Academic Literacy as a Graduate Attribute: Implications for Thinking about Curriculum and Professional

DevelopmentNWU Scholarship of Teaching and

Learning ConferenceOctober 2014

Brenda Leibowitz

What is Academic Literacy?

• Information literacy

• Digital literacy

• Numeracy

• Visual literacy (etc)

• Literacy v. literacies

The role of language

The way I analyse things is different from the way my lecturers analysethings. This is always the case, even in Xhosa, so I can’t say English is the barrier (Leibowitz 2010:161).

Student: I think it [English] has been a block to my understanding, depends also now on what it is, what type of thing it is that I am reading or that I am writing about. If it is a factual thing, if you get something in class that you have to read, then it usually takes me two or three times to really read through it and understand what is going on. But if it is not a factual thing but something interesting, then it doesn't take that long for me to understand. ... Researcher: And writing essays in English?Student: Also depends on the type of topic. Factual things take quite a long time really for me to understand and know what I am talking about, unless it is something I have heard people spoke to me about in class or something and then I can relate to what I have heard and what is in the book. (Leibowitz 2010: 159).

How is AL a Graduate Attribute?

• An outcome

– Can write essays

– Can write journal articles/research pieces

• A foundational component (necessary to learn)

• To be separated from: eg professional communication

Implications for Curriculum Design

Literacies are practices rather than purely skills

Through the way in which we were brought up I did get a lot of … a lot of academic debate, … you have to articulate your argument clearly … if things are different then you have to show that they're different and not start muddling things … and that part of being education [is typical] in this department. (Leibowitz 2009:269).

I had a Mikano set from when I was small which surely had an influence. You had an electronic set that you could build things with and then pull apart and then build something else and so on, and I played with the thing and I was absolutely fascinated with the things and it took me a while before I could afford such a thing, but I got one and then began to build it. Sometimes it worked and sometimes it did not. And the other thing that I remember well, my uncle was a Professor at Wits and he tells the story of how as a child he had a crystal set that you could use to build a radio ... and he came to visit us and he brought the crystal thing to show me but he could not remember how the thing worked and then I tried build it.

Implications for Curriculum Design

• Language and academic literacy are embedded in negotiating knowledge

• An integrated approach is the most desirable

• Pragmatism is however desirable

Implications for Design

• Practice based v. teaching about

• Ecological apprenticeship:

“apprenticeship in applied settings, access to empowering modes of discourse, guided instruction that leads to self-regulated learning, and understanding learning in cultural-historical contexts” (Gutierrez et al, 2009: 223)

• Academic literacy is NOT purely a first-year

concern

MBCHB graduate

MBCHB graduate

Academic literacy - transitions

I was very frustrated [at the new university] and said to myself, ‘Well, I’ve been four years at [the first university] but never, I have never had someone who marked my paper like this’ and to start all over again, it’s very difficult.

(Leibowitz, 2010:96)

Academic Literacy is not 100% Sequenced

For example it is often argued that an extroverted person is well-suited to language learning. However research does not always support this conclusion. MrKruger’s reader 1995 p. 37) I have a weighty support with argument that an extroverted person is well-suited to language learning. After matric I went out to seek a job … (Leibowitz 2010, p. 185)

Implications for Professional Development

• Lecturers should be trained/supported:

– To become more conscious of the conventions of their disciplines

– How to foster the academic literacy of their students

– To themselves write successfully

ResourcesBarrie S. 2004. A research-based approach to generic graduate attributes policy. Higher Education Research and Development, 23(3):261-275.Gutierrez K., Morales P. & Martinez, D. 2009. Remediating literacy: Culture, difference, and learning for students from nondominant communities. In: V. Gadsden, J. Davis & A. Artiles (eds) Review of Research in Education, 33. 212-245.Halliday M. 1994. Language as social semiotic. In: J. Maybin (ed.) Language and literacy in social practices. Avon: Multilingual Matters. Heath, S. B. 1983. Ways with Words. Cambridge University Press. Ivanič R., Edwards R., Barton D., Martin-Jones M., Fowler Z., Hughes B., Mannion G., Miller K., Satchwell C. & Smith J. 2009. Improving learning in college: Rethinking literacies across the curriculum. New York: Routledge.Leibowitz B. 2013. Attention to Student Writing in Postgraduate Health Science Education: Whose Task is It – or Rather, How? Journal of Academic Writing, 3 (1) 30 – 41Leibowitz, B. (2011) Academic literacy as a graduate attribute: Implications for thinking about ‘curriculum’. In: E. Bitzer and N. Botha (Eds) Curriculum inquiry in South African higher education: Scholarly affirmations and challenges. Sun Media.213 – 228. ISBN: 978-1-920338-64-0Leibowitz B. 2010. The significance of academic literacy in higher education. Saarbrucken: Lambert Academic Publishers.Leibowitz, B. (2009) What’s Inside the Suitcases? An investigation into the powerful resources students and lecturers bring to teaching and learning. Higher Education Research and Development, 25 (3) 261 – 274.Leibowitz, B. (2005) Learning in an additional language in a multilingual society: A South African case study on university-level writing. TESOL Quarterly, 39 (4) 661-681.Lillis T. & Scott M. 2008. Defining academic literacies research: Issues of epistemology, ideology and strategy. Journal of Applied Linguistics, 4(1): 5-32.Mehlenbacher B. 2010. Instruction and technology: Designs for everyday learning. Cambridge: MIT Press.