53 Abstracts Written by Five Consultants
For The Bedford Bibliography for Teachers of Adult Writers
DRAFT March 7, 2011
Author # Abstracts Page Reference
Linda Brender 15 1
Michelle Navarre Cleary 8 8
Sonia Feder-Lewis 15 12
Thomas Peele 15 19
Karen Uehling 12 31
Linda Brender
15 Abstracts
1. Beverstock, Caroline, Shanti Bhaskaran, Jacquie Brinkley, Donna Jones, and Valerie Reinke. “Transforming Adult Students into Authors: The Writer to Writer Challenge.” Adult Basic Education and Literacy Journal 3.1 (2009): 48-52. Print.
Commenting on many curricula for adult literacy programs, Beverstock et al. argue that lack of attention to writing instruction in adult literacy courses has resulted from an over-emphasis on reading and from instructors' uncertainties about how to teach developmental writing to adults. As a consequence of this inattention to writing needs of adult students, program administrators may focus too much on grammar at the expense of critical thinking, whereas instructors may feel their own grammatical skills are inadequate for them to become teachers of writing. To address these issues, Beverstock et al. describe an introductory reading and writing curriculum for adult learner participants in California public library literacy programs. Unlike other programs, the Writer to Writer (WTW) Challenge teaches students to read and write simultaneously. The adult learners are encouraged to read any book they choose, after which they write letters to the authors to communicate how these books changed their lives. WTW is administered as a contest with two rounds of judging. Developed by Valerie Reinke of the California State Library, the WTW Challenge follows the model of a national program called Letters about Literature. Its purposes include helping adult learners learn to read for pleasure and to improve their writing skills. In addition, the self-confidence of the letter writers seems to improve as the adult students learn to make connections between the ideas in the books and their own life experiences. Beverstock et al. provide sample winning entries as well as a detailed checklist entitled “How to Create a Writing Challenge Like Writer to Writer.”
2. Beverstock, Caroline, and Sue McIntyre. “Dividing and Conquering: Successful Writing Processes for Adult Learners.” Adult Basic Education and Literacy Journal 2.2 (2008): 104-108. Print.
Using a case-study approach, Beverstock and McIntyre show how literacy programs for adults may convince men who have failed in other areas of their lives that they can learn to read and write. Their research site is Project Read, a residential drug and alcohol recovery program in San Mateo, California. Focusing on one of the research participants, the authors describe one man's transition from being an illiterate participant in the program to being an employed counselor attending college as he advances in his career. Alonso McConnell believes Project Read saved his life. The authors emphasize the need to break the writing process into a series of small steps and to eliminate as many distractions as possible because the adult learners can only process a maximum of seven thoughts in short-term memory. Working with this basic learning theory, they describe strategies and tools to help tutors learn to teach adult males who fear writing. The recommended tools are commonly used in college writing classes and include “quick-words,” yellow highlighting, clustering, and reading backwards. The authors’ belief in the program is based on statistical evidence indicating that the success rate for males enrolled in the addiction recovery program is 50% better for those who also chose to participate in the Project Read writing sessions.
3. Collins, Royce Ann. “The Role of Learning Styles and Technology.” International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies 4.4 (2009): 50-65. Print.
Collins investigates the connection between the way students learn and the technologies developed to teach them. She analyzes why adult learners in particular must have constructive feedback and encouragement from their instructors if they are to perceive technological advances in a positive manner. Since technology has changed the way students seek and respond to data, more research is needed to develop effective virtual classrooms in which students’ learning styles help to determine the curriculum. In her article, Collins begins with a discussion of learning styles, specifically connecting styles with a variety of instruments involved in learning style research. She analyzes the styles within the context of a discussion involving online course development. Experiential approaches, social interaction approaches, personality models, multiple and emotional intelligences, perception models, and conditions/needs are the six categories of learning styles upon which the article is based. Collins includes suggestions for using blogs, wikis, chats, and video conferencing, depending on the learning styles of adult students. However, she believes more research is needed to explore the link between learning styles and the needs of U. S. and international adult students. Advancements in global knowledge exploration have increased the demands placed on these older students, and many of the them are uncomfortable with technology. She concludes that this research should be a priority because more adult learners are selecting online classes due to their convenience and rising gas prices.
4. Fiore, Kyle, and Nan Elasser. “‘Strangers No More’: A Liberatory Literacy Curriculum.” College English 44.2 (1982): 115-128. Print.
Relying on theories developed by Lev Vygotsky and Paulo Freire, Fior, Elasser, and two other researchers piloted their “Liberatory Literacy Curriculum” at the College of the Bahamas in 1979. The primary aim was for students to discuss and write about their cultural knowledge so that writing could become a means for intervening in one's own social environment. With support from a Fulbright Scholarship, Elasser put into practice a new curriculum that is described in this essay. The four researchers believe their curriculum is a success because the adult female students who were at first intimidated by putting any words on a page ended the semester enthusiastically with a broad understanding of writing as a rhetorical practice. Moving beyond a focus on grammar and mechanics, the students decided to summarize their writings about marriage and gender relationships and then publish their work themselves. Elasser’s experiences were summarized and blended with copies of the students' writing in order to show how the students improved their communication skills and developed a new perception of writing, a perspective that gave them the confidence to analyze their relationships with men and to empower themselves.
5. Halio, Marcia Peoples. “Teaching in Our Pajamas: Negotiating with Adult Learners in Online Distance Writing Courses.” College Teaching 52.2 (2004): 58-62. Print.
Because online learning involves the more informal genre of e-mail, Halio analyzes the way in which adult learners often fail to organize their time and their writing styles in response to college course requirements. Instead, they may rely on frequent e-mails to the instructor. Halio analyzes the content of 423 e-mails, about half of which were written by her to her own adult students. The other half were written by her students, many of whom needed personal attention to understand the assignments. They also required frequent attention due to esteem issues and lack of confidence, even though they were well qualified in their professions. Proposing a series of eight questions designed to encourage critical thinking about how online learning differs from that of traditional learning, Halio focuses on the way students use e-mails to connect with instructors and thus receive the type of attention they could expect in a traditional or hybrid classroom. This leads to an interesting discussion about adult students helping to construct the courses they attend so that these classes meet career and personal requirements. Halio emphasizes the need to recognize both the strengths and weakness of adult learners, who may bring to the classroom unique skills and knowledge but also the burdens of adult career and family responsibilities and issues of low self esteem.
6. Hansman Catherine A., and Arthur L. Wilson. “Teaching Writing in Community Colleges: A Situated View of How Adults Learn to Write in Computer-Based Writing Classrooms.” Community College Review 26.1 (1998): 21-42. Print.
Although many writing instructors teach composition as a sequential process, Hansman and Wilson argue, “[T]he very processes that are supposed to help adults write may become obstacles to their writing”(22) because adults need to learn how to write in a context evolving from their activities and social culture. The authors believe other researchers fail to take into account the way computers, activities in the classroom, and cultural structure influence the learning and teaching processes. Too many instructors provide guidelines for writing and expect that students easily will transfer what they have learned from one writing task to another. Those teachers believe the students can learn to write in the same way they would learn to cook: from following the steps in a recipe. After reviewing other pedagogical models, Hansman and Wilson provide a detailed discussion of their own situated learning model, basing it on their study of adult community college students enrolled in a composition course taught in a mediated computer classroom. Their objective is to examine how both the tools and the social interaction influence the learning experience. Their research methodology included classroom observation as well as semi-structured, audiotaped interviews. Major findings indicate that students felt empowered by their use of computers and believed that this technology allowed them to be better writers. The use of computers also motivated them to develop their own individualized writing processes. Finally, learning to use the computers and the word processing programs caused students to interact in a social manner, which caused them to engage in discourse relevant to their writing.
7. Hollis, Karyn. “Liberating Voices: Autobiographical Writing at Bryn Mawr Summer School for Women Workers, 1921-1938.” CCC 45.1 (1994): 31-60. Print.
Hollis examines the autobiographical narratives of adult learners attending the Bryn Mawr Summer School for Women Workers from 1921 to 1938. The summer sessions encouraged working class women to experience college in the way that more affluent teenagers did during the academic year. Recording their perceptions of field trips and lectures with distinguished professors and notable leaders such as Eleanor Roosevelt and Walter Reuther, the adult learners developed detailed memoirs of their experiences, thoughts, and feelings as well as their fears about their emerging aspirations for the future. Hollis’s objective is to analyze the discursive subjectivity of the narratives by linking it to contemporary composition research on gender and autobiography. She concludes that a comparison of these historical narratives with similar writing in the 21st century may show that women in both time periods focus more on human relationships than men do. She also finds that gender is a social construction that individuals develop through their cultural beliefs, values, and attitudes.
8. Johnson, Helen. “The PhD Student as an Adult Learner: Using Reflective Practice to Find and Speak in Her Own Voice.” Reflective Practice 2.1 (2001): 53-63. Print.
Johnson uses an autobiographical approach to examine her situation as an adult Ph.D. student dealing with life experiences that created writer’s block. She analyzes how adult learners may benefit from distinguishing between reflection in action and reflection on action. In her literature review, Johnson defines reflective practice and shows how Ph.D. students are typically left to set and complete a task, which must then be written up in an omniscient voice. Describing her own life experiences involving catastrophic events in her family, she shows how an inability to write in this required omniscient manner can be overcome by specific reflective strategies. These strategies encourage the adult writer to emerge and move forward with the Ph.D. project. Johnson's research demonstrates that the adult learner participants in this study used reflective strategies successfully both inside and outside the classroom. Johnson focuses on a conflict between using the omniscient voice and narrating subjective events for adult students who are burdened with personal tragedies.
9. Jungkang, Kim. “A Community within the Classroom: Dialogue Journal Writing of Adult ESL Learners.” Adult Basic Education 15.1 (2005): 21-32. Print.
The instructional practice of using dialogue journal writing as a collaborative tool to teach adult ESL learners to write is the focus of a research study conducted by Jungkang. Journal writing is commonly used in adult literacy programs. Research studies show that it is beneficial because it creates authentic learning as well as student engagement. Jungkang’s goal in performing her research study was to show other educators that dialogue journal writing can help teachers and learners to create a sense of community within a classroom. Her focus is unique because she uses journal writing to be shared with classmates, whereas journals are more often read by teachers. Learner-centered dialogue journal writing in a diverse classroom can cause adult students to improve their writing skills because they are more eager to share experiential dialogues with people challenged by similar problems. Jungkang emphasizes that dialogue writing in this study was not simply one method of learning. It instead provided “a meaningful living and learning context of the learners in the classroom” (29).
10. Mohammed, Methal R.. “Don’t Give Me a Fish; Teach Me How to Fish: A Case Study of an International Adult Learner.” Adult Learning 15.1 (2010): 15-18. Print.
Learning contracts can be used to motivate students who are classified as “lifelong learners.” Mohammed defines learning contracts as plans for learning in an orderly progression. He doesn’t view these agreements as being content or outcome oriented. The contracts should help to provide an academic environment encouraging collaboration in a manner that empowers adult students. The purpose of these contracts is to enable students to structure their own course work. Using his own experiences, Mohammed develops a case study to show how an international adult learner can benefit by signing a contract to limit the role of the professor to that of a facilitator.
11. Mueller, Julie, Eileen Wood, and Jen Hunt. “Assessing Adult Student Reactions in Assistive Technology in Writing Instruction.” Adult Basic Education and Literacy Journal 3.1 (2009): 13-23. Print.
