Enhancing Learning through Writing HT24

CLS941-1: 19-20, 22-23, 29-30 August (9:00-16:00); 27 September (9:00-15:00) [TimeEdit]

Use the following Promotion Code on the next page to enroll in the course: DIPLOMA

Enrolment opens at noon May 2nd.

 

Course syllabus for CLS941 – Enhancing Learning through Writing

 

Syllabus adopted 2022-03-02 by Jens Kabo, Diploma coordinator

 

4,5 Credits

Grading: Satisfactory/not satisfactory Education cycle: Second-cycle

 

Department: 62 - COMMUNICATION AND LEARNING IN SCIENCE

 

Teaching language:

English

 

In course package:

Diploma of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education

 

Examiner

Associate professor Magnus Gustafsson

 

Eligibility

Bachelor ́s degree, 180 higher education credits or equivalent. B2 CEFR in English.* (https://www.coe.int/en/web/portfolio/self-assessment-grid)

 

Course specific prerequisites

CLS926 University Teaching and Learning or equivalent course.

 

Aim

The course is offered as a seminar oriented towards course design or course development with a focus on constructive alignment and professional practice. The series of seminars is designed for teachers at Chalmers who want to enhance their use of writing and writing to learn in their courses. The main aim of the course, therefore, is to help develop participants’ own ability to write and to facilitate writing and learning through writing. The course also aims to enable revision and improvement of current materials and assignments used.

 

Intended learning outcomes (after completion of the course the course participant should be able to)

Knowledge and understanding

• make informed decisions regarding the various theoretical frameworks that affect their educational context and the project they are pursuing
• use constructive alignment and writing pedagogy to isolate strengths and weaknesses in their professional practice

Skills and abilities

• plan, design, and evaluate learning activities involving the use of writing
• enhance the written proficiency and reading strategies of students
• promote and support the analysis of texts in terms of critical reading and disciplinary discourse awareness
• provide and assess feedback on writing both from a formative and a summative point of view to a heterogeneous student body
• improve their own written proficiency by access to and knowledge of a series of writing and grammar tools, writing pedagogies, and rhetorical perspectives on writing

Judgement and approach

• critically discuss advantages and disadvantages of recurring writing pedagogy designs in higher education relative the potential of informed constructive alignment and writing to learn pedagogy
• critically discuss issues regarding constructive alignment and enhancing learning through writing in connection to copyright issues, authenticity, integrity, and sustainable development

Content

The course seminar continuously revisits constructive alignment and the scholarship of teaching and learning as basic building blocks of professional practice. The theoretical background required varies slightly depending on the focus for each participant but will typically include critiques of constructive alignment, customisation of the writing process approach as well as genre-based writing instruction. Additional frameworks useful for participants are those of academic literacy and activity theory, both of which are introduced and problematized in the seminar. The focus in the seminar discussion, however, is the planning, design, delivery, assessment, and evaluation of writing pedagogy components in the professional practice of the participants. The seminar discussion pursues the challenges and benefits of various designs and practices that involve or should involve writing to generate the desirable learning outcomes for the course or a part of a course.

 

Issues that are highlighted during the course:

• Analysing pre-revision course design for writing-to-learn interventions
  
• Design and adaptation of established writing methodologies to promote learning
• Design and customization of assessment and feedback given the revised approach
• Mapping of the new design in view of the entire course or supervision process and the subsequent evaluation design for it.

Organisation

The seven seminars in the course facilitate the discussion of theoretical frameworks with an impact on writing to learn approaches and constructive alignment. During the course, the participants pursue a practical project concerning the use of writing-oriented pedagogy to create efficient and stimulating learning environments. This includes re-designing a course, a course component, and to analyse and adapt appropriate writing pedagogy lenses and tools to support the desired learning outcomes.

 

Each individual participant will focus his or her reading for an informed re-design of a course depending on the problem area isolated in their analysis of their practice. Irrespective of participants’ individual foci, the modelling of the course and the discussion in it are intended to help promote learning through writing in higher education teaching and learning.

 

During the course, blended learning is practiced which means that both traditional communication face-to-face and online but also asynchronous online communication is used.

 

The course is designed for teachers in higher education.

 

Literature

Textbook: Felder & Brent. 2016. Teaching and Learning STEM : A Practical Guide.

 

Additional literature distributed via the Canvas site for the course.

 

Examination*

Participants are examined in connection with the following types of course elements:

• Participation in campus-based seminar and / or activity web-based course activities - where the participants’ command of course content, their ownership and development of their development projects, and the connection to their own teaching practice are crucial components.
• Presentation of completed development projects where planning, design, learning outcomes, activities, assessment, feedback, and evaluation are accounted for and supported by practice and theory. The development project should be presented in the form of an article or report and should be discussed in the course and presented at the course close.
• Of the 19 assignments, the following nine are compulsory and indicated as such on Canvas:
  
  • Facilitator project brief
    
  • The assignment to provide reading material (articles, chapters) from the discipline
    
  • Two of the five writing assignments
    
  • Two of the facilitator project tasks
    
  • The facilitator project report including self-assessment and ‘presentation’
    
  • Two of the discussion fora tasks

*If a participant, who has failed the same examined component twice, wishes to change examiner before the next examination, a written application shall be sent to the department responsible for the course and shall be granted unless there are special reasons to the contrary (Chapter 6, Section 22 of Higher Education Ordinance).

 

 

In cases where a course has been discontinued or has undergone major changes, the student shall normally be guaranteed at least three examination occasions (including the ordinary examination) during a period of at least one year from the last time the course was given.