TY - GEN
T1 - Writing to learn and learning to write. How can staff help university students develop effective writing skills?
AU - Devereux, Linda
AU - Macken-Horarik, Mary
AU - Trimingham-Jack, Christine
AU - Wilson, Kate
PY - 2006
Y1 - 2006
N2 - The writing that students are required to undertake in a tertiary setting is often very different to writing tasks that they have done before, and for some students learning how to write acceptably at university is a challenge. In addition, tertiary teaching staff may underestimate the difficulty such students experience understanding and responding to the varied assessment tasks that they set. This paper reports on a study of student acquisition of academic writing skills during the four years of a Bachelor of Education course. Students' views about their emerging tertiary literacy skills are examined, and recommendations are made for teaching staff based on strategies that students felt assisted them to become more proficient writers. We argue that students benefit from written assignments that offer a high degree of challenge that will assist them in developing intellectual rigour in the discipline, but that they require adequate scaffolding if they are to develop appropr iate tertiary literacy skills that enable them to meet these challenges. Such scaffolding includes constructive feedback, explicit explanation of task requirements and multiple sources of support.
AB - The writing that students are required to undertake in a tertiary setting is often very different to writing tasks that they have done before, and for some students learning how to write acceptably at university is a challenge. In addition, tertiary teaching staff may underestimate the difficulty such students experience understanding and responding to the varied assessment tasks that they set. This paper reports on a study of student acquisition of academic writing skills during the four years of a Bachelor of Education course. Students' views about their emerging tertiary literacy skills are examined, and recommendations are made for teaching staff based on strategies that students felt assisted them to become more proficient writers. We argue that students benefit from written assignments that offer a high degree of challenge that will assist them in developing intellectual rigour in the discipline, but that they require adequate scaffolding if they are to develop appropr iate tertiary literacy skills that enable them to meet these challenges. Such scaffolding includes constructive feedback, explicit explanation of task requirements and multiple sources of support.
M3 - Conference contribution
T3 - AARE conference proceedings
SP - 1
EP - 24
BT - Proceedings of the International Research Conference of the Australian Association for Research in Education 2006
A2 - Jeffery, P
PB - Australian Association for Research in Education
CY - Australia
T2 - AARE 2006 International Education Research Conference, Adelaide, Engaging Pedagogies
Y2 - 26 November 2006 through 30 November 2006
ER -