In a research study conducted at a community-based adult literacy program, Mueller, Wood, and Hunt analyze the results of implementing assistive technology so that adult learners can use computers to improve their communication skills. Several key findings have emerged. When choosing software and instructional methods for adult learners enrolled in writing classes, instructors should consult adult students about their selections to ensure that these students' needs will be met. Tutors must be available to encourage and instruct adult learners so that they develop independent critical thinking skills with respect to both writing and computers. Outcomes must be measured according to the objectives and requirements of the adult students. In general, the study showed that students reacted positively to the assistive technology, which helped them to improve their writing skills.
12. Schwarzer, David. “Best Practices for Teaching the ‘Whole’ Adult ESL Learner.” New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education 121 (2009): 25-33. Print.
Schwarzer describes a curriculum developed for volunteer adult ESL instructors who have non-teaching careers in "the real world." This curriculum introduces novice instructors to best practices for teaching adult ESL learners within the frameworks of communicative language teaching and whole language principles of education. After reviewing SLA research on teaching English, Schwarzer defines concepts key to whole language teaching, which "implies that we look at adult learners as whole persons rather than just ESL learners" (28). These concepts include a holistic perspective, a community of learners, authentic learning, curriculum negotiation, inquiry based lessons, alternative assessment, and language learning as a developmental process. Relying on this conceptual base, Schwarzer describes a set of best practices for teaching English to adults, e.g., creating classroom communities, establishing clear routines that are repeatedly used, connecting the classroom to the wider world via field trips and other activities, and promoting student use of new literacy habits (e.g., Internet searches, pleasure reading, and newspaper reading). The curriculum described in this essay aims to prepare volunteer ESL instructors for teaching and developing their own curricula within the combined framework of communicative language teaching and whole language education.
13. Sealey-Ruiz, Yolanda. “Wrapping the Curriculum Around Their Lives: Using a Culturally Relevant Curriculum with African American Adult Women.” Adult Education Quarterly 58.1 (2007): 44-60. Print.
In a study of adult African American female students engaged in a culturally relevant course, Sealey-Ruiz reports that these students valued their life experiences and wished to share them as part of their learning process. Black female students especially wished to display their knowledge of what it means to be an African American female in our society. They sought ways to apply that knowledge to their coursework. Sealey-Ruiz argues that personal experience can bridge the gap between lack of knowledge and what these students seek to learn from their college experience. Three different themes evolved during the research study: “language validation, the fostering of positive self and group identity, and self-affirmation or affirmation of goals” (59). In addition, the study promotes the idea of including experiential learning as a core part of the curriculum so that students are encouraged to maximize their learning potential.
14. Stoffel, Judith. “So, You’re a Woman, 38, Back in School, and Writing Research Papers?” Annual Meeting of the Conference on College Composition and Communication. Cincinnati. 1992. ERIC. Web. 15 December 2010.
In 1992, Judith Stoffel argued that higher-learning institutions were maintained primarily for the traditional students, even though the younger students were only 20% of the population earning degree credit. Therefore, she conducted a research study to create interest in andragogy, the teaching of adults. Her article is particularly relevant for educators in the 21st century because online learning has expanded rapidly since Stoffel wrote her article about a study with 25 first-year adult women attending a college in Indiana. They were asked to record their perceptions and concerns at three stages of the writing process: while they worked on their research papers, when they completed the papers, and after they received instructor feedback. The same data was collected from 25 upper-level students. After classifying the student comments as affective or cognitive, Stoffel reported several significant findings. Affective aspects of learning require more attention when adult women are students. In addition, instructors seemed to favor composition techniques rather than content when they write comments. This tendency caused the adult women to lose interest in the content in their writing after they read the feedback. The adult women’s comments about writing compared favorably with those written by the traditional upper-level students. Stoffel also includes three tables of data to substantiate her claims that adult women are motivated and appreciative as well as capable and hard-working students when they enroll in college.
15. Williams, Mitchell R., and Tracy Southers. “Blurring the Lines between High School and College: Early Colleges and the Effect on Adult Learners.” Adult Learning 21-1-1 (2010): 26-30. Print.
Traditionally community colleges have educated adult learners who returned to school because they recognized a need to improve their occupational skills. Since the 1950s, these colleges focused on developing successful pedagogical strategies for older teenagers and adults. However, a new trend is changing the demographics of the community college classroom. Several states have formed Early Colleges within the community college setting to educate younger high school students. Students in the ninth grade may concurrently enroll in high school and college. Williams and Southers researched the effects of teaching 14 or 15 year old students together with adult learners. Specifically, they measured the perceptions of chief academic officers with respect to the way Early College programs create differences in the education of returning adult students. They first used a survey instrument based on a scale similar to Likert; then they followed up with in-depth interviewing. The surveys were completed by 24 chief academic officers at community colleges in North Carolina. The findings show that over 90 percent of the respondents felt the Early College programs did not diminish their ability to teach all students. Over 60 percent felt the Early College programs improved the quality of education. However, aside from these positive perceptions, 75 percent of the officers noted that adult students complained about the Early College learners. In addition, space problems arose, creating problems for serving the adult learners. With respect to the adult learner complaints, many of their concerns related to the fact that the younger teenagers were not academically and socially prepared to accept responsibility for achieving their own educational goals. In addition, the presence of these younger students created psychological barriers that too frequently created distractions for adults focused on achieving occupational and personal goals at the community college. Williams and Southers believe that more research is needed to investigate both the positive and negative effects of Early Colleges on adult learners.
-----------------------------------------------
Michelle Navarre Cleary
8 Abstracts
1. Blair, Kristine, and Cheryl Hoy. "Paying Attention to Adult Learners Online: The Pedagogy and Politics of Community." Computers and Composition 23 (2006): 32-48. ScienceDirect. Web. 28 August 2007.
Blair and Hoy argue that private, one-on-one communication, particularly e-mail, offers an important tool for responding to the unique needs and learning styles of adult students in online classes. When teaching an online writing course for adult students working on prior learning assessment portfolios, they found that e-mail allowed student-teacher and student-student coaching relationships that became “among the most powerful tools in teaching and learning” (33). These private exchanges supported students by creating connection, establishing an ethic of caring, and accommodating the varying levels of academic preparation and life circumstances of adult students. The exchanges involved more intimacy and more mixing of the personal with the academic than face-to-face office hours and individual conferences. In making their argument, the authors are responding to critiques that "too much" e-mail can turn an online class into a "correspondence course," to the privileging of community building in public discussion boards and to the lack of recognition for the hidden labor of teachers engaged in these private exchanges. They argue that the important role of one-on-one communication needs to be considered in preparing online instructors and that the labor-intensive practices associated with one-on-one communication should be taken into account by administrators who are making decisions about faculty workload.
2. Gere, Anne Ruggles. "Kitchen Tables and Rented Rooms: The Extracurriculum of Composition." College Composition and Communication 45.1 (1994): 75-92. JSTOR. Web. 2 December 2010.
This revised 1993 CCCC Chair’s Address is a call to attend to the vitality of writing development that happens outside of schools, workplaces, and other formal learning environments, often among those excluded from or marginalized in academia. Although Gere supports the professionalization of composition and rhetoric, she critiques overly narrow efforts to professionalize as having neglected the history and ignored the current reality of this extracurriculum. By extracurriculum, she means an environment in which individuals, alone or more often together, voluntarily work on improving their writing outside of formal education. Gere gives current and historical examples of extracurriculum that range from a contemporary writing group in San Francisco’s impoverished Tenderloin District to the nineteenth-century New York Garrison Society, a self-help organization for middle class African Americans. She argues that groups like these are virtually unknown by composition scholars because, in our efforts to professionalize, we have told our history as one based within the academy. The extracurriculum has only been considered in these historical accounts when it has been a stepping-stone to disciplinarity, such as student literary clubs. While this disciplinarity history is largely a story featuring white males, Gere shows that the extracurriculum is marked by gender, race, and class diversity. She argues that the extracurriculum accomplishes the goals we hope for but do not always achieve in composition classes with students often dismissed as not able to write. Gere finds writers who work on their writing because they want to in a curriculum “constructed by desire” (80), who are affirmed by their writing, who perform their writing and, in doing so, are motivated to continue to develop as writers, and who write to effect personal and sometimes community transformation. She invites us not to appropriate but to learn from and open dialogue in non-academic environments where some of our students are already writing, where writers of many background feel welcome, where writers take control of their learning, and where writing enhances connection to community.
3. Himley, Margaret, Chris Madden, Al Hoffman, Diane Penrod. "Answering the World: Adult Literacy and Co-Authoring." Written Communication 13.2 (1996): 163-182. Sage. Web. 2 December 2010.
In working with new adult writers, the authors developed co-authoring as a way to scaffold student writing without squashing student voices. When the authors moved from the familiar context of the university to a community literacy center that serves adult learners, they thought expressivism would both help the students develop fluency and play down the power differential between students and instructors. However, unlike in the academy where students rarely questioned their pedagogy, the adult students at the literacy center did. These students wanted to be taught “correct” writing that would gain them authority in the world. The instructors wanted to respect the students’ wishes and help them successfully communicate to audiences who would expect “standard” English. Yet the instructors also saw how self-editing inhibited self-expression and did not want to participate in or further validate the subjugation of the students’ discourses. Eventually, by recognizing their differences, students and instructors negotiated a process of co-authoring. Co-authoring enables “critical reflection for both tutor and student about choices in writing, about language and power” (186). In co-authoring, teachers participated in the creation of students’ texts. For example, an instructor might lightly edit while taking dictation so the student could focus on fewer issues while revising. Informed by theories of Bakhtin and Foucault, the authors came to understand co-authoring as an acknowledgment and exploration of the dialogic nature of writing and the ways writing, identity, and power are entwined.
4. Navarre Cleary, Michelle. “What WPAs Need to Know to Prepare New Teachers to Work with Adult Students.” Writing Program Administration: Journal of the Council for Writing Program Administrators 32.1 (Fall/Winter 2008): 113-128. Print.
Navarre Cleary reviews the literature on adult college composition students. Her goal is to provide Writing Program Administrators (WPAs) with the information they need to prepare new teachers to work with the growing number of adults returning to college. She acknowledges that adult students are diverse, but says the scholarship consistently identifies them as more anxious, motivated, busy, and experienced than younger students. She shows how these four characteristics account for common misconceptions about adult students that can lead to teaching that does not build on their strengths or address their needs. Drawing upon the scholarship and her teaching experience, she offers suggestions for teaching adults that takes these characteristics into account. The “Teaching Writing to Adults: A Handbook for New Composition Teachers” on CompFAQs supplements this article.
5. Navarre Cleary, Michelle, Ed. “Teaching Writing to Adults: A Handbook for New Composition Teachers.” CompFAQs from CompPILE. 11 Dec. 2010. Web. 11 Dec. 2010. Web. < http://compfaqs.org/TeachingWritingToAdults-NewTeacherHandbook/HomePage>.
Part of the “Adult Learners” section of the CompFAQs wiki, this site is intended as an evolving, collaborative handbook in which composition teachers share knowledge about teaching adults students. It currently includes pages on what we know about adult students and the implications of this knowledge for practice, useful reading for adult students, ideas for writing assignments for adult students, suggestions for preparing to teach adult students, cases for discussion, and readings for new teachers of adult students. Navarre Cleary started this handbook to supplement her article on teaching adults in the WPA Journal. A number of her colleagues have added and discussed cases on the “cases for discussion” page.
