What'": The Limitations of the Generalist Tutor

Article

Jan 1993

Considers the importance of having writing center tutors with specific knowledge of disciplines. Examines videotapes of tutors with students in specialized fields such as engineering and business. Concludes that the "ignorant" or generalist tutor sometimes has limitations as a writing tutor. (HB)

Theoretical Models of Tutor Talk: How Practical Are They?

Article

Mar 2002

Teresa B. Henning

Writing center theory in general seems to favor a collaborative model of the tutorial where the tutor and tutee work together to create shared knowledge and a shared text and an expressionist model of the tutorial which requires that the tutor do less talking and more listening. Writing center empirical research, however, suggests that the key factors that contribute to a tutorial being perceived as successful include: how well the tutor and writer negotiate an agenda that meets the writer's expectations, whether or not the writer is able to get and apply the information he or she needs to write or revise his or her work, and how well the tutor establishes rapport with the writer. What is surprising is that empirical research also suggests that common assumptions regarding the amount and kind of talk related to collaborative and expressionist models of the tutorial are not always a reliable means for reaching these characteristics in a tutorial. Based on this empirical evidence, this paper argues that, when training tutors writing center directors should not limit their training to collaborative and expressionist models of the tutorial. The paper makes this argument by demonstrating how a variety of tutoring strategies and models are often required to attain each characteristic. It also demonstrates that a failure to be flexible about these models in a tutorial session can contribute to a session's failure. Finally, the paper discusses the implications this research has for tutor training. (NKA)

Dynamics of the Writing Conference: Social and Cognitive Interaction

Article

Jan 1993

Presenting highlights from the past decade of East Central Writing Centers Association conferences, this book addresses the questions of how writing conferences foster the development of writing ability and how teachers can give students control of their own writing and of the writing conference and thus promote higher-order thinking. By providing insight into nontraditional writing settings, this book illustrates how college composition teachers can promote an exchange of ideas with their students and help those students achieve independence in their writing. Essays in the book include the following: (1) "Promoting Higher-Order Thinking Skills in Writing Conferences" (Thomas Flynn); (2) "A Counseling Approach to Writing Conferences" (David Taylor); (3) "Reevaluation of the Question as a Teaching Tool" (JoAnn B. Johnson); (4) "On the Issue of Authority" (David C. Fletcher); (5) "Looking for Clues" (Thomas C. Schmitzer); (6) "Experts with Life, Novices with Writing" (Marcia L. Hurlow); (7) "What Can Students Say about Poems? Reader Response in a Conference Setting" (Mary King); (8) "Using Conferences to Help Students Write Multiple Source Papers" (Patrick J. Slattery); (9) "Conferencing for the 'Learning-Disabled': How We Might Really Help" (Cornelius Cosgrove); (10) "Fostering Spontaneous Dialect Shift in the Writing of African-American Students" (Susanna Horn); and (11) "Writing Problems beyond the Classroom: The Confidence Problem" (Paula M. Oye). (SAM)

Talking It Over: A Qualitative Study of Writing Center Conferencing

Article

Jan 1989

Willa Wolcott

Examines the dynamics of 12 student-teacher writing center conferences to determine: (1) if conferencing models based on professional writers' practices occur in the writing center context; (2) if content focuses on discourse- or surface-level issues; and (3) tutors' perceptions of conference effectiveness. (MM)

Scaffolding and metacognition

Article

Mar 2006

This paper proposes an expanded conception of scaffolding with four key elements: scaffolding agency – expert, reciprocal, and self-scaffolding;scaffolding domain – conceptual and heuristic scaffolding;the identification of self-scaffolding with metacognition; andthe identification of six zones of scaffolding activity; each zone distinguished by the matter under construction and the relative positioning of the participant(s) in the act of scaffolding. These key elements are illustrated with empirical examples drawn from a variety of research studies. Scaffolding, thus conceived, brings together several theoretical domains, and by situating metacognition within a framework derived from the social activity of scaffolding, a bridge is formed between the instructional support a teacher might provide and the learner's self-control of the learning process. With regard to instruction and the role of the teacher, it is the authors' contention that a major object of instruction is the progressive relocation of scaffolding agency in the direction of the learner with the long-term goal of equipping the learner to take control of their own learning.

Scaffolding in the Writing Center: A Microanalysis of an Experienced Tutor's Verbal and Nonverbal Tutoring Strategies

Abstract

No full-text available

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