Threshold concepts in academic writing: barriers

to engagement?

Marion BowmanSchool of Dentistry

Why academic writing?

“More than any other activity at University, the writing experiences of students are directly linked to their academic progress.”

(English, et.al., 1999, pg. 221)

Your views:

-What are the barriers to engagement in academic writing?

-Are there any stages of the student life cycle when barriers are most prominent?

Introductions

A. IntroductionWhy academic writing?

B. Theoretical ideasPossible barriers: Troublesome knowledgeOvercoming barriers: Threshold conceptsNew ways of thinking and practicing (threshold function)Consideration for course design

C. ExamplesThreshold concepts and new WTP: new institutionThreshold concepts and new WTP: new culture/ languageThreshold concepts and new WTP: new genreThreshold concepts and new WTP: large, complex piece of work

A whistle-stop tour…

Ritual Alien / absurd at face value Conceptually difficult Troublesome language Tacit knowledge

(Meyer and Land, 2003)

A. Possible Barriers: Troublesome Knowledge

Threshold concepts help to deal with troublesome knowledge

Portal to a new way of thinking Powerful transformative effects May involve a sense of loss Represent how people think in a particular

discipline May be the dominant / privileged view

(Meyer and Land, 2003)

Overcoming barriers: Threshold concepts

Avoiding an ‘over-stuffed’ curriculum The sequencing of the course content Diagnostic tasks Active not passive learning Listening to students (student centred learning) Patience with students’ reconstitution of self Tolerating students’ period of uncertainty

(Land, 2005; Cousin, 2006)

Considerations for course design

A new kind of educational institution A new culture / language

A new genre of writing, e.g. reflective writing A piece of work unprecedented in size and complexity

*(McCune and Reimann, 2002 in ^Meyer and Land, 2003)

B. New ways of thinking and practising*(can exert a threshold function)^

“The National Audit Office (2002) found that due to

changes in the secondary system, most students from

the traditional A level route are not adequately prepared

for the independent learning required in higher education.

Academic writing in particular is increasingly seen as

problematic”

(Wingate, 2006, p. 458)

Threshold concepts and new WTP: Yr 1

Top three mismatched expectations: all drafts of work will be read short turnaround time for marking work ready access to staff for consultations

Instead, staff expect: independent learning students to edit and evaluate own work longer time to mark work

(Crisp et al, 2009; Cook and Leckey, 1999; Brinkworth, et al 2009)

New WTP: first year: mismatched expectations

New WTP: First year Dental Hygiene & Therapy

• Threshold concept: Using sources without plagiarising

• Troublesome knowledge: tacit, alien, conceptually difficult, alien language, ritual, privileged view

• Difficulties: A sense of loss of ‘own voice’

• Teaching ideas: first formative essay, mirror image essay example, dialogue with students, rich rapid feedback (individual and general), concept checking questions, sequencing in curriculum

• Results: High quality writing, transferability, low plgsm

Discuss: The activities in the handout

…advantages / disadvantages / usefulness / contexts?

New WTP: first year Dental Hygiene and Therapy

The writing for MSc is absolutely different from my previous study, where we don't do a perfect reviews from research papers and analysis rather we google up all our stuffs. (India)

It's 100% different, in my country we where used to cut and past, with no rules of plagiarism, besides that we have exams and almost no assignments at all, so 95% no writting tasks. (Saudi Arabia)

Yes [the writing is different], because we have not been used to write any academic writing. Its all new to me. (India)

I think that (at least British) universities generally teach all this stuff at undergrad.

(Local student)

(Divan et al 2013)

New WTP: International Masters students

MSc BioScience Leeds University 2009 REF!!!

New WTP: International Masters students

Is the writing you are required to do for your Masters different from your previous study?

(Divan et.al., 2013)

• Difficulties: Similar threshold concepts and difficulties with troublesome / alien knowledge to first years. Perhaps greater sense of ‘loss’.

• Teaching idea: Extended induction period (6 weeks). Practical sessions on literature searching, using sources, plagiarism, EndNote all linked to first formative

assignment with rapid-return, rich feedback.

• Results: Much reduced plagiarism rates; positive feedback (esp. international sudents); different programmes for int. and home students.

(Divan et al 2013)

New WTP: International Masters students

General academic vocab/ phrases:

see Manchester Academic phrasebank

Subject specific vocab:

see Dentistry 1 corpus of subject specific language

NB: Collecting common phrases in a notebook isn’t plagiarism!!

Discuss: Example in Handout

New WTP: International students: language

http://smlc09.leeds.ac.uk/itb

Collocations

+ Key words: oral, health, tooth, periodontal, cell, disease, surface, bone, patient…

Concordances

Threshold concept: Linking own voice & literature, sequencing, language

Troublesome knowledge: Alien, tacit, conceptually difficult.

Difficulties: Gap between own voice and literature.

New WTP: New genre of writing: Academic Reflective Writing (ARW)

v

“I got a hard time referring it [my experience] to citations… I could have sat and cried yesterday when I did my essay…when I actually read it [my essay] I thought, oh, I don’t know what it means myself…” (Bowman and Addyman, in press)

New WTP: New genre: sense of loss

New Genre: Teaching response: Error analysis

Paragraph 1: The first patient I observed had caries. Some of this caries was easily visible on the surface of the teeth, however some of the caries was in between the teeth and less visible. I observed … (etc.)Paragraph 2: Caries is a very common dental disease caused by the demineralisation of the tooth which is in turn caused by lactic acid produced by bacteria in the mouth (Smith, 2006). Caries …(etc.)