6. Navarre Cleary, Michelle, Suzanne Sanders-Betzold, Polly Hoover, Peggy St. John. “Working with Wikis in Writing-Intensive Classes.” Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy. 14.1 (Fall 2009): n. pag. 11 Dec. 2010. Web.
Noting that there is much hyperbole and little research on the value of wikis for teaching writing, particularly to nontraditional students, the authors report on their use of wikis in three writing-intensive, team-taught classes that combined students from a community college with returning adult students at a university. They found wikis very effective as a teaching tool to distribute information, promote collaboration and build a sense of community in classes initially divided by the students’ different life experiences. Using a wiki for collaborative writing projects, instructors observed students engaged in and seeming to learn from metacognitive discussions about their writing on the wiki. However, while student writing skills improved in each of these classes, the authors could not isolate wikis as a cause of this improvement. The authors assess faculty as well as student learning, showing how their use of wikis improved through collaboration and iteration. This wiki text includes a discussion of the authors’ context, research methods, and findings as well as an annotated bibliography, each author’s reflections on working with wikis, and examples of how students used the wikis including an annotated group research paper that illustrates the author’s findings.
7. Oaks, Susan. "Talking with One’s Self: Reproducing Collaborative Writing Strategies in a Composition Course for Adult, Independent, Distance Learners." Conference on College Composition and Communication. Washington, DC. 23-25 March 1995. ERIC Full Text. Web. 8 December 2010.
Oaks presents an online, guided independent study writing course for adults designed to reproduce the metacognitive benefits of collaboration in face-to-face writing groups. She reviews research showing the value of collaboration for writers and for adult learners. Citing Mezirow, Reither and Vipond, she argues that collaboration can help adult students develop critical distance as readers of texts. Using this notion of collaboration as an encounter between reader and text, the course helps students gain critical distance on their own writing and more generally learn how to engage in critical discourse about texts through the use of a structured learning journal, an iterative course structure, and clear criteria for evaluation. The students respond in the learning journal to prompts focusing on invention, process, description, and evaluation that become less directive and offer more options as the course progresses. The course is structured so that students work through the writing process repeatedly on increasingly complex writing tasks. Finally, evaluation criteria help students assess their own and others’ writing critically.
8. Pies, Timothy. "Reducing Anxiety in the Adult Writer." Adult Learning 5.3 (1994): 14-15, 18. Print.
Pies reports that a study at his college confirmed research indicating that adult students tend to be more anxious than younger students and particularly anxious about writing. Motivated by these findings, Pies offers six suggestions for reducing anxiety in adult students: make lessons more engaging by learning about students’ interests and experiences; let students leverage their experiential learning through prior learning assessment; similarly, show students how they can use what they know in their courses; assign early low-stakes writing; teach writing as a process; and give feedback that praises strengths, offers constructive criticism, and is focused on a few major issues. His background in adult education and Robert Sommer’s Teaching Writing to Adults inform his suggestions.
Sonia Feder-Lewis
15 Abstracts
1. Auerbach, Elsa. Adult ESL/Literacy from the Community—To the Community: A Guidebook for Participatory Literacy Training. Mahwah, NJ, Lawrence Earlbaum Associates, 1996. Print.
Both a report on the challenges and successes of a community based adult ESL and literacy program, and a guide to creating a participatory program of this nature, this handbook approaches its topic with deep enthusiasm. “Community” is more than a descriptive term for Auerbach and her collaborators; it is a way of viewing the teachers, interns, and learners who engaged in teaching and learning. Aurbach describes an adult literacy curricular model with four key features: “A meaning-based culturally variable view of literacy; a participatory approach to literacy instruction and training; a native language literacy for adult learners with little prior schooling; [and] training and leadership development of community instructors” (8). The adult literacy program model involved training interns, who then also led classes. Content for the classes came in part from the students; thus, their participation was central to the curriculum and to their learning. Citing Paulo Freire’s theories on the potential to empower learners, Auerbach and associates argue for the participatory process: “In participatory education, transforming teacher-learner roles is central to enabling learners to assume more control of the direction of their lives. Education becomes a context for understanding and challenging the forces that maintain their powerlessness” (55). Resistance from interns and students is also documented: learned expectations of classrooms and curricula sometimes conflicted with the participatory educational model.
2. Beaman, Rhonda. “The Unquiet . . . Even Loud, Andragogy! Alternative Assessments for Adult Learners.” Innovative Higher Education 23.1 (1998): 47-59. Print.
Beaman argues that with increasing enrollments of adult undergraduates in college classrooms, teaching styles and curriculum development have been re-imagined, but assessment of learning has been largely overlooked. In recent years, instructors' approaches to facilitating adult learning have more frequently emphasized participatory and self-directed learning; however, assessment has remained teacher directed and summative. After studying the implementation of various innovative formats for assessment, Beaman suggests several alternative approaches, including “praiseworthy grading,” which calls attention to those aspects of an assignment where students have demonstrated strength and skills; peer assessment, which echoes the collaborative nature of adult learning; and self assessment, which capitalizes on the self-directed nature of adult learners. While all of these methods have their drawbacks, Beaman aptly concludes: “In view of what we know of andragogy, . . .traditional grading of adult learners cannot be defended and should be amended” (58). Included are many suggestions for implementing alternative assessments.
3. Belzer, Alisa. “’It’s not like Normal School’: The Role of Prior Learning Contexts in Adult Learning.” Adult Education Quarterly 55.1 (2004): 41-59. Print.
Belzer examines the experience of five African-American women taking part in a GED class at a community-based learning center. Intrigued by resistance shown by some of her students to the non-traditional, participatory learning experience offered at the center, Belzer sought to understand “the ways in which prior experiences in formal learning contexts influence learners’ perceptions of the current context” (42). She argues that previous researchers, including Mezirow and Knowles, have viewed experience primarily in a positive light, i.e., as a well from which to draw and build rather than a potential hindrance to learning. Belzer’s interviews revealed, however, that the women were deeply ambivalent about their current learning, both enjoying their classroom activities and suspecting the value of GED exam preparation. Their experiences at the program conflicted with their expectations of school, which had been consistent, if negative, due to a prior focus on homework, tests, and rules. Belzer places the responses from her students into a framework that draws on adult learning theory and recognizes that experience can either be empowering or an impediment to learning, depending on the student’s ability to contextualize that experience.
4. Brady, E. Michael. “Redeemed from Time: Learning Through Autobiography.” Adult Education Quarterly 41.1 (1990): 43-52. Print.
Using a Hasidic tale of four generations of rabbis who guide a village through its crises through ritual and remembrance as his point of departure, Brady examines the way in which autobiography facilitates learning. He posits that autobiography allows students to recover three aspects of their selves: “the remembered self, the ordered self, and the imagined self” (44). Autobiography, he argues, allows for the recovery of memory and of one’s multiple past selves, it allows for a greater understanding and sorting of memories and knowledge, and it allows for a metaphoric envisioning of one’s possible self. As he says, “Every autobiography is a work of art, and at the same time, a work of enlightenment. It does not show us the persons from outside their visible actions, but as they are in their inner privacy; not as I am, not as I was, but as I believe and wish myself to have been and to be” (49). The goal of autobiography in an adult learning focus is not necessarily to recover or report the entire life so much as it is to draw together pivotal moments and to create new insights into the ways in which a learner has arrived at the current moment. Students thus learn best when allowed to integrate the new self that has been created with students' autobiographical constructions of their earlier selves.
5. Brewer, Susan A., James D. Klein, and Kenneth E. Mann. “Using Small Group Learning Theories with Adult Re-entry Students.” College Student Journal. 37.2 (2003): 286-297.
In a study of 109 adult re-entry business majors in a bachelor’s degree completion program, Brewer, Klein, and Mann investigate the impact of cooperative small group learning and motivation to affiliate with others on achievement, attitude, and interaction. Brewer et al. found that after completing an affiliation questionnaire, 53 students reported having high motivation to affiliate with others while 56 students reported low motivation to affiliate. One important finding is that "the need for affiliation is likely to influence students' preference for small group strategies and how they perform in these settings" (287). After accounting for this affiliation motive factor, Brewer et al. divided the 109 adult students into four treatment groups: individual learning/low motivation to affiliate; group learning/low motivation to affiliate; individual learning/high motivation to affiliate; and group learning/ high motivation to affiliate. A study of learning achievement revealed no significant difference among students in these four groups. However, students in high affiliation groups (who were assigned either to individual learning or to group learning) stayed on task longer than students assigned to low affiliation groups. Additionally, a study of interaction among the variables being investigated showed that students who showed a high affiliation motive and who worked in small groups enjoyed their learning experience more than students assigned to all three other treatment groups. In discussing implications of their research findings, Brewer et al. conclude that while small group learning strategies did not yield gains in achievement, students who worked in small groups rated their motivation, confidence, enjoyment, and belief in ability to learn more highly. These gains suggest to the authors that cooperative small group learning strategies merit further research and should continue to be explored by instructors of re-entry adult students.
6. Brown, Judith O. “Know Thyself: The Impact of Portfolio Development on Adult Learning.” Adult Education Quarterly 52.3 (2002): 228-245. Print.
As students participate in prior learning assessment for college credit, they create portfolios, either electronic or conventional, to express and demonstrate their life learning. Brown explores the affective aspects of this process and its transformational power for students who had otherwise undervalued their own experiences. Through in-depth interviews with students who had completed an “Autobiographical Learning Essay” (based on the Kolb model) and developed portfolios with documentation, Brown found that the process shaped their understanding of themselves and their prior experiences: “Students expressed (a) increased recognition of all they had accomplished in the course of their careers, and (b) a new sense of self-discovery and personal empowerment to achieve future goals” (235). Brown also found that students gained a much greater appreciation of the learning they experienced in their workplaces and of their guidance by mentors in those settings. Portfolio development also strengthened the students’ writing and organizational skills, while enhancing their appreciation of reflection as way of learning.
7. Dominicé, Pierre. Learning from Our Lives: Using Educational Biographies with Adults. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2000. Print.
While introducing the concept of educational biographies, Dominicé guides his readers to better understanding these learning narratives and the adult learner. Like Stephen Brookfield, Malcolm Knowles, and Jack Mezirow, Dominicé breaks new ground as he explores the adult learner’s “needs, motivations, and desires." Recognizing educational biographies as a method for students to learn about themselves, Dominicé views this approach as potentially emancipating for students, who may “[find] autonomy” in relation to “family, education, and the sociocultural environment” (81). In an Educational Biography, adult learners trace their educational paths while reflecting on formal and informal learning experiences and interpreting these experiences, a process that can be subjective yet revelatory. This learning narrative may be shared, and the sharing itself may be part of the reflective process. Creating these learning narratives can prompt individuals to explore a "personal life history as a whole" and may allow for new understandings of experiences that might not have been originally recognized as learning (26). His is a grounded, savvy approach; Dominicé acknowledges both the utilitarianism of many adults who seek further education for practical purposes, such as career advancement, and the marketplace of institutions where they seek their education. Embracing this perspective, he sees educational biography as a way to capitalize on this purposeful quality of adult education: “In this growing market and its assessment procedures, educational biographies could be an interesting source of information because they describe the ways in which adults actually make use of the various types of adult and continuing education” (108). Dominicé also suggests that we, as educators of adults, also can benefit from creating our own educational biographies, engaging ourselves in the ongoing and experiential process of learning.
8. Fallon, Dianne. “Making Dialogue Dialogic: A Dialogic Approach to Adult Life.” Journal of Adult and Adolescent Literacy 39.2 (1995): 138-146. Print.
After struggling to use dialogue journals with her adult students in a literacy program, Fallon explores the Bakhtinian concept of dialogic language in relation literacy education. Believing that her students were remaining distanced from their own use of language, Fallon argues that engagement with their language and word choices can empower adult learners: “My sense is that this process of individualizing a word helps an adult learner to retain the connection between the written form of the word, its sound, and its meanings” (140). To achieve this goal, Fallon suggests using Paulo Freire’s notion of “generative themes” that are relevant to the students’ lives as opposed to reliance on traditional academic topics in order to reduce the intrusion of teachers and encourage student to student dialogue. Writing about subjects that dominated their lives, students were encouraged to explicitly explore their understanding of individual words, defining these words within their own personal and specific contexts. When claiming words and discovering personally relevant meanings, students “experience the transformative moments that give them compelling reasons to speak, to write, and to read” (146).
9. Fiddler, Morris, and Catherine Marienau. “Developing Habits of Reflection for Meaningful Learning.” New Directions for Adult and Continuing Learning 118 (2008): 75-85. Print.
Many assignments request that students reflect on their lives and experiences in order to provide context for current circumstances. However, as Fiddler and Marienau so aptly note, “for many adult students reflection does not happen easily on command” (76). Thus, they offer a model to facilitate the incorporation of reflection into the learning process, defining reflection as “inquiry into one’s experience” to allow “meaningful learning.” Fiddler and Marienau focus on “attention": that is, they focus on the idea that we perceive only part of a specific experience, and it is what we perceive that shapes our memories, understanding, and learning. Being aware of where and how that attention is focused can change the way we understand an experience. They caution that there is a difference between experiential learning and learning from experience; it is reflection that allows what has been experienced to become learning. Adding specific, dedicated time for the practice of reflection, providing a rubric to both guide and assess the students' evaluation of their experiences, and making plain the difference between experience and learning can encourage authentic reflection. Fiddler and Marienau offer specific and concrete recommendations to facilitate this process.
10. Huang, Hsiu Mei. “Toward Constructivism for Adult Learners in Online Learning Environments.” British Journal of Educational Technology 33 (2002): 27-37. Print.
Informed by the work of Dewey and Vygotstky and also by adult learning theory, Huang posits ways for online learning to become constructivist through the active use of synchronous and asynchronous discussion and other online resources. Because adult learners are highly motivated and embrace ownership of their learning, they can play an active role in determining the direction of their education if empowered to do so. This involves shared power and agency between instructor and students. Huang identifies seven crucial issues in developing a constructivist approach to online learning, including the need for changed roles for both students and teachers in the creation of learning and learning environments, and the acknowledgement that this is an intensive process for both students and teachers. Assessment of knowledge in a constructivist approach also involves collaboration between teacher and student. To overcome these issues, she suggests that interactive, collaborative, and authentic learning can be facilitated by an instructor who creates a “safe environment for learners to express themselves freely in appropriate ways” (33).
11. Karpiak, Irene. “Writing Our Life: Adult Learning and Teaching through Autobiography.” Canadian Journal of University Continuing Education 26.1 (2000): 31-50. Web. 26 September 2010. Print.
Drawing upon the work of Stephen Brookfield and Jack Mezirow, Karpiak explores the capacity of autobiography to facilitate critical reflection and transformative learning in adults. She argues that “autobiography involves not only recounting memories and expressions but also finding their larger meaning, and to the extent that activity expands the individual’s knowledge of self and the world, it constitutes learning” (35). In her adult learning class, Karpiak allowed students to substitute “five chapters of their life” for a traditional final assignment, encouraging them to look for larger meanings, metaphors, and patterns as they wrote, rather than strictly reporting a chronology of events. These central metaphors created greater coherence for students and allowed them to contextualize their experiences. When interviewed six months after the course ended about the efficacy of the assignment, students reported that the course had provided many benefits, including “validation and self-acceptance” (42). While Karkpiak cautions that not all autobiographical writing is as effective in fostering learning, she offers a set of guidelines to help students create meaningful learning experiences through autobiography.
12. Larotta, Clarena. (2007). “Inquiry in the Adult Classroom: An ESL Literacy Experience.” Adult Learning 18.3/4 (2007): 25-29. Print.
Larotta illustrates the effectiveness of what she terms “inquiry cycles,” in which students “ask questions that are relevant to them, collect data to answer their questions, present findings, and start a new cycle by formulating a new question derived from the original question” (25). Based on Knowles’ principles of andragogy and Freire’s dialogic approach to fostering literacy, inquiry cycles engage students by allowing them to pursue authentic learning through gathering information relevant to their own lives and interests. Larotta implemented inquiry cycles in an adult ESL literacy class of 17 students and studied four students in particular to determine how this ability to guide their own course of study enhanced their learning. Students reported at times being overwhelmed by all of the information they found but were more engaged and worked beyond the assignment requirements, reporting that reading had become “fun” (28).
13. Leaker, Cathy, and Heather Ostman. “ Composing Knowledge: Writing, Rhetoric, and Reflection in Prior Learning.” College Composition and Communication 61.4 (2010): 691-717. Print.
As Prior Learning Assessment (PLA) gains currency in colleges and universities, students are increasingly being asked to write in sophisticated academic discourse about their experiential learning. Leaker and Ostman see this writing practice as a culture clash of sorts, a “contact zone between the unauthorized writer, institutional power, and the articulation of knowledge claims” (693). When students successfully navigate this divide through a process of critical reflection, they acquire not only a greater understanding of their learning, but also knowledge of the academic discourse that is required of them to express that learning. They become more capable in their new educational setting while reclaiming their experiential learning. However, the model is not always successful. Through excerpts from the narratives of students whom they taught at Empire State College, Leaker and Ostman illustrate the difficulties the students experienced translating their subject knowledge into rhetorically accepted forms. Ultimately, they argue that the current model of the narrative essay for PLA is inadequate to contain the experiential learning adult learners possess, and that the insistence of compliance with a hegemonic academic discourse disempowers these learners once again.
14. Materna, Laurie. Jump Start the Adult Learner: How to Engage and Motivate Adults Using Brain-Compatible Strategies. Thousand Oaks: Corwin Press, 2007. Print.
Educational research over the past two decades has revealed a greater understanding of how the brain builds neural pathways to store and recall learning, and how specific techniques used during learning experiences can foster the development of these neural connections. Other research, building on the work of Howard Gardner, has emphasized the idea of “multiple intelligences,” the view that individuals can take advantage of different forms of knowing (e.g., mathematical, verbal, or spatial), which Gardner describes as “intelligences” (58). By incorporating various learning theories and Bloom’s Taxonomy of Higher Level Thinking into a broad conception of adult learning, we can move away from the traditional lecture/“sage on the stage” model of curriculum delivery to a more active approach, which may more successfully account for multiple learning styles and varied student needs. Materna presents both the theoretical framework for this approach as well as a guide to developing and implementing new methodologies into the adult learner classroom. She creates what she terms “The Materna Method,” which she describes as “a guide for educators designed to help in the process of selecting supplemental classroom activities to facilitate this natural flow of learning” (138). This method includes warm up mental exercises for the openings of classes, the inclusion of visual matrices for organizing of material, multiple forms of reflective writing, and the inclusion of movement and musical stimuli in the classroom. The method is documented in an extensive chart.
15. Mezirow, Jack, & Associates. Fostering Critical Reflection in Adulthood: A Guide to Transformative and Emancipatory Learning. San Francisco: Jossey Bass Publishers, 1990.
A breakthrough work in its time, this collection of essays edited by Mezirow continues to serve as a baseline text for understanding the transformative power of critical reflection for adult learners. Written by leaders in the field of adult learning, the essays provide insights into both the theoretical underpinnings of critical reflection as an andragogical tool and practical methodologies for introducing these strategies into the classroom and workplace. In his introductory chapter, Mezirow explains the ideas and purposes of the work: “Emancipatory education is an organized effort to help the learner challenge presuppositions, explore alternative perspectives, transform old ways of understanding, and act on new perspectives” (18). He describes the nature of critical reflection, which allows students to “make meaning” of their experiences, with meaning being a facet of understanding, learning, and knowledge. While engaged in this process, students are encouraged to “reassess the presuppositions on which [their] beliefs are based” (18). Following this introduction are essays that build on this theme of transformative learning through critical reflection, including an essay in which Peter Dominicé explains the idea of education biographies as a way for students to contextualize their learning and to gain perspective on their understanding of knowledge, and one in which Stephen Brookfield leads a reader through understanding the media’s deep influence on students’ perceptions and the ways in which they make meaning. The collected essays contain a rich vein of insights into the nature of transformative learning alongside strategies for invigorating student learning.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Tom Peele
15 Abstracts
1. Aldrich, Pearl G. “Adult Writers: Some Factors That Interfere with
Effective Writing.” Technical Writing Teacher 9.3 (1982): 128–32. Print.
To find out more about her students’ writing practices, Aldrich distributed a survey to 165 working adults “who spend a significant portion of their time on the job writing and who are responsible for originating substantive written documents” (128). Some of the respondents worked for the military while others worked in the private sector. Aldrich tabulated the results, refined the survey, and distributed it to 89 more people who were working professionals in government and private sector jobs but were also students in the author’s Effective Writing courses. Many of the respondents were engineers; over half of them had college degrees. Question 9 prompted students to order a list of 8 pre-writing activities. Few of the respondents ordered the list correctly: the necessary steps of determining a purpose and identifying an audience for the document were often not the first items on the list. Aldrich concludes that the writers’ failure to complete these steps is one major reason for their poor writing. Another survey question asked students to rewrite a sentence if it needed to be rewritten. The sentence was poorly written and “contained a violation of parallel structure,” but only 64 of the 165 respondents corrected the error and improved the style (131). Aldrich concludes that the respondents lacked knowledge about the value of preparation, and this lack of knowledge “causes them to be anxious, defensive, and reluctant to approach their writing tasks until the last minute” (132). For these reasons, the writing they produce is weak.
2. Baitinger, Katerina. "Engaging Adult Learners in the Writing/ESL
Classroom." College Quarterly 8.1 (Winter 2005): n. pag. Web. 14 Dec. 2010.
The author contends that many students today do not take responsibility for their education and are passive learners. Nevertheless, educators must try to find creative means to engage their students. There are two basic groups of students: traditional students and nontraditional students. Traditional students have little life experience, while nontraditional students have a wealth of life experience and often are accustomed to holding positions of power. Since these students are more likely to walk away if the courses don’t meet their expectations, educators must become more learner-centered in their approaches to teaching. Syllabus negotiation is one approach that instructors can use to partner with students and take their life experiences into consideration. Group work also should be included since many adults don’t have the time to pursue traditional forms of study. Group work “may develop positive peer relationships among learners, which in many cases are more important and have a much greater influence on learning than teacher-learner relationships.” Instructors also should consider holding class meetings outdoors and providing snacks since this will help create relationships between students and teachers. A related consideration is that many adult students lack confidence, so care should be taken to make them feel safe in the learning environment. Writing activities ideally will be highly structured in order to reduce students' anxieties and increase success. Teachers also can ease student anxiety by using journal writing and other informal approaches to writing. In this context, mini-lessons on grammar issues of grammar evident in students’ writing can be offered. Baitinger further argues that reading and writing activities should be situated in recognizable contexts. Students will perform better if they are reading and writing about, for example, a cultural event with which they are familiar. The principle of learning in context also applies to the study of students’ areas of academic interest.
