PUTTING RESEARCH under a MICROSCOPETEACHING ‘MICRO-LEVEL’ INFORMATION USE IN FIRST-YEAR COLLEGE WRITING

LOEX | NASHVILLE | 2013Aaron McCollough | Kelly Davenport | University of Michigan

You are here. (probably)

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time energy

demand

You are here. (probably)

‘Micro-level’ information

usePhoto: gonzales2010 via Flickr

Research Questions• What are the key breakdowns in

student understanding of how to effectively use sources in writing?

• How do instructors characterize both breakdowns & model processes in working with sources in FYC?

Methods & Outputs• Yearlong study with

mentorship from U-M Center for Research on Learning & Teaching

• Interviews with 9 instructors in fall 2012

• Survey of students and instructors on ‘information use’

• 69 pages of coded transcripts, whittled from 20 hours of interview recordings

• 132 responses for student survey

• 77 responses for instructor survey

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Us.

Them.

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Findings.

Constrained

Constructivist

Rhetorical

Empirical

A Spectrum of Themes

Authority, audience, purpose

Impact factors, ‘good’ journals, ‘scholarly’

Provided sources Problematizing sources as authorities

Coding Schema

• Model• Sticking Point – Student• Sticking Point –

Instