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Composing Knowledge: Writing, Rhetoric, and Reflection in Prior Learning Assessment
Abstract
In this article, we argue that prior learning assessment (PLA) essays manifest a series of issues central to composition research and practice: they foreground the "contact zone" between the unauthorized writer, institutional power, and the articulation of knowledge claims; they reinforce the central role of a multifaceted approach to writing expertise in negotiating that zone; and they call attention to new and alternative spaces in which learning is gained and call for new forms in which it may be articulated. Ultimately, we claim that PLA as an emergent discourse compels compositionists to re-imagine not only the students we all teach, but also ways we might better—more explicitly, more reflectively, and more tactically—teach such students about writing as a mechanism for claiming and legitimating learning.
... On the one hand, they feel that there is a great need to name, structure, and assign writing tasks based upon fixed textual formats (e.g., five-paragraph essay pedagogies). On the other hand, however, the 'essayistic literacy' (Leaker and Ostman, 2010), is likely to constrain, distort, or even exclude other ways of knowing as the result of the writing instruction. responding to this situation, Johns and numerous scholars have strongly advocated mechanisms for alternative writing instruction (Belcher, 2012;Hyland, 2007;Wingate, 2012). ...
... While a few scholars (e.g, Liu, 2008) drew our attention to understand how Taiwanese undergraduate students negotiated academic writing through being playwrights and film directors to raise students' rhetorical flexibility and genre awareness, many writing instructors, such as Liao (2016), addressed how Taiwanese undergraduate students' essay writing can be evaluated by content, organization, and mechanics. This type of 'essayistic literacy' (Leaker and Ostman, 2010), particularly the five-paragraph essay, has been widely adopted in the majority of undergraduate writing courses (yeh, 2009). Teachers use textbooks that incorporate essay writing exercises. ...
This paper aims to investigate how novice EFL writers develop their genre awareness and rhetorical flexibility in a genre-based writing course that incorporates two distinct types of genres (essay and journal writing) for practice simultaneously. Three sets of qualitative and quantitative data were collected: surveys, reflection papers from 40 students, and semi-structured interviews with eight students. Descriptive statistical analysis provides an overview on students’ perceptions on the two types of genres and the distinct pedagogies. Qualitative data gathered from the in-depth interviews were used to understand how learners intermingle between two distinct writing pedagogies and what the perceived impact is on students’ subsequent functional writing practice. In order to explore how students developed their genre awareness (cognitive) and rhetorical flexibility (metacognitive), we draw on Grabe and Kaplan’s (1996) notion of ethnography of writing: (1) the purpose of a certain genre; (2) the criteria for writing; (3) audience; and (4) their goals/expectations. The findings show that most learners attached different benefits to these two genre-based instructions, enabling them to recontextualize their writing performance when necessary. Pedagogically, this study provides alternative pedagogies to the most commonly seen dilemma for L2 writing instruction. Theoretically, this research demonstrates how contested pedagogies can be complementary to enhance our understanding of to what extent cross-genre awareness can be raised and transformed through distinct genre-based practices.
This presentation explores what can happen when educators use dialogic theory to (re)envision the classroom. More specifically, it introduces a model of a virtual classroom designed to bridge the gaps between faculty expectations and the portfolios students create for credit for prior learning. The presentation introduces the kind of theoretical framework needed for a virtual classroom as well as supporting instructional materials that faculty and students can adapt or adopt for portfolio development and improvements in interdisciplinary teaching and learning.
Many Americans dream of a college degree, but earning one requires time and money. As one solution, prior learning assessment (PLA) documents college-level learning gained outside the classroom for academic credit and can make the difference between earning or not earning a college degree. However, the literature lacks an integrative and systematic review of PLA to add to the knowledge base. The purpose of this review was to examine the academic literature related to PLA in the United States. For data collection, we used a structured process to capture data from all peer-reviewed journal articles, published in the last decade, meeting inclusion criteria. For data analysis, we used inductive coding and clustering to identify categories leading to themes. Major findings from the articles included journals, publication years, authorship, underlying empirical studies, and six themes—the big picture; higher education changing PLA and PLA changing higher education; equity and access; program overviews; approaches, methods, and processes; and quality assessment.
Since the 1970s, an increasing number of universities have implemented prior learning assessments (PLA), however, little research has examined the non-course matching approach referred to as Block Credit PLA. Prior learning assessment permits adult learners to be awarded college credit hours toward completion of a degree. Adult learners pursuing a college degree often bring professional competencies, skills, and knowledge commensurate with college-level learning. Therefore, this study operationalized Block Credit Prior Learning Assessment to award college credit hours for adults enrolling in a baccalaureate program. Participants comprised 280 undergraduate students who submitted a PLA portfolio for evaluation by trained raters. Research methods included training raters, computing Cronbach's alpha for inter-rater reliability, and conducting principal component analysis to weight four internal variables for computing a score. Results indicated that a weighted score from the internal variables combined with external variable scores could be aligned with college credit hours. This study related PLA theory to practice in implementing Block Credit Prior Learning Assessment. Additional Information: Question Response
Because competency-based education (CBE) programs ask students to demonstrate what they know and can do and because CBE students often work at their own pace, competence-based learners need to be able to articulate and to manage their own learning. Drawing upon our research and experience developing, teaching in and consulting to competency-based programs for adults in domestic and international higher education contexts as well as workplace and community settings, the authors demonstrate the necessity and give examples of how to teach CBE students to be competence-based learners.
Kelly Ritter and Paul Kei Matsuda have created an essential introduction to the field of composition studies for graduate students and instructors new to the study of writing. The book offers a careful exploration of this diverse field, focusing specifically on scholarship of writing and composing. Within this territory, the authors draw the boundaries broadly, to include allied sites of research such as professional and technical writing, writing across the curriculum programs, writing centers, and writing program administration. Importantly, they represent composition as a dynamic, eclectic field, influenced by factors both within the academy and without. The editors and their sixteen seasoned contributors have created a comprehensive and thoughtful exploration of composition studies as it stands in the early twenty-first century. Given the rapid growth of this field and the evolution of it research and pedagogical agendas over even the last ten years, this multi-vocal introduction is long overdue. © 2012 by the University Press of Colorado. All rights reserved.
In this essay, the author explores four fundamental, but contested topics in Genre-based Writing Instruction (GBWI) about which decisions must be made as curricula are developed. Drawing from the three major genre traditions (Hyon, 1996), the author examines the contested topics (naming, awareness/acquisition, pedagogical focus, and ideology) and suggests compromises for L2 practitioners who adopt a genre-based approach.
What we ask students to do is who we ask them to be. With this as a defining proposition, I make three claims: (1) print portfolios offer fundamentally different intellectual and affective opportunities than electronic portfolios do; (2) looking at some student portfolios in both media begins to tell us something about what intellectual work is possible within a portfolio; and (3) assuming that each portfolio is itself a composition, we need to consider which kind of portfolio-as-composition we want to invite from students, and why.
Students' formation of meaningful learning through community based activities varies with the nature and quality of reflective skills they develop and apply.