3. Kazis, Richard, Abigail Callahan, Chris Davidson, Annie McLeod, Brian Bosworth, Vicki Choitz, and John Hoops. Adult Learners in Higher Education: Barriers to Success and Strategies to Improve Results. Boston: Jobs for the Future, 2007. ERIC. Web. 6 Mar. 2011.
OR cite as
Kazis, Richard, et al. Adults in Higher Education: Barriers to Success and Strategies to Improve Results. Employment and Training Administration Occasional Paper
2007-03. U.S. Department of Labor. March 2007. Web. 20 December 2010.
This study is divided into 5 sections: Adult Learners in Education, Accessibility, Affordability, Accountability, and Recommendations. The authors’ goal is to “synthesize the research literature on the challenges facing adult learners in higher education today and emerging strategies for increasing the number of adults over 24 who earn college credentials and degrees” (1). The study notes that though adult learners “over age 24 currently comprise about 44 percent of U.S. postsecondary students. . . . [t]he practices and policies of the higher education system continue to favor traditional, financially dependent, 18- to 21-year-old high school graduates who enroll full time” (2). The labor market continues to demand that adults have degrees and training beyond the secondary level, and this demand will intensify as the job “categories with the fastest expected growth in the next decade require postsecondary education” (2). Since most adults are financially independent, the “flexibility and convenience of online education makes it particularly attractive to adult learners” (3).
In order to make education more accessible, traditional institutions of higher education should consider, as for-profit institutions have done, how to increase accessibility for students who are likely to have many work and family responsibilities. Online course delivery systems can increase accessibility for nontraditional students. Instructional methods that allow students to use their work- and home-life experiences are also likely to promote student success. Institutions can create greater flexibility of credit transfer between institutions. Alternative forms of financial aid should be made available for students who do not qualify for traditional financial aid based on full-time status. Credit also should be awarded when students demonstrate competence rather than relying solely on completion of credit hours. In addition to improving accessibility and affordability, institutions of higher education need to be more accountable for student success. Conventional learning outcomes are geared toward traditional students. Nontraditional students need concrete information about “employment outcomes, earnings potential, or return on education investment when choosing a postsecondary institution” (40). Educators, however, “express concern that overly simplistic metrics and reporting systems will fail to drive improvement” (40). The study reports proposed federal legislation that would allow students access to comparative information about institutions and also would compel institutions to include part-time and transfer students in their graduation rates. This inclusion would provide useful information to nontraditional students. The study recommends the incorporation of “lessons from employer methods of measuring skills and learning into design of accountability systems” and the development of “state data systems that can report economic as well as educational outcomes” (41). The report recommends the development of “federal-state partnerships," changes in financial aid programs, a national tracking system to report on student experience over time, and the establishment of “research and development programs to encourage employer engagement in the postsecondary education of working adults” (50).
4. Connors, Patricia. “Some Attitudes of Returning or Older Students of
Composition.” CCC 33.3 (1982): 263-66. Print.
Noting the increasing presence of nontraditional students in higher education, Connors questions the use of traditional teaching methods for teaching nontraditional students. Connors argues that nontraditional students are serious about their studies in a way that traditional students usually are not, and that though they bring a wealth of experience into the classroom, older students are more hesitant about their insights than are nontraditional students. To measure her impressions more precisely, Connors developed a brief survey for composition students. She designed the survey to learn about whether or not there were measurable differences between these two student groups and, if so, to understand the pedagogical impact. The survey questionnaire was distributed to 182 students; 137 students were between 18 and 24, and the remaining 45 were between 25 and 50. For the most part, the groups’ responses were very similar. Surprisingly, however, the question “I believe my own life experiences and interests give me plenty of material to write about” revealed that older students are less confident than younger students in this regard (264). This result suggests that nontraditional students should be encouraged to think more highly of their own experiences. The author also found that nontraditional students are much more likely to put time and effort into their courses and that nontraditional students are much more likely to want specific direction. The author concludes with a list of suggestions for classroom practice that respond to these findings.
5. Cornelius, Sarah, and Carole Gordon. "Adult Learners' Use of Flexible
Online Resources in a Blended Programme." Educational Media
International 46 (2009): 239-53. Print.
Examining the effectiveness of online learning, Cornelius and Gordon report on a study of adult students enrolled in the Teaching Qualification (Further Education)—TQ(FE) program. The study was intended to “illustrate how learners engage with flexible online materials” (242). The TQ(FE), delivered by the University of Aberdeen, is taken by about 130 lecturers each year. It is taken by small groups of lecturers (15-20) and facilitated by one university tutor. Two of the four courses in the TQ(FE) follow an alternative model that includes full-day workshops and online learning. The authors note that online “materials form the core of the content for each course” and that the “major feature of each course is a ‘Learning Lexicon.’ . . . This is a flexible set of activities and resources organized under a set of key terms” (242). The Learning Lexicon encourages adults to be self-directed learners and allows faculty to address students' needs at various levels. It also offers several advantages to students: the activities are always accessible and can be used flexibly, either for group or individual study. To study adult students' use of the Learning Lexicon, the researchers collected data through focus groups with the program’s tutors, reviewed artifacts, examined students’ reports on their use of the “Learning Lexicon,” and interviewed students. One finding is that students report a “generally positive attitude towards the flexibility provided by the programme” (245). Students also described “a range of roles and strategies adopted . . . for working with online resources” (245). The authors note that most study participants expressed a positive response to the flexibility offered by curriculum. They also adopted a variety of learning strategies, including the “universalists,” who studied everything available to them; the “butterflies,” who touched lightly upon multiple subjects of interest; the “changelings,” who changed from one strategy to another; and the “minimalists,” who did as little as possible. The authors suggest that an online learning environment is helpful to most students because of the flexibility it provides, but also note that students continue to need support in order to be successful. Since returning students are likely to be more comfortable with a lecture based model of education, it’s important for there to be clear guidelines and expectations for online learning, and students should have regular opportunities to reflect on their learning experiences. Finally, online course delivery changes the relationships between learners and instructors since it isn’t lecture based. In these courses, the instructor functions more in the capacity of a “guide on the side” (251).
6. DePew, Kevin Eric, T. A. Fishman, Julia E. Romberger, Bridget Fahey
Ruetenik. "Designing Efficiencies: The Parallel Narratives of Distance
Education and Composition Studies." Computers and Composition 23
(2006): 49-67. Print.
DePew et al. warn that valuing Distance Education (DE) primarily because of its potential to reduce costs might encourage composition faculty to adopt a pedagogy of Current Traditional Rhetoric (CTR) since both DE and CTR are perceived as efficient methods of information transfer. The authors examine “the parallel historical narratives of DE and CTR and discuss some disturbing trends toward mechanization of DE instruction along with promising instances of dialogic practices" (50). Marketing of DE mirrors the marketing of 19th century correspondence courses, which offered “the benefit of flexibility to schedule learning and the efficient use of time for education that could be integrated into an already busy life" (51). The same ideology of efficiency is readily apparent in contemporary scholarship on DE. Similarly, CTR highlighted “communicative efficiency” at the expense of meaning-making and audience awareness.
DE instructional methods require smaller class sizes than do courses that rely on CTR and are therefore more expensive. Furthermore, the focus on cost-efficiency always has had an impact on hiring decisions. In the 19th century, holders of PhDs in English were considered too valuable to assign to composition instruction. Now, teaching assistants and contingent faculty are the most likely to take on DE courses for many reasons, including the likelihood that these courses will continue to need faculty. Using the least powerful faculty, however, will not lead to the strongest program. A successful DE program will rely on frequent writing assignments and dialogic exchanges between the student and faculty and the students with each other. Over time, a well-regarded DE program will attract more students.
7. Frey, Ruth. Helping Adult Learners Succeed: Tools for Two-Year
Colleges. CAEL. September 2007. Web. January 3, 2011.
Frey describes the development and use of a community college version of the Adult Learning Focused Institution (ALFI) Assessment Toolkit. Because our economy is increasingly knowledge-based, many adults are seeking postsecondary education. Yet their nontraditional status, characterized by “part-time enrollment, full-time employment, financial independence, and/or parental responsibilities—create needs and priorities that differ from those of traditional students and make it difficult for adults to enter into and succeed in the traditional postsecondary environment” (3). In order to respond to these needs, the staff at the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL) created a survey instrument designed to promote understanding of what nontraditional students need to succeed. The survey instrument was based on the Adult Learning Focused Initiative Assessment Toolkit, “which offers colleges a mechanism to formally assess programs for adult learners” (3). The assessment toolkit was revised specifically to meet the needs of community colleges and piloted in 2005-2006 by 25 community colleges. The toolkit comprises two assessments that measure nontraditional students’ “perceptions of their experience as compared to faculty and administration’s perceptions of institutional programming” (5). The survey results can help guide administrators in program design. One of the key results of the survey is an emphasis on transitions, which refer to “a college’s ability to explain what is needed to complete an academic program, classes that are closely related to life and work goals, and guidance on classes that transfer to other programs both within and outside of the college” (6). The 25 institutions participating in the pilot study used the results to change their programs. These changes included a wider range of course time offerings, enhanced support for nontraditional students in the form of Web sites and orientation sessions, establishing non-credit programs, creating advising programs, and enhanced advising training for faculty. Colleges also pursued articulation agreements with local four-year colleges and to “inform strategic planning and program review, or as part of the accreditation review” (7). Students strongly indicated the need for good advising, flexibility in course delivery options, and clearly stated course goals. They were very appreciative of course delivery software that allowed them to track their progress online.
8. Grabill, Jeffrey T. "Utopic Visions, The Technopoor, and Public
Access: Writing Technologies in a Community Literacy Program."
Computers and Composition 15 (1998): 297-315. Print.
Grabill investigated an adult learning center that he calls Western District Adult Basic Education program. Reporting on access to computers and online networks, he frames his “discussion in terms of writing with computers outside composition classrooms” (298). This discussion is important because though the question of access to computers and networks has been comprehensively addressed (if not answered) within university settings, these questions have not been addressed in the multiple contexts for learning that exist in other locations. Since “access to writing technologies is unequal, the literacy learning of students and workers suffers” (298). Grabill presents a model of access based on work by James Porter. The model consists of “infrastructural access” (computers connected to a wide area network), literacy (computer skills and expertise) and community or social acceptance (299). Grabill then cites surveys showing that the higher one’s income and level of education, the more likely one is to make use of networked computers. The failure to provide adequate equipment to adult basic education programs contributes to the widening gap between the technological haves and have nots, the “technopoor” of the title (302). Grabill’s study of the Western District Adult Basic Education program confirms the survey findings. Having observed a “Computers and Communication class,” Grabill found that the computers at the program hardly worked, the network was frequently out of service, the software was out of date, the instructor was inadequately trained, and the students were frustrated. As a result of this study, Grabill concludes that “computers and composition” as a field should change its focus to “computers and writing.” Such a change, he writes, would force us “to consider the public and civic uses of computers for writing” (311). Computers and composition faculty are ideally suited to take on this work since they already have addressed these questions in academic contexts.
