Helen Drury

Learning Science through Writing: Associations with Prior Conceptions of Writing and Perceptions of a Writing Program.

Students in a large undergraduate biology course were expected to write a scientific report as a key part of their course design. This study investigates the quality of learning arising from the writing experience and how it relates to the quality of students’ preconceptions of learning through writing and their perceptions of their writing program that led to their report. Closed‐ended questionnaires investigating student conceptions and perceptions of writing, and approaches to writing, were completed by 121 students. Significant associations were found amongst qualitatively different prior and post conceptions of writing, approaches to writing and achievement. The results of the analyses suggest that the effective support of student experiences of writing reports requires teachers to be aware of the type of conceptions that students bring to their course and the perceptions they hold about the purpose of the writing program in which they are engaged.

Rhetoric and realities: on the development of university-wide strategies to promote student English language growth

This article describes the results from a national project that investigated institutional approaches to the development of student English language capabilities in Australian higher education. The project aimed to identify the various approaches and strategies that higher education providers have established and to gauge whether they have been evaluated by those in the field as successful in attaining their objectives. The results of the study indicated that those institutions identified as successful had a number of elements in common, elements missing from those universities which were considered as less effective. The article concludes by identifying the key factors that were identified by project participants as being essential in the development of successful institution-wide strategies for promoting student language growth.

The Effect of Student Prior Experience, Attitudes, and Approaches on Performance in An Undergraduate Science Writing Program

Designing a program to teach writing within the science curriculum may not be effective if we do not understand what factors influence success in the writing process. We therefore collected data to create a profile of the characteristics of our incoming undergraduate science students with reference to their prior experiences, attitudes and approaches to writing. Significant correlations were found between the extent of prior experience, positive attitudes and type of approach to writing. Comprehensive prior experience and a positive attitude correlated strongly with subsequent success in the first semester writing program in biology. Students without these characteristics may therefore be entering our program with a clear disadvantage. The data were used to propose changes to the writing program particularly in the areas of preparation, practice and feedback phases of the cycle of learning. These curriculum changes are designed to create a more positive student perception of the teaching and learning context so that students can adapt a more effective approach to writing in the sciences and hence improve the quality of their learning outcomes.

University Student Conceptions of Learning Science through Writing.

First-year undergraduate science students experienced a writing program as an important part of their assessment in a biology subject. The writing program was designed to help them develop both their scientific understanding as well as their written scientific expression. Open-ended questionnaires investigating the quality of the experience of learning through writing were distributed to 165 students. Interviews with six tutors on the writing program were also completed. Key results included that if students were not aware of the potential of learning science through writing, they tended to focus on superficial aspects of the writing experience, such as grammar, rather than the scientific knowledge that underpinned the experience. The results have important implications for the integration of writing experiences into university subjects and tutor approaches to writing tuition.

Using the Jigsaw Method to Teach Abdominal Anatomy: Using the Jigsaw Method to Teach Anatomy

This study evaluates a cooperative learning approach for teaching anatomy to health science students incorporating small group and peer instruction based on the jigsaw method first described in the 1970s. Fifty‐three volunteers participated in abdominal anatomy workshops. Students were given time to become an “expert” in one of four segments of the topic (sub‐topics) by allocating groups to work‐stations with learning resources: axial computerized tomography (CT) of abdominal structures, axial CT of abdominal blood vessels, angiograms and venograms of abdominal blood vessels and structures located within abdominal quadrants. In the second part of workshop, students were redistributed into “jigsaw” learning groups with at least one “expert” at each workstation. The “jigsaw” learning groups then circulated between workstations learning all sub‐topics with the “expert” teaching others in their group. To assess abdominal anatomy knowledge, students completed a quiz pre‐ and post‐ workshop. Students increased their knowledge with significant improvements in quiz scores irrespective of prior exposure to lectures or practical classes related to the workshop topic. The evidence for long‐term retention of knowledge, assessed by comparing end‐semester examination performance of workshop participants with workshop nonparticipants, was less convincing. Workshop participants rated the jigsaw workshop highly for both educational value and enjoyment and felt the teaching approach would improve their course performance. The jigsaw method improved anatomy knowledge in the short‐term by engaging students in group work and peer‐led learning, with minimal supervision required. Reported outcomes suggest that cooperative learning approaches can lead to gains in student performance and motivation to learn. Anat Sci Educ 00: 000–000.

Engaging Students in Online Learning Environments for Success in Academic Writing in the Disciplines

This chapter focuses on how to develop students’ academic writing through fostering their use of online resources in an e-learning environment. Such an online environment, whether for independent or blended learning, needs to be carefully designed so that students will engage with the learning materials and tasks. Thus, motivating students to use e-learning resources is at the centre of the design, development and implementation of an online environment. This is even more critical when teaching writing in the disciplines, since teaching discipline knowledge tends to dominate both face-to-face and e-learning curricula. Consequentially, the teaching of writing at university can be, wholly or partially, an extra-curricula, independent learning activity. A genre pedagogy for teaching writing can support student engagement since it is strongly grounded in discipline purposes and contexts. This pedagogy can be used as the basis for a social semiotic approach to the design of e-learning resources. However, the success of such an online learning environment for writing is highly dependent upon strategies for implementation, and the degree of integration with discipline curricula.