putting research under a microscope teaching ‘micro-level’ information use in first-year college...
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PUTTING RESEARCH under a MICROSCOPETEACHING ‘MICRO-LEVEL’ INFORMATION USE IN FIRST-YEAR COLLEGE WRITING
LOEX | NASHVILLE | 2013Aaron McCollough | Kelly Davenport | University of Michigan
Research Questions• What are the key breakdowns in
student understanding of how to effectively use sources in writing?
• How do instructors characterize both breakdowns & model processes in working with sources in FYC?
Methods & Outputs• Yearlong study with
mentorship from U-M Center for Research on Learning & Teaching
• Interviews with 9 instructors in fall 2012
• Survey of students and instructors on ‘information use’
• 69 pages of coded transcripts, whittled from 20 hours of interview recordings
• 132 responses for student survey
• 77 responses for instructor survey
Photo: Stewf via Flickr
Constrained
Constructivist
Rhetorical
Empirical
A Spectrum of Themes
Authority, audience, purpose
Impact factors, ‘good’ journals, ‘scholarly’
Provided sources Problematizing sources as authorities
Model Research-Writing Processes
• Moving from opinion (‘I know’) to argument (‘I think’)• Sources as models // Sources as information• Sources as constraining // Sources as broadening• Source use is rhetorical // Source use is confirmative• Sources are constructed // Sources are authoritative• Assessing source engagement: Mechanics // Rhetorics
8%
14%
23%
24%
15%
17%
Models of Source Engagement
Opinion/Ar-gumentModels/Informa-tionConstraining/BroadeningRhetorical/Con-firmativeConstructed/Au-thoritativeMechanics/Rhetorics
Sticking Points for Students• Varying conceptions of ‘academic’
audience• Lack of engagement with quotes• Complexity not seen as a goal• Using tangentially related sources• Students don’t see themselves as part
of a community or conversation
10%
23%
26%
13%
29%
What Instructors Say Students Struggle With
AudienceQuotesComplexityTangential SourcesConversation
Identifying Areas of Intervention
#3 Transitioning between your ideas and another’s#7 Evaluating accuracy, authority, and point of view#2 Summarizing and quoting#5 Incorporating source material without being ‘swamped’#4 Evaluating sources based on writing purpose
Four
Five
Two
Seven
Three
One
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Six
Twelve
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Direct Instruc-tionInstruction Goals
‘Wayfinding is the organization and communication of our dynamic relationship to space and the environment. Successful design to promote wayfinding allows people to: determine their location within a setting;determine their destination, and; develop a plan that will take them from their location to their destination.’
– Center for Inclusive Design & Environmental Access, SUNY-Buffalo
‘Predatory Reading’• Think pragmatically – what does each part of the argument ‘do’?• Identify signposts (subheadings, chapters, etc.)• Topic sentences• Evidence• Identify internal structures• Examine transitions• Identify key conceptual distinctions• Identify explicit references to rival scholarly positions• Watch for strategic concessions• Incoherence is a possibility!
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