9. Inman, James, and Dagman Stuehrk Corrigan. "Toward a Doctoral Degree
by Distance in Computers and Writing: Promises and Possibilities."
Computers and Composition 18 (2001): 411-22. Print.
Inman and Stuehrk Corrigan begin this essay by noting that as access to the Web became more commonplace, distance education programs proliferated. These programs are particularly attractive to non-traditional students, who often have responsibilities that prevent them from pursuing degrees at residential campuses. The authors argue that because of these dynamics, the time has come to offer a fully online PhD program. The field of computers and writing has many experienced teachers of composition without doctoral training who are place-bound. Many of these are returning adult learners who would fit into a distance learning doctoral program. The authors then turn to the results of their survey of 150 degree-granting institutions. Half of these are four-year institutions, and the other half has graduate programs. Among the responses received from the four-year institutions, 7 implied that “they do not believe computers and writing is a reasonable specialty” (415). The authors interpret these responses and others that reflected the same sentiment to mean that the field of computers and writing “does not fit well into all contemporary institutional and departmental cultures" (416). In terms of the assessment of applicants, many of the respondents did not feel that the applicants were strong candidates for a number of reasons, e.g., the candidates’ lack of balance between technical and pedagogical issues, the failure to look at the new forms of writing that the technology created, and the weak records of publication. In their conclusion, the authors propose a PhD program that would exist fully online. The program would be administered by a consortium of institutions, and no course work would be required. Instead, students would complete four research projects overseen by any member of the consortium of the student’s choice. The program of study would culminate with a dissertation.
10. Greenwood, Claudia M. “’It’s Scary at First’: Reentry Women in College
Composition Classes.” Teaching English in the Two-Year College
17.2 (1990): 133-42. Print.
The writer notes that the profile of a traditional college student is changing and that more of these returning students are women who interrupted their education to have children. These women have been “designated reentry women” (133). The author found little information about these students in the literature, so she designed a study that would help her understand her students’ needs, especially with regard to the composition classroom. This extensive study includes data gathered from a “preinstruction questionnaire exploring reasons for their decision to return to school . . a preinstruction writing attitude survey; a writing history; an interview at the conclusion of the first three weeks of instruction; a video-taped writing session and retrospective protocol,” three postinstruction surveys and the analysis of student portfolios (134). Study participants included 12 students and 4 instructors. The researcher found that reentry women in this sample had a very high level of anxiety about their ability to be successful college students. They also felt guilty about making additional demands of their significant others so that they could return to college. The students believed that without family support they would not be able to complete their studies. Personal resolve to succeed, enhanced by positive classroom experiences, also helped students to complete their studies, as did the discovery that other students and faculty would become part of their support group. As writers, these students valued writing as a form of “self-expression and for maintaining personal relationships,” but they found writing for purposes other than these threatening (136). Students did not think themselves capable of other forms of writing. There were a variety of forms of instruction in the four courses included in this study, and instructors tended to have very high expectations of reentry women since they were older and had more life experience. The students’ self-perceptions changed over the course of the semester, but they were unable to reflect on changes in their writing abilities. At the end of the semester, they still did not perceive themselves as writers but rather as imitators of writers. Students who had been pushed intellectually, however, had a much stronger impression of themselves as thinkers at the end of the semester. Though they did not think their writing had much improved, they were pleased with their increased ability to think through complex rhetorical problems. All students agreed that successful writing required revision. All students continued to regard professorial authority as extremely powerful and did not question the professors’ goals and methods. This power makes each instructor’s mode of instruction and orientation toward reentry women very important. Instructors should create a welcoming, constructive classroom environment, recognize that these students have intense time constraints, and plan their coursework accordingly.
11. Kim, Kyong-Jee. "Motivational Challenges of Adult Learners in
Self-Directed E-Learning." Journal of Interactive Learning Research 20
(2009): 317-35. Print.
Khong-Jee reports on a study of adult students' motivations for completing online course work. The research included in-depth interviews with 12 students who had completed “self-directed e-learning courses in either academic . . . or workplace settings" (317). Study participants had taken self-paced, stand alone courses developed by an e-learning vendor that offers over “3,000 e-learning courses to 20 million learners per year” (318). One finding was that students were motivated by the high level of interactivity associated with learning activities “such as animations and simulations,” and “control over the pace and sequence of instruction” (317). Although the effectiveness of e-learning has been demonstrated, courses and programs that use this technology are plagued by high dropout rates. This condition warrants the continued study of student motivation, which is often conceptualized as either “intrinsic” or “extrinsic." Little is known about how these types of motivation affect e-learners, and few studies provide practical guidelines for motivating students. Some research has shown, though, that a “systematic approach to the design of motivational components in instruction can enhance or sustain learner motivation in online settings” (320). Individual student preferences also have an impact on motivation. Several studies conclude that a high level of interaction—both a large number of online activities to complete and animated demonstrations—motivates students. A high level of learner control has a positive impact on motivation. Students in the study took courses on a variety of subjects, including desk-top applications, computer and Internet programming, and soft skills. About half the students had prior experience with e-learning. Instructors were available to only 2 students in the study. Six themes emerged from the interview. Of primary importance is the interactivity of course content, including “animations (movement of objects in response to the user’s action), simulations (users responding to a set of different situations in conversation with others), and drag-and-drop quiz activities” (324-25). Another motivator is the ability to apply what they learn to real-world situations. Students were very motivated by the control they had over the course; they controlled both the pace and the sequence. Some participants noted that the lack of extrinsic motivators, such as instructor feedback and grades, drained their motivation.
12. Knightly, Wendy M. "Adult Learners Online: Students' Experiences of
Learning Online." Australian Journal of Adult Learning 47 (2007):
264-88. Print.
In this study, the author “aimed to investigate the potential of online learning to overcome barriers to participating in education by socially disadvantaged adults” (264). Knightly surveyed 79 students taking online learning courses at the Open University in the UK. While the study's sample is too small for generalized claims, the study does provide some insight into students’ experiences. Knightly begins by defining “social exclusion.” People can be considered socially excluded if “they are unable to participate in the basic economic and social activities of the society in which they live” (266). Indicators of social inclusion might include “financial difficulties, lack of basic necessities . . . poor housing conditions, lack of consumer durables, poor health, limited social contact or perceived dissatisfaction” (266). Though she acknowledges that the two concepts are used interchangeably, the author distinguishes between e-learning, which is “conceived of as learning that is supported and delivered through the use of ICT” (information and communication technology) and online learning which is “delivered and supported through the internet” (268).
Both e-learning and online learning are attractive to students because they offer flexibility in terms of study time. Online learning has the additional value of allowing students to interact with each other. Both forms of learning mask personal characteristics such as disabilities, which promotes the sense of an egalitarian learning environment. The study demonstrates that many students (46%) chose the Open University because of it offered “part-time, distance learning with high quality resources and support,” and another 10% chose it because of “the potential to dovetail Open University study with childcare or other caring responsibilities (79). Many students (21%) were not sure what was meant by the phrase “online learning,” but 46% thought online learning provided “a more convenient way of accessing information and people, through the use of technology” (276). Overall, over half of the survey respondents (53%) reported a preference for studying online while only 11% preferred off-line learning.
13. Pandey, Iswari P. "Literate Lives across the Digital Divide." Computers and Composition 23 (2006): 246-57. Print.
Pandey draws attention to social and political dimensions of literacy learning. He complicates the concept of the “digital divide” to include not just relative poverty and wealth but also how literacy itself, including digital literacies, is deployed by the government to reproduce or undermine political ideologies. To achieve this goal, Pandey writes a literacy narrative. He begins the narrative in 2005 with the writing of this essay. At that time, he was living in the United States and pursuing graduate studies. His home country of Nepal, however, was experiencing both political and social turmoil. Pandey then describes his literacy education from his early years in “order to give [his] readers a fuller view of the ways the external conditions (digital) literacy learning” (247). Pandey was born in a rural area of Nepal in 1968, eight years after the King of Nepal successfully toppled a democratically elected government. The King specifically was concerned that increased levels of literacy would lead to popular discontent, so he strictly controlled education and access to mass media. During this period, the author learned to read and write under his father’s guidance. At 5, he entered a Sanskrit school; at 10, he entered a public school at which he studied, among other things, English. Learning English laid the groundwork for the digital literacy that would one day facilitate his ability to cross the digital divide. During this period of his education, two curricula emerged: the state-sponsored curriculum and an alternative curriculum based on protest literature. As he finished his MA in 1993, the writer became aware of the value of digital literacy as he sought to complete his thesis. His access to computers is an important part of his literacy narrative because it demonstrates that “state ideology . . . shapes not only the course of learning as carried out in schools and colleges but also the technology of literacy” (250). It was only the change in politics that was not dominated by nobility that made technology available. Describing the history of technology in Nepal and his own personal history as a learner of technology, Pandey reports overcoming many obstacles to becoming literate and warns against interpreting his story as a "hero narrative." The politics of use and place both “undercut the prevailing myths about computer and the Internet as neutral and world-wide medium” (253). Literacy practices across the digital divide, then, do not take the form of a linear narrative but involve an “ongoing negotiation” (254).
14. Park, Ji-Hye, and Hee Jun Choi. "Factors Influencing Adult Learners'
Decision to Drop Out or Persist in Online Learning." Educational
Technology and Society 12 (2009): 207-17. Print.
The authors review a number of studies that have tried to identify the reasons for high dropout rates among online adult learners. They note, however, that very few of these studies have included empirical research and that “no consensus has been reached for which factors have definite influences on the decision” to drop out (209). The researchers collected quantitative data from “147 learners who had dropped out of or finished one of the online courses offered from a large Midwestern university” and found that dropouts and persistent learners “showed statistical differences in perceptions of family and organizational support, and satisfaction and relevance” (207). In this study, the authors focused on individual characteristics (age, gender, educational background, employment status), external factors (family support and job support) and internal factors (motivation as related to course relevance and course satisfaction)” (209).
The dropout rate in the courses the researchers studied had increased from 47% to 54.2%. Of the 147 students who participated in the study, 66.7% completed the course and 33.3% dropped out. The majority of these students (85.7%) were 30 or over. Through surveys of students, the researchers concluded that individual characteristics have little or no impact on a student’s decision to drop out of an online course. Students’ perceived lack of family and job support does have an impact on their decision to drop out. It is important for instructors to try to be aware of students’ perceived lack of support since instructors might be able to compensate by providing extra attention to these students and helping the students to remain motivated. If possible, administrators and instructors also should try to build family and organizational support by explaining the relevance of the course. Students are also much less likely to drop out “when they are satisfied with the courses, and when the courses are relevant to their own lives” (215). The authors suggest that course work be centered around activities that can be applied, and the subject be centered around subjects that are relevant to students’ interests and goals. An online course needs to be designed to stimulate interaction. These results are consistent with previous studies on this subject.
15. Stine, Linda. "The Best of Both Worlds: Teaching Basic Writers In
Class and Online." Journal of Basic Writing 23 (2004): 49-69.
