Critical Transitions in Writing Transfer: Inquiry and Implications

Jessie L. Moore, Elon UniversityPaula Rosinski, Elon University

Carmen Werder, Western Washington University

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The Elon Research Seminar and Current Understandings of Writing Transfer

Jessie L. Moore, @jessielmoore, jmoore28@elon.edu

Elon Research Seminar

• 2 year/3 summer project

• Sponsored by the Center for Engaged Learning at Elon U

• 2011-2013 Topic– Critical Transitions: Writing and the Question of Transfer

Elon Research Seminar

• Institutional research projects and 10 multi-institutional research projects

• 45 participants from 5 countries and 20+ institutions

• Range of institution types Broader range of contexts

(Collective inquiry)

(Internationalization)

Concept Map Developed at Elon Research Seminar, June 2012

Four Views: (1) Student, (2) Faculty/Classroom, (3) Program/Institutional,

(4) Domain/Workplace/Discipline/Community of Practice

Borrowed Legends – Perkins and Salomon

High Road Mindful Abstraction (Bridging)

Low Road Practiced Habits (Hugging)

David N. Perkins and Gavriel Salomon

Creative Commons Reuse Copyright by Colin Wilson

Borrowed Legends – Perkins and Salomon

Creative Commons – Attribution, MSVG

Creative Commons – Attribution, Roger Blake

Both automatic ?Near transfer!

Automatic StandardFar Transfer

Borrowed Legends – King Beach

Transition: Knowledge generalized across social space and time

Consequential Transition: Transition is consciously reflected on, shifts individual’s sense of self or social position

Creative Commons – Attribution, Brian Hillegas

Prepare learners to be boundary-crossers and change agents

Borrowed Legends – Tuomi-Gröhn and Engeström

Build on activity theory

Jan Meyer and Ray LandThreshold concepts = transformative,

core of the disciplinary world view

Borrowed Legends – Meyer and Land

Threshold Concepts

Disciplinary Knowledge

Inquiry

Questions about Writing-Related Transfer

• students’ transitions from first-year composition (FYC) to subsequent or concurrent contexts

• students’ perceptions of writing experiences after FYC

• students’ transitions to professional and community contexts

Questions about Writing-Related Transfer

• students’ knowledge of genres and use of prior knowledge when encountering new genres

• how feedback on previous assignments affects students’ future writing

• structures of educational experiences that facilitate transfer

Disciplinary Methods for Studying Transfer

• Surveys of faculty (Nelms and Dively, Wardle “Mutt Genres”)• Surveys of students (Adler-Kassner, Majewski, and Koshnick; Clark and

Hernandez; Driscoll; Nowacek; Robertson, Taczak, and Yancey; Sternglass; Wardle “Mutt Genres”; Wardle “Understanding Transfer”)

• Focus groups with faculty (Adler-Kassner, Majewski, and Koshnick; Nelms and Dively; Wardle “Mutt Genres”)

• Focus groups with students (Bergmann and Zepernick, Nowacek, Wardle “Mutt Genres”, Wardle “Understanding Transfer”)

• Interviews with faculty (Bacon, Beaufort, McCarthy, Nowacek, Wardle “Mutt Genres”)

• Interviews with students (Adler-Kassner, Majewski, and Koshnick; Anson and Forsberg; Bacon; Beaufort; Driscoll; McCarthy; Nowacek; Rounsaville; Robertson, Taczak, and Yancey; Sternglass; Wardle “Understanding Transfer”)

• Interviews with workplace or community organization supervisors (Bacon)• Classroom observations (Bacon, Beaufort, McCarthy, Nowacek, Sternglass)• Composing-aloud protocols (McCarthy)

Disciplinary Methods for Studying Transfer

Length of Study

# of

Par

ticip

ants

Contexts of Writing-Related Transfer Studies

Creative Commons – Attribution, Libre Map Project

Concept Map Developed at Elon Research Seminar, June 2012

5 Essential Principles

Writing transfer is a complex phenomena, and understanding that complexity is central to facilitating students’ successful consequential transitions, whether among university writing tasks or between academic and workplace or civic contexts.

Transition is consciously reflected on, shifts individual’s sense of self or social position

Chris Anson’s art history object analysis example

Students’ dispositions and identities inform the success of their unique writing transfer experiences.

Successful writing transfer requires transforming or repurposing prior knowledge (even if only slightly) for a new context in order to adequately meet the expectations of new audiences and fulfill new purposes for writing.

University programs (e.g., first-year writing programs, writing across the curriculum programs, majors, etc.) can “teach for transfer.” Enabling practices that promote writing transfer include:

• constructing writing curricula and classes that focus on the study and practice of rhetorically-based concepts (such as genre, purpose, and audience) that enable students to analyze expectations for writing and learning within specific contexts,

• asking students to engage in activities that foster the development of metacognitive awareness, and

• explicitly modeling transfer-focused thinking.

Recognizing and assessing writing transfer requires using a mix qualitative and quantitative methods looking at both critical transition points and longitudinal patterns of learning.

(Mixing Methods)

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