Integrating Creative Writing Across the Disciplines to Improve Learning
Abstract
Metaphors are powerful devices that act as a change agent to help transform what is known into new understandings. They have the power to heighten awareness of existing ways of thinking and prompt us to think and act differently because they provide a change in perspective. Undergraduates studying ethics used metaphors to unlock their understanding of course material, using creative writing essays in a pre-test/post-test design versus the traditional summative case study. Kolb's experiential learning cycle provides the framework. This study demonstrates the positive effects of “writing across the disciplines,” shows how creative writing can easily be integrated into a variety of subjects, and provides a catalyst for instructors to explore how metaphors reveal their personal points of view about teaching and learning. The relationship between metaphor saliency and the five orientations to teaching (behaviorist, cognitivist, humanist, social learning, and constructivist) will be presented.
Location
Concourse
Publication Type and Release Option
Image (Open Access)
Recommended Citation
Burton, Christie, "Integrating Creative Writing Across the Disciplines to Improve Learning" (2009). SoTL Commons Conference. 84.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/sotlcommons/SoTL/2009/84
Integrating Creative Writing Across the Disciplines to Improve Learning
Concourse
Metaphors are powerful devices that act as a change agent to help transform what is known into new understandings. They have the power to heighten awareness of existing ways of thinking and prompt us to think and act differently because they provide a change in perspective. Undergraduates studying ethics used metaphors to unlock their understanding of course material, using creative writing essays in a pre-test/post-test design versus the traditional summative case study. Kolb's experiential learning cycle provides the framework. This study demonstrates the positive effects of “writing across the disciplines,” shows how creative writing can easily be integrated into a variety of subjects, and provides a catalyst for instructors to explore how metaphors reveal their personal points of view about teaching and learning. The relationship between metaphor saliency and the five orientations to teaching (behaviorist, cognitivist, humanist, social learning, and constructivist) will be presented.