Stine argues that a basic writing course should, for multiple reasons, incorporate online learning. Acknowledging that there are many possibilities for how this might be accomplished, she presents one model for a hybrid course that she finds effective. Stine developed this model for adult students (aged 25 to 64) who were enrolled in a pre-master's degree program in order to prepare for entry into a Master of Human Services program at Lincoln University (in Pennsylvania). These students attended a face-to-face (f2f) class every other week and on alternate weeks submitted reading responses and essays via a course delivery platform such as Blackboard. Stine begins by acknowledging that there are many good reasons why basic writing students should not be expected to complete their work online. Basic writing students might have less access to technology, so the requirement for online learning might have an extremely negative impact on them. Moreover, even if students do have access to computers, they also must learn to use them for specific applications while they are learning to write. Others note that the online environment is not as rich as the f2f environment, and this lack of richness might diminish student involvement. In addition, many of the features of good online reading—filtering, skimming, and pecking—are exactly the qualities that make basic writing students poor readers. Finally, the online environment forces students to work in a text-rich environment that might be overwhelming for them, and it asks even more of instructors since they must do additional work to prepare their courses for online delivery. Stine concludes that in spite of these legitimate concerns, there are many reasons to pursue a hybrid course. Online learning allows some students who might be unwilling to talk in f2f classrooms the opportunity to participate in online conversations. Stine also notes that “students learn by doing something worth doing” and that writing in online environments is perceived as something worth doing (55). The hybrid course also dramatically increases access to education and “can double the number of students who can use a school’s scarce computer laboratories and, at the same time, halve these students’ commuting costs” (50). Citing Evan Davis and Sarah Hardy, Stine notes that online learning helps students build their academic skills, which includes “organizing and tacking documents, participating in a community discussion, sharing work with peers, [and] claiming a voice through writing” (56). Instructors should teach students how to participate in online learning since so much meaningful interaction happens on the Web. If basic writing students are to participate fully in contemporary culture as writers, they need to understand communication in a Web context. Stine concludes by noting that online learning encourages and enhances student/faculty contact, cooperation among students, active learning, and time on task.
Karen Uehling
12 Abstracts
1. Aronson, Anne, Craig Hansen, and Brian Nerney. "Introduction to the Special Issue of The Writing Instructor: Undergraduate Learners and the Teaching of Writing." The Writing Instructor 15.2 (1996): 51-58. Print.
This essay introduces a special theme issue of The Writing Instructor that Aronson, Hansen, and Nerney edited on adult learners and writing instruction. The issue includes both research articles and brief narratives by adult students called "Student Voices" and "explore[s] how the presence of adults in our classrooms challenges [our] assumptions about students and forces us to reconsider how we teach writing." The editors ask, "How would the questions compositionists ask change if we threw age differences into the mix?" After summarizing basic adult learning theory, they sketch key issues that adult learners bring to the classroom. These include mainstreaming and basic writing; possible inexperience with technology and resulting anxiety; awareness of the importance of revision from work experience; textbooks that largely address younger students' concerns; desire for instruction that allows for varied learning styles and uses varied media, not just text; and motivation for learning that may be vocational and pragmatic, particularly within the mixed age classroom.
2. Cross, Patricia. Beyond the Open Door: New Students to Higher Education. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1971. Print.
In Beyond the Open Door, Cross identifies the “New Student [author’s capitalization] to higher education,” a student for which colleges are unprepared. Cross defines New Students as “those scoring in the lowest third” in academic ability, while traditional students score in the upper third; Cross profiles these New Students and proposes teaching methods for them. This 200-page book containing ten chapters, three appendices, and some thirty-five tables, resulted from Cross’s analysis of four major educational surveys conducted between 1960 and 1969. These studies generally centered on high school seniors and often were longitudinal, extending backward as far as seventh grade or forward to a year after high school graduation or community college entrance. The data includes (1) academic measures like standardized tests or high school grades and (2) interests, attitudes, preferences, socioeconomic status, and the like. Cross learned that most New Students are Caucasians from blue-collar backgrounds; they are first-generation college students who made C’s in high school. They plan to attend community colleges or vocational schools, not for the joy of learning but to obtain a better life than their parents have. New Students should not be equated with low socioeconomic status or ethnic minorities, although there is overlap. It is, in fact, a fallacy to assume that “traditional education has served the privileged classes well and the disadvantaged poorly.” Instead, Cross argues that traditional education has served people who can learn using “traditional academic discipline-bound curricula,” but this approach is “too narrow.” Ethnic minorities and women are also new students to higher education but differ from the general profile. Women are “well qualified” for traditional academic work and need support services. While minority enrollment has increased, the proportion of minorities remains small, and Cross holds higher education “accountable” for creating new methods to assist “minority youth born in a majority culture.” Cross recommends redesigning education for New Students. Rather than remediation for traditional academic excellence, remediation should reorient students’ attitudes toward learning. Colleges should offer a range of subjects, which Cross classifies into working with people, with things, and with ideas; of these, the “New Students show particular strengths” in fields dealing with human problems and technology. Cross advises adult learning methods, especially self-selected learning projects, such as group or shop work and industrial or community experience, evaluated by performance, interviews, or competency exams. Ultimately, Cross hopes to establish education that moves students “beyond the Open Door.”
3. Freire, Paulo. "The Adult Literacy Process as Cultural Action for Freedom." Harvard Educational Review 40:2 (May 1970): 205-225. Reprinted in A Sourcebook for Basic Writing Teachers. Ed. Teresa Enos. NY: Random House, 1987. 158-175. Print.
Freire describes critical consciousness through adult literacy primers for learning to read. Freire argues that literacy is not a “neutral” technology, but that all encounters with language are politically charged. Typical primers reveal “a simplistic vision of men, of their world, of the relationship of the two, and of the illiteracy process which unfolds in that world.” The primer becomes a “mediating object,” and authors of such primers assume students are empty vessels to be “filled.” Freire calls this the “'digestive' concept of knowledge,” sometimes known as the “banking concept of education.” In this model, the learner is a passive receiver who fails “to perceive the structure of not only illiteracy but of social phenomena in general.” Such illiteracy is thus a dehumanizing, oppressive structure that promotes a “culture of silence”: until one can see a structure one cannot see or change social phenomena or question power relationships. Instead, primer authors and literacy educators should recognize the capacity for the poor “to know and even create the texts which would express their own thought-language” and perceptions of the world. Then “the literacy process, as cultural action for freedom, is an act of knowing in which the learner assumes the role of knowing subject in dialogue with the educator.” Rather than the culture of silence, learners have the right to “voice,” and “the human word is more than mere vocabulary—it is word-and-action.” Effective teachers do not simply transmit information, but instead employ a dialogic “pedagogy of knowing.” Such educators are in a dialectical relationship with the world and constantly “problematize” instructional situations by (1) identifying “generative words” for study, words that allow for many forms, and (2) connecting these words to “codified existential situations” of the learners, that is, to images that encode significant issues. This kind of literacy work allows learners to engage in “critical analysis of the social framework” while they learn. As they master new generative words, learners “expand both their vocabulary and their capacity for expression by the development of their creative imagination.” Finally, Freire argues that this kind of literacy work requires “faith in the people, solidarity with them.”
4. Gillam, Alice M. “Returning Students’ Ways of Writing: Implications for First-Year College Composition.” Journal of Teaching Writing 10.1 (1991): 1-20. Print.
Gillam presents research with two groups of adult writers enrolled in first year writing in the early 1980's, totaling sixty-four students. Her research methods include beginning and end of term questionnaires, pre- and post-course responses to the Daly and Miller Writing Apprehension Test (WAT), interviews, and four in-depth case studies. Gillam illustrates this material with two of her case studies, including sample essays. The most salient feature emerging from this research is gender differences. Gilliam finds that returning men rarely engage in personal writing and “are more likely than returning women to bring work-related writing experience to the composition classroom,” such as memos, proposals, documentation, and histories; these genres are structured, purposeful, written for a definite audience, and assume the writer's authority. Women engage in personal writing, specifically journals and letters, which are organic in form, expressive, conversational, and written for an audience of the self or a known other: conventions that differ from academic writing. Women's work-related writing encompasses employment and volunteering, largely business letters, memos, nursing documents, and minutes taken for organizations. These tasks are formulaic, formal, purposeful, and written for a specific audience, but they do not foster women’s authority as writers. While both genders, like most students, have some difficulty with authorial voice, “particularly obvious in situations which call for an integration of personal analysis with secondary source material,” Gillam argues that returning women are exceptionally intimidated by the authority of print sources, amplified by insecurity about age and gender. Gillam proposes the use of “experience portfolios” consisting of “a prose vitae describing significant life experiences, a writing history and writer’s profile, and writing samples” and describes how this portfolio can be used in the classroom and analyzed by instructors for strategies to design assignments, reduce anxiety, and the like.
5. McAlexander, Patricia J. “Mina Shaughnessy and K. Patricia Cross: The Forgotten Debate over Postsecondary Remediation.” Rhetoric Review 19.1/2 (2000): 28-41.
McAlexander compares Mina Shaughnessy, an “iconic” basic writing figure, with K. Patricia Cross, “another basic education pioneer” who has often been forgotten. Both Shaughnessy and Cross worked at public universities as administrators in the 1960s and 1970s and supported open admissions. Both were affected by the civil rights movement, but the effect had an “opposite influence” on their understanding of higher education and its “new students.” Shaughnessy's work consists primarily of Errors and Expectations and a few essays, while Cross wrote many articles and several books. Shaughnessy studied drama, literature, and religion; her work is narrative and metaphorical, demonstrating rhetorical skill drawn from personal experience and observation. Cross was a math major with a PhD in psychology who relies on quantitative research methods. Shaughnessy, in her analysis of student writing, offers readers what she (Shaughnessy) labels “a story not a sum,” while Cross’s mode is numbers and figures. Cross analyzes existing national data banks for information that defines trends in the new students. If Shaughnessy asks “Who should go to college?” Cross asks “Who is going?”
These differing inquiries lead Shaughnessy and Cross to conflicting profiles of the new students, reasons for their underachievement, and recommendations for curriculum. Shaughnessy, whose inner city New York students were mainly ethnic minorities, condemns the racist and classist assumptions of their earlier education, while Cross argues that most developmental students are not minorities. Shaughnessy “hypothesize[s]” the “educability” of the new students, believing that “their behavior is neither random nor illogical.” Cross, in contrast, identifies low test scores, low “academic ability,” and low motivation and effort as characteristic of the new students. Shaughnessy focuses on improving remedial methods and in fact suggests that teachers remediate themselves. Cross recommends not remediation for academic excellence but “alternatives to traditional curricula,” including “vocational, business, and semi-professional training” in two-year colleges. McAlexander concludes that while Shaughnessy was right that “the academic background of minorities is often to blame,” Cross emerges as more accurate in describing the students and predicting recent directions in postsecondary education.
6. Nixon-Ponder, Sarah. "Using Problem-Posing Dialogue in Adult Literacy Education." Adult Learning 7:2 (Nov./Dec.1995): 10-12. Reprinted in Teaching Developmental Writing: Background Readings. Ed. Susan Naomi Bernstein. 3rd ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2007. 206-213.
Nixon-Ponder clarifies the sometimes abstract "problem posing" dialogue method advocated by Dewey, Piaget, Freire, and Shor. In this form of critical pedagogy, the instructor identifies a topic significant to class members; then students engage in a five-step process: (1) Describe the content of the problem through a "code" or text, such as written dialogues, role plays, stories from students’ lives, public texts, (newspapers, pamphlets, government forms, others), or images—discuss/write about what the text is about. (2) Define the problem—through discussion or writing, identify one specific problem the class will focus on. (3) Personalize the problem—discuss/write about students’ experience with the issue and how it makes them feel. (4) Discuss the problem—discuss/write about economic reasons for the problem and economic effects on class members. (5) Discuss alternatives to the problem—discuss/write about solutions and the consequences of particular actions. Then Nixon-Ponder provides case studies demonstrating how she has used the method. In an ABE literacy class, students focused on childcare; they read varied materials, wrote journal entries, oral histories, and letters, and "learned they had the answers to their problems" and "the steps to … arrive at solutions." Nixon-Ponder also describes problem-posing in GED classes: in a writing class, Nixon-Ponder focused on what correct writing is and who sets the standards, while in a history class, she focused on what history is and how it should be studied.
