Explorations of reflection as a tool for writing knowledge transfer and writing skill appreciation

Natasha Mallette; Jennifer C Mallette

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Conference: 2019 ASEE PNW Section Conference
Location: Corvallis, Oregon
Publication Date: March 20, 2019
Start Date: March 20, 2019
End Date: March 22, 2019
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--31878
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/31878

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Paper Authors

biography

Natasha Mallette P.E. Oregon State University

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Dr. Mallette worked as a design, process and research engineer before obtaining her PhD in Chemical and Biological Engineering at Montana State University. She has a strong interest in improving engineering students practical professional skills and their ability to be effective engineers. Her current research focus is effective teamwork instruction in engineering curriculum. Her past research explored biofilms and biological production of fuel chemicals. At times, she is also a visiting professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison for Operations and Process Laboratory.

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biography

Jennifer C Mallette Boise State University

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An Assistant Professor of English at Boise State University, Dr. Jenn Mallette teaches technical communication at the undergraduate and graduate level. In addition to working with STEM students in her undergraduate technical communication course, she collaborates with faculty in the College of Engineering to focus on enhancing writing education in engineering courses. Her other research focuses on women engineering, and she has recently published on the results of a case study exploring the connections among women's experiences in engineering, their identities as writers, and their writing.

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Abstract

Professional writing skills are vital to engineering career success, although they are usually underappreciated by undergraduate engineering students. The students may understand hypothetically that writing will be essential after they graduate, but they do not always understand how. While engineering programs require writing assignments often rooted in genres students may use and situations they may encounter outside the classroom, little attention is paid to assessing writing learning beyond the specific assignment tasks.

To understand strategies to enable students to connect learning from individual assignments to other uses and contexts, we are piloting the use of reflection in senior-level project courses at two academic institutions. Reflection offers potential as a strategy to assess students’ long-term learning of writing skills and connection with writing contexts in their careers. Reflection has long been used in writing studies to increase students’ meta-awareness of how writing works in specific contexts and to facilitate transfer (Yancey, Robertson, Taczak, 2014). In this presentation, we (a faculty member in chemical engineering at Institution A and a faculty member in English/technical communication who works with engineering students at Institution B) explore reflection as a tool to improve course outcomes for writing proficiency and to facilitate continuous improvement in and outside the classroom. To gather data, we will ask students at both institutions to complete a reflection at the end of one course and the start of another. At Institution A, approximately 200 students reflect on their learning; at Institution B, approximately 15 students will complete both reflections. These reflections will ask students to discuss which course writing concepts made the biggest impression, how they plan to incorporate those concepts in future writing, and their awareness of the importance of quality writing in a professional engineering career.

In this presentation, we will share preliminary findings on the impact of asking students to reflect on their writing and how it may affect their writing from one term to the next. In addition, we will assess the possibilities for reflection as a method to enable students to apply their classroom learning to writing post-graduation, in industry or graduate programs. We will conclude with the possibilities of expanding this work to explore best practices for improving student writing learning that they can transfer and enabling them to understand the value of writing education in engineering contexts.

Citation
Format

Mallette, N., & Mallette, J. C. (2019, March), Explorations of reflection as a tool for writing knowledge transfer and writing skill appreciation Paper presented at 2019 ASEE PNW Section Conference, Corvallis, Oregon. 10.18260/1-2--31878

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - Professional writing skills are vital to engineering career success, although they are usually underappreciated by undergraduate engineering students. The students may understand hypothetically that writing will be essential after they graduate, but they do not always understand how. While engineering programs require writing assignments often rooted in genres students may use and situations they may encounter outside the classroom, little attention is paid to assessing writing learning beyond the specific assignment tasks.

To understand strategies to enable students to connect learning from individual assignments to other uses and contexts, we are piloting the use of reflection in senior-level project courses at two academic institutions. Reflection offers potential as a strategy to assess students’ long-term learning of writing skills and connection with writing contexts in their careers. Reflection has long been used in writing studies to increase students’ meta-awareness of how writing works in specific contexts and to facilitate transfer (Yancey, Robertson, Taczak, 2014). In this presentation, we (a faculty member in chemical engineering at Institution A and a faculty member in English/technical communication who works with engineering students at Institution B) explore reflection as a tool to improve course outcomes for writing proficiency and to facilitate continuous improvement in and outside the classroom.
 
To gather data, we will ask students at both institutions to complete a reflection at the end of one course and the start of another. At Institution A, approximately 200 students reflect on their learning; at Institution B, approximately 15 students will complete both reflections. These reflections will ask students to discuss which course writing concepts made the biggest impression, how they plan to incorporate those concepts in future writing, and their awareness of the importance of quality writing in a professional engineering career. 

In this presentation, we will share preliminary findings on the impact of asking students to reflect on their writing and how it may affect their writing from one term to the next. In addition, we will assess the possibilities for reflection as a method to enable students to apply their classroom learning to writing post-graduation, in industry or graduate programs. We will conclude with the possibilities of expanding this work to explore best practices for improving student writing learning that they can transfer and enabling them to understand the value of writing education in engineering contexts.

AU  - Natasha Mallette P.E.
AU  - Jennifer C Mallette
CY  - Corvallis, Oregon
DA  - 2019/03/20
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Explorations of reflection as a tool for writing knowledge transfer and writing skill appreciation
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/31878
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--31878
ER  -