University students in STEM contexts spend a substantial amount of their time writing various types of assignments in courses and project-related learning environments and they very often do this in groups.
Our work under this theme is focused on studying students’ writing development in connection to disciplinary knowledge development (ICL), project-related writing, and student and faculty readiness and ability for, as well as attitudes to, collaborative writing and co-authoring. What characterizes the different scientific and communication discourse expectations on the writing produced and what are the best ways of supporting students as well as faculty in their writing development and their informed use of writing?
Under this theme, the researchers in the department explore and analyse disciplinary discourses with the aim of better understanding science communication for a range of audiences and the pedagogies required to support students and faculty alike. Work under this theme is often socioculturally informed and involves probing literacy practices including supervision, peer feedback, collaborative writing, co-authoring, and ways to scaffold writing effectively. Like other themes, our work in these areas is often based on or informed by research perspectives such as academic literacies, writing-across-the-curriculum, writing-in-the-disciplines, and integrating content and language. The research is also often characterized by action research with grounded theory or phenomenographic approaches along with genre-based writing pedagogy.
For more information
- Associate Professor, Language and Communication, Communication and Learning in Science