7. Popken, Randall. "A Study of the Genre Repertoires of Adult Writers." The Writing Instructor 15.2 (1996): 85-93. Print.
Popken examines genre "extrapolation," a process by which writers adapt familiar genres to the unfamiliar genres they want to write. Popken presents case studies of two adult students--John, age 32, and Aletha, 33--developed from personal interviews and student writing. John, who has worked for fourteen years in trades, "hates to write" and, other than love letters to his girlfriend, has only written fragmented responses to questions. However, John has developed knowledge of some genres from his reading of novels, new journalism, philosophy, the newspaper, and others. John's college writing lacks sufficient explicitness; he has difficulty with the "point + illustration" structure and cannot extrapolate this genre feature from previous genre knowledge. In addition, the flip, disinterested style of the creative nonfiction he reads displays a voice inappropriate for college writing. Aletha worked for five years in secretarial positions where she wrote many business letters before becoming a full-time parent. She likes to write, writes fiction for fun, and reads varied material: popular fiction, encyclopedias, cookbooks, biographies, and others. Her attempts to extrapolate college writing from the genre of the business letter have met with mixed results. Like John, Aletha has difficulty with explicitness; she is confused by how much support an assertion needs. Business letters also lack a strong enough voice or textual authority to serve as an academic model, especially evident in Aletha's use of sources. However, business letters seem to extrapolate well for her history essay exams, which call for quick assertions with brief, specific support. Popken concludes that adult writers' base of genre knowledge differs from that of traditional age students, and the attempt to extrapolate past genre knowledge will affect adults' academic writing. Instructors need to consider how previous reading and writing may influence such writing.
8. Rose, Mike. The Mind at Work: Valuing the Intelligence of the American
Worker. NY: Penguin, 2004.
Rose examines common labor and the thinking it requires. In this 250-page book, Rose presents six chapter-long case studies of workers: a waitress (based on Rose's mother), a hair stylist, plumbers, carpenters, electricians, construction workers, a welder, and an industry foreman. In these "cognitive biographies," Rose offers vivid, in-depth stories of working lives developed through description, narrative, interview, and careful analysis, revealing the complex mix of physical, psychological, and cognitive skills work requires. Waitressing and hair styling represent service professions in "a public space in which intimate things happen." For example, waitressing encompasses "rituals of service, memory, economy of movement, and regulation of the flow of work." The chapters on trades explore tools, judgment, planning, and problem solving, how workers "think through the challenges of materials and structures, function and force." Rose continuously asks, "What in this moment does it mean to be smart?” This careful study assists adult educators in understanding the abilities working adult students may bring to the classroom and students’ expectations for learning. Rose profiles both expert practitioners and apprentices, as well as their teachers and mentors, such as the journeyman plumber who mentors at-risk teenagers in a vocational rehabilitation program. Rose considers community colleges, training programs, and the role of education in those institutions, arguing against the "body-mind, hand-brain dichotomy" and the separation of vocational from academic education. In fact, in a later chapter, Rose describes surgeons and their absolute reliance on the hand/eye/brain connection. Rose frames the profiles with reflection on the connections among physical, mental, and emotional work and education. He enlarges terms like cognition, intelligence, and skill; agency and competence; authority and the ethics of care; perception, "tricks of the trade," planning, and technique; and communicating through images (figures, graphs, blueprints, drawings) and communicating through words or movements (reading, writing, talk, gestures). He considers educational issues like tracking and vocational education; first-generation college students; race, class, gender, and social mobility; and teaching training, and mentoring. Rose also describes the challenges and satisfactions of teaching "creatively in the intersection of the academic and the vocational," a kind of teaching one instructor called "the most powerful thing... I've ever done in education." Ultimately, Rose proposes a democratic educational approach that honors "the fundamental intelligence of a broad range of human activity."
9. Smith, Beatrice Quarshie. "Genre, Medium and Learning to Write: Negotiating Identities, Enacting School-Based Literacies in Adulthood." Journal of College Reading and Learning 34.2 (2004): 75-96. Print.
Smith focuses on technology and adult learners, expanding the concept of literacy narratives to include a sub-genre of “technology autobiographies.” Smith studied eighteen community college students, ages 20 to 54, using technological literacy surveys and the technology autobiographies. The survey introduced the technology autobiography assignment, the first major project in a freshman-level reading/writing course taught in a networked environment. Smith analyzes these technology autobiographies thematically, focusing on three categories: (1) encoding of "commemorative practices" and engagement with memory; (2) composition and construction of identities to represent the self, "social and academic worlds," and "negotiate authority"; and (3) representation of technologies and location of literacies. Her discussion of these categories applies not only to technology autobiographies but also to literacy narratives generally and the value and purpose of the larger genre. Three conclusions emerge from Smith's thematic analysis: (1) The genre of the technology autobiography is useful for adult learners because it requires them to represent themselves in a technological environment. (2) The narratives suggest ways of thinking about teaching with technology, specifically, three “distinct domains" of technology present in students' lives: recreational, educational, and functional/vocational. (3) Students' stories help teachers "interrogate the social, cultural and economic interests … [that] construct cultural narratives about literacy education and technologies in the new economy." The student work Smith discusses expands our definition of "technology" to include not only computers, video games, and cell phones, but also television, home appliances like refrigerators, electricity, photographs, and even reading, writing, and education itself. As recently as the year 2000, for some students electric light and photographs represented "technology."
10. Sommer, Robert F. Teaching Writing to Adults. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1989. Print.
Sommer targets both the adult learning professional who knows nothing about writing theory and the writing professional new to adult learning ("andragogy"). In this inter-disciplinary synthesis, Sommer weaves concise summaries of theory with specific recommendations for practice, including many step-by-step sample assignments. A 250-page book, Teaching Writing to Adults contains thirteen chapters divided into three sections--the distinctiveness of adult learners, adult-centered techniques for writing instruction, and adult learners in varied settings--and six "resource"/appendices.
Sommer identifies writing anxiety as especially characteristic of adult learners and argues that "the writing classroom for adults ought to be a place where judgments are subordinated to supportive activities," such as short, informal practice writing not evaluated in detail, setting goals to solve particular writing problems, and writing groups that reveal the value of reader response. In a key chapter on andragogy and writing theory, Sommer describes the assumptions and practical components of andragogy, followed by suggested writing assignments. Writing topics, for instance, should allow adults not only to describe and narrate experience but reflect on it thoughtfully; topics also should encourage students to explore change, especially the college re-entry transition. Instruction should address immediate applications for writing, including writing to learn in all subjects and survival writing strategies for college and the job. Assignments should be functional with reference to real world situations, written to real audiences. The book also offers specific chapters on teaching adults in workplace writing workshops, college composition, and GED centers with their mixed ability levels. In the final chapter, Sommer summarizes fifteen strategies for teaching writing to adults and recommends that the andragogical writing instructor continuously reflect on teaching and "suit the teaching to the learning and not the reverse," noting that the instructor may become "an environmentalist who enables students to discover their own resources and to challenge themselves; a consultant who can answer direct questions about concrete issues of language usage, rhetorical situations, formats, audiences, procedures; a professional whose experience with writing can help her anticipate the frustrations and anxieties of inexperienced writers." The bibliography contains key writing and adult learning materials up to 1987.
11. Uehling, Karen S. "Older and Younger Adults Writing Together: A Rich Learning Community." The Writing Instructor 15.2 (1996): 61-69. Print.
Uehling begins by examining Malcolm Knowles' theory of "andragogy," the teaching of adults, and compares it with "pedagogy," the teaching of children, as seen through six assumptions about learning: (1) the need to know, (2) the learner’s self-concept, (3) the role of experience, (4) readiness to learn, (5) orientation to learning, and (6) motivation. Uehling notes that ultimately Knowles linked andragogy with a student-centered approach and pedagogy with a teacher-directed approach, arguing that neither model is inherently good or bad, adult or childlike, but rather the two models represent a range of teaching/learning choices. Uehling then describes the natural affinity between writing theory and adult learning theory; she characterizes a beginning writing course based on adult learning theory as a "process-oriented writing workshop or a reading/writing seminar emphasizing invention, revision, and final editing for mechanics" and applies Knowles’ six andragogical principles to teaching beginning writing instruction: (1) the need to know: present rationales for assignments and learning strategies and explain how writing instruction has changed over the years, especially why grammar is not taught as traditional skill and drill; (2) the learner’s self-concept: encourage students to explore their own interests, create a situation in which genuine discovery and curiosity lead to words, and offer strategies for dealing with “critique anxiety”; (3) the role of experience: provide an opportunity to write about and reflect on experience, especially the transition of coming to college or back to school; (4) readiness to learn: offer practical tips and hints and survival reading/writing/study techniques for college work; (5) orientation to learning: present a range of writing topics that appeal to different generations and present the "same" life task in cross-generational readings; (6) motivation: focus on the writer's intention which should be internal and authentic--saying real things to real people for a reason. Uehling supports mixed age writing classrooms, arguing that younger and older students are more alike than different, especially in community colleges or urban universities where most students balance many responsibilities, such as work, family, and school, and asserts that mixed age classes offer a richness missing when traditional age students are segregated from older learners.
12. Zemke, Ron, and Susan Zemke. “Thirty Things We Know for Sure About Adult Learning.” Training (1988): 57- 61. Reprint. Training/HRD (1981): 45+.
Training magazine labels this brief article a “classic” because readers requested it more than any other between 1981 and 1988. The Zemkes review a huge body of research on adult learning and classify it into three categories: what we know about learner motivation, curriculum design, and classroom practice. Under each header, the authors identify key researchers and research directions and then extract characteristics of adult learners and guidelines for instructors. The Zemkes argue that adults are motivated to seek learning experiences to cope with “life-change events,” so learning should be practical, not an end in itself. Further, such events present useful “teachable moments.”
Adults prefer, according to the authors, focused curriculum with time to integrate and practice new concepts. A key curriculum researcher, R. B. Catell, developed the notions of “fluid,” fact-based intelligence and “crystallized” intelligence or wisdom. The teaching implications of Catell’s work, identified by influential adult learning theorist K. Patricia Cross, include meaningful presentations of information with aids to help organize material, a pace that allows for mastery, focusing on one idea at a time with minimal competing demands, and frequent summary. A second set of research affecting curriculum is life stage theory and work on values. This material suggests that curriculum designers identify content that may support or challenge students’ values and allow for learners in different life stages with differing values. Another form of curriculum research focuses on modes of instruction—adults favor self-directed learning projects, delivered in varied forms: lectures, short seminars, consultation with an expert, on site visits, and the like. Adults prefer to carry out these projects in collaborative work groups, not in isolation. Research on classroom practice suggests that the classroom be physically and psychologically comfortable. Instructors should clarify expectations before delving into content, honor adults’ life experience, allow for dialogue, use active learning techniques, protect minority opinion, and plan for practice, applications of learning, accountability, and follow-up. In short, the “instructor is less advocate than orchestrator.”
