Current
Status
Since the proejct started
in 1998, we have found that departments take a full year to design,
develop and approve the writing-in-the-major program proposal.
Departmental teams tend
to work initially on establishing criteria and standards for formal
writing, working out a curricular model, and anticipating how to
monitor and assess the development of students' formal writing.
A year is not long enough to fully implement the program or to attend
to all of the elements of the program.
Some features of programs
that tend to be underdeveloped:
- Assessment of student
writing and learning
- Writing to learn
- Conceptual shift
from learning as rapid acquisition of information and skills to
learning as a long term, developmental process
Long-Term Goals
- Assist additional
departments in establishing writing-in-the-major programs
- Support sustained
development of the programs
- Provide ongoing training
for faculty and especially initial training for new faculty
- Develop Undergraduate
Writing Fellows component
- Assist departments
in integrating assessment of student writing in the major into
assessment of student learning in the program
- Use faculty work
to promote their scholarship of teaching and learning
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