Improving the Teaching of Academic Genres in High-Enrollment Courses across Disciplines: A Three-Year Reiterative Study

Chris ThaissUniversity of California, Davis (US)

Brenda RinardUniversity of California, Davis (US)

EATAW 2011 ConferenceUniversity of LimerickJuly 1, 2011

Three-year Spencer-Teagle grant part of five-year project to expand and deepen general education at UC Davis (ge.ucdavis.edu)

The “writing experience” general education requirement at UC Davis (6-9 units)

Augments 8-credit lower- and upper-division composition requirements

“Writing experience coursework provides students instruction on how to communicate ideas in the subject matter of a course. Students write in appropriate forms under the guidance of faculty and graduate students. The opportunity to revise writing after having received careful commentary is crucial to this requirement” (Revised General Education requirement March 2008)

Spencer - Teagle Grant was timely, in that it allowed us to do a pilot case study of a large-enrollment course that was “on the books” as meeting the old writing requirement, but which in fact did not.

Grant allowed us to modify and assess this course over 3 years, then use its methods and assessment as a prototype for similar courses across departments.

Study would exemplify cross-disciplinary cooperation (PI from Univ. Writing Program, GSRs from Education, instructor and TAs from Sociology).

Sociology 25: Popular Culture

Undergraduate lecture course. Approx. 150 students per quarter

Previously used multiple choice and essay exams as assessments

3 TAs –hold 1-hour session per week and office hours, grade exams; 50 students per TA

New interventions: Added a “progressive” paper and weekly reading-response assignments

Create and administer pre- and post-course student surveys

Create writing assignments with Laura Grindstaff, sociology professor

Collaboratively develop rubric from year-one assignments and sample papers (based on Thaiss/Zawacki, 2006, model)

Informally and formally interview course TAs, students, and professor

Decide on study adjustments based on year-one findings

2009

n= 71

2010

N=127

2011

N=117

Sociology Major

7% 6% 3%

English is not the first, or primary, language

15% 17% 23%

Freshman or Sophomore

69% 56% 65%

Pre-course survey asked about previous writing instruction, amount of writing, and attitudes about writing.

Post–course survey asked students to evaluate

the writing assignments and quality of feedback.

Used Likert Scale 1-10 1 is least helpful/10 is most helpful

Changed weekly reading responses to TAs to an online “blog” forum that all students could read and respond to

Changed progressive paper prompt to allow greater choice of readings, and required application to “real-life” situation, chosen by each student

Rubric became tool to guide instruction on progressive paper and feedback on proposals and drafts

Forum Posts 2009 % 2010 % 2011 %

Helpful 74 70% 86 78% 74 90%

Not Helpful 30 29% 24 21% 9 10%

No Response 1 1% 0 0% 0 0%

Progressive Paper

2009 % 2010 % 2011 %

Helpful 82 78% 94 85% 71 86%

Not Helpful 23 22% 16 14% 12 14%

Forum Posts 2009 % 2010 % 2011 %

Helpful 79 75% 101 91% 76 92%

Not Helpful 26 25% 9 8% 6 7%

No Response 0 0% 1 1% 1 1%

Progressive Paper

2009 % 2010 % 2011 %

Helpful 77 73% 89 80% 64 78%

Not Helpful 28 27% 21 19% 18 21%

No Response 0 0% 1 1% 1 1%

Forum Posts 2009 % 2010 % 2011 %

Helpful 64 61% 87 79% 65 78%

Not Helpful 41 39% 23 21% 15 18%

No Response 0 0% 0 0% 3 4%

Progressive Paper

2009 % 2010 % 2011 %

Helpful 75 71% 86 78% 63 76%

Not Helpful 30 29% 24 22% 17 20%

No Response 0 0% 0 0% 3 4%

2009 % 2010 % 2011 %

Helpful 90 86% 96 87% 77 93%

Not Helpful 14 13% 12 11% 4 5%

No Response 1 1% 2 2% 2 2%

Forum Posts 2009 % 2010 % 2011 %

Keep 73 70% 82 75% 63 75%

Drop 32 30% 26 24% 13 15%

No Response 0 0% 2 1% 8 10%

Progressive Paper

2009 % 2010 % 2011 %

Keep 88 84% 95 86% 61 73%

Drop 17 16% 14 13% 14 17%

No Response 0 0% 1 1% 8 10%

The forum posts allowed me to view the opinion of others and express my thoughts.

  Really did get to interact with course reading to

really understand how it all ties in.  They were helpful because they made me think more

critically about the topics and allowed me to see other classmates’ perspectives.

  I definitely saw the connections made via the

progressive paper and blog entries. They strengthened my understanding of course material.

  Forum posts allowed me to think of pop culture, in

my own way and dive deeper into the readings than I normally would have. Progressive paper allowed me to connect all concepts into something that I found interesting making me more fascinated with the class.

The paper required me to think more critically on the core concepts discussed in class.

The progressive paper has been challenging to write, but it has been helpful in applying the concepts and analyze like a sociologist

Progressive paper was helpful because we got feedback.

The progressive paper is a good way of helping the step to step process to producing a solid paper.

I had trouble with the initial paper so that forced me to rewrite it but it ultimately helped me get the concepts. The blogs helped by reinforcing the concepts along the way.

Overwhelmingly positive feedback from students about all aspects of the course

Professor and TAs reported better quality papers and higher than average course grades.

TAs stated that the course changes made their workload more manageable and their work more effective and targeted.

TAs appreciated being able to use the year-one rubric with students.

As GE reform has moved from course approvals (1500 WE courses in 80 majors) to implementation and assessment (2011-2014), we have begun to apply pilot successes to

(1) faculty/TA training workshops (through University Writing Program WAC structure, writing.ucdavis.edu)

(2) assessment of sample of representative courses across majors (using instructor surveys & interviews and student focus groups)