New Genre: Teaching response: Error analysis

The patient had caries in between his teeth, which is a common caries-prone site where plaque accumulates (Jones, 2008). Caries is often difficult to detect when it is in between the teeth, and is often overlooked (Smith, 2009). In this case, the dentist took an x-ray in order to locate the cause of the sensitivity that the patient had reported. The caries had initially not been visible to the naked eye.

Teaching responses:example texts / extracts, analogies, rich rapid feedback, common error analysis,sequencing: formative task followed by analogous summative task e.g. disease report / treatment rep)dialogue with students, use of common errors, peer review of drafts

New WTP: New genre: Reflective writing

Observation

Literature

NB: The aspect must match the literature.

Matching observations to the literature C

FYP’s often represent a ‘leap in expectations of students’ or a ‘curricular disconnect’ with the rest of the degree

(Rasul et al, 2009).

“[In] the traditional curriculum, ... professional skills like communication and design are not included until the capstone design course, a point at which a host of skills must be applied simultaneously.” (Williams, 2002, p. 203)

New WTP: Work of unprecedented size / complexity

e.g. Final Year Projects or Literature Reviews

Systematic review (Dental H&T final year)

Final year project (Computing) (Bowman and Cullen, 2012)

Project choice form Project specification

Title, aims, objectives, rationale Draft list of literature sources

Draft literature review Draft literature review

Draft methodology section Draft Gantt chart

Draft results section /critical analysis Draft system development methodology

First full draft Draft mid-term project presentation

Mid-term project report

New WTP: final year project: teaching and feedback at each stage

• Guidance at each stage followed by short formative tasks with rich feedback = > time management & quality.

• Backwards design effect on year 1 and 2 curriculum.

Any other levels where there is a ‘curricular disconnect’ from the cohorts’ previous experience

Any other individual students where there is a curricular disconnect from their previous experience, e.g. mature students, ESL.

Other thresholds

Discuss with students: Their previous experiences of academic writingThe stages of the academic writing processHow long each stage will take (time planning)Your expectations of the writing task (examples?)

Other teaching responses: Getting dialogue going

Dialogue with individual students:The Student Advice Team in Dentistry

• set up in Feb 2013 (2 fte)

• free, confidential advice on: academic writing, understanding feedback, time management, revision skills, group work, referencing, presentations etc.

• provides advice as face-to-face appointments or via email

• was accessed by 93% of first year dentistry students & 84% of second year dental hygiene students in Semester 2 2012/3 (mainly academic writing)

“Overall, I have found the denstudy service has helped increased my confidence and revision techniques and also improved the quality of my essay writing. I would definitely use the service again.”

Getting dialogue going: The Student Advice Team: student feedback

Conclusions

Academic writing is not something that is ‘picked up easily’ by students. It is one of the most difficult aspects of university study for students.

The threshold concepts associated with academic writing require a pedagogic response.

Teaching academic writing is as important as teaching content (need not take up too much time).

However, academic writing should be taught within the discipline, within the module, linked to a particular task / context / genre (academic literacies).

References

Bowman, M. and Cullen, A. 2012 Enhancing the quality of Final Year Project’s in Computing through weekly tasks, Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education, [Online] 4 [Accessed 4 January, 2014], Available from: www.aldinhe.ac.uk

Bowman, M. and Addyman, B. 2014 Forthcoming. Student experiences of academic reflective writing on a course for post-registered Nurses and Midwives, British Journal of Nursing.

Brinkworth, R. McCann, B. Matthews, C. 2009. First year expectations and experiences: Student and teacher perspectives, Higher Education, 58, pp 157-173.

Cook A. and Leckey J. 1999. Do expectations meet reality: a survey of changes in first year student opinion Journal of Further and Higher Education, 23 (2), p 157-171.

Cousin, G. 2006. An introduction to threshold concepts, Planet, Issue 17, 4-5, [online] available at www.journals.heacademy.ac.uk. Accessed 7 January 2014.

Crisp G.T. Palmer E.J. Turnbull G.A. et.al. 2009. Student expectations – results from a university wide survey Journal of University Teaching and Practice 6 (1) p 13-26.

Divan, A., Bowman, M., Seabourne, A. 2013. Reducing unintentional plagiarism in international students in the Biological Sciences: an embedded academic writing development programme, Journal of Further and Higher Education,

Land, R. Cousin, G. Meyer, J H F, et.al. 2005. Threshold concepts and troublesome knowledge (3): implications for course design and evaluation, in Rust C. (ed.) Improving Student Learning Diversity and Inclusivity. Oxford: Oxford Centre for Staff and Learning Development.

Meyer J. H. F. and Land R. 2003. Threshold Concepts and Troublesome

Knowledge 1 – Linkages to Ways of Thinking and Practising’ in Improving Student

Learning – Ten Years On. C.Rust (ed), OCSLD: Oxford.

Rasul M, Nouwens, F. et.al. 2009. Good practice guidelines for managing, supervising and assessing final year engineering projects, 20th Australian Association for Engineering Education Conference, University of Adelaide, 6-9 December.

Williams, J.M. 2002.The Engineering portfolio: communication, reflection, student learning outcomes. International Journal of Engineering Education, 18 (2), pp. 199-207.

Wingate, U. 2006. Doing away with study skills, Teaching in Higher Education 11 (4) pp. 457-469.