Location
Room 2904 B
Session Format
Paper Presentation
Research Area Topic:
Education & Learning - Teaching, Learning & Human Development
Co-Presenters and Faculty Mentors or Advisors
Julie Odom-Dixon (Georgia Southern University)
Abstract
Goals and Objectives: Our institution, Georgia Southern University, has selected a Quality Enhanced Plan (QEP) focusing on fostering effective student writing and associated thinking skills across all college and in the disciplines. In addition to the 1st Student Learning Outcome (SLO) of demonstrating argumentation, analysis, and synthesis skills through writing, the 2nd SLO in our QEP highlights students’ engagement in process writing. In this presentation, we will describe how the qualitative technique, along with the quantitative method, have been used to capture students’ engagement in process writing through a pre-post design.
Theoretical Framework: Since the 1980s, writing pedagogy has expanded from solely teaching students to concentrate on their written product to writing processes (Cowan & Cowan, 1980; Hillocks, 1987). Writing has been perceived to be a recursive process that writers have the opportunity to plan, draft, edit, and revise their work. The current literature is significantly influenced by the social cognitive view of process writing (Flower & Hayes, 1980; Flower, 2010). Influenced by this theory, our QEP plan highlights not only student writing products but also process writing, not only cognitive process but also social strategies. Process writing in our plan aims at encouraging students’ engagement in 1) researching, 2) drafting, 3) reflecting, 4) collaborating, 5) reviewing, 6) editing.
Methodology/Data: We used a survey which included both likert-scale and open ended questions to assess students’ engagement in process writing. The survey which was collected at the beginning and end of Fall 2015 included three sections: 1) students’ background information, 2) 6-point Likert-scale items about the six components of process writing, and 3) two open-ended questions about students’ specific actions from planning to submitting their writing assignment and their reflections of how their writing benefited from process writing. The Process Writing Survey was distributed among all the 14 Writing-Enriched courses. The responses of students who came from the programs that did not participate in the 1 st year of QEP were excluded. The responses to the 6-point Likert-scale items were entered and analyzed using REMARK and SPSS. The two open-ended questions were analyzed by hand through a standard qualitative thematic inductive coding approach. To minimize bias and increase trustworthiness, we cross-checked and cross-validated the codes.
Educational/Field Significance: Our presentation provides important implications for program assessment. While the Likert-scale quantitative data allows generalizability, the qualitative approach using the open-ended questions offers rich and enhanced information regarding process writing. Open-ended questions provide richness of detail, bring to light examples or illustrations, and offer opportunities for students to elaborate and reflect their writing processes, although the qualitative method is time-consuming and responses may be obscuring to code. In addition, the comparison of the two sets of data provides triangulation of data sources. Hence, we are able to identify how the results from both datasets support or contradict each other.
Proposed Significance/Outcomes: In the presentation, we will describe how the results offered data-driven evidence to identify students’ strengths and weaknesses, document the changes and progresses of students’ engagement in process writing, and provide directions for action plans.
Keywords
QEP, process writing
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Presentation Type and Release Option
Presentation (Open Access)
Start Date
4-16-2016 1:30 PM
End Date
4-16-2016 2:30 PM
Recommended Citation
Song, Xiaomei, "QEP Process Writing Survey: Process and Results" (2016). GS4 Georgia Southern Student Scholars Symposium. 44.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/research_symposium/2016/2016/44
Included in
Educational Administration and Supervision Commons, Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research Commons
QEP Process Writing Survey: Process and Results
Room 2904 B
Goals and Objectives: Our institution, Georgia Southern University, has selected a Quality Enhanced Plan (QEP) focusing on fostering effective student writing and associated thinking skills across all college and in the disciplines. In addition to the 1st Student Learning Outcome (SLO) of demonstrating argumentation, analysis, and synthesis skills through writing, the 2nd SLO in our QEP highlights students’ engagement in process writing. In this presentation, we will describe how the qualitative technique, along with the quantitative method, have been used to capture students’ engagement in process writing through a pre-post design.
Theoretical Framework: Since the 1980s, writing pedagogy has expanded from solely teaching students to concentrate on their written product to writing processes (Cowan & Cowan, 1980; Hillocks, 1987). Writing has been perceived to be a recursive process that writers have the opportunity to plan, draft, edit, and revise their work. The current literature is significantly influenced by the social cognitive view of process writing (Flower & Hayes, 1980; Flower, 2010). Influenced by this theory, our QEP plan highlights not only student writing products but also process writing, not only cognitive process but also social strategies. Process writing in our plan aims at encouraging students’ engagement in 1) researching, 2) drafting, 3) reflecting, 4) collaborating, 5) reviewing, 6) editing.
Methodology/Data: We used a survey which included both likert-scale and open ended questions to assess students’ engagement in process writing. The survey which was collected at the beginning and end of Fall 2015 included three sections: 1) students’ background information, 2) 6-point Likert-scale items about the six components of process writing, and 3) two open-ended questions about students’ specific actions from planning to submitting their writing assignment and their reflections of how their writing benefited from process writing. The Process Writing Survey was distributed among all the 14 Writing-Enriched courses. The responses of students who came from the programs that did not participate in the 1 st year of QEP were excluded. The responses to the 6-point Likert-scale items were entered and analyzed using REMARK and SPSS. The two open-ended questions were analyzed by hand through a standard qualitative thematic inductive coding approach. To minimize bias and increase trustworthiness, we cross-checked and cross-validated the codes.
Educational/Field Significance: Our presentation provides important implications for program assessment. While the Likert-scale quantitative data allows generalizability, the qualitative approach using the open-ended questions offers rich and enhanced information regarding process writing. Open-ended questions provide richness of detail, bring to light examples or illustrations, and offer opportunities for students to elaborate and reflect their writing processes, although the qualitative method is time-consuming and responses may be obscuring to code. In addition, the comparison of the two sets of data provides triangulation of data sources. Hence, we are able to identify how the results from both datasets support or contradict each other.
Proposed Significance/Outcomes: In the presentation, we will describe how the results offered data-driven evidence to identify students’ strengths and weaknesses, document the changes and progresses of students’ engagement in process writing, and provide directions for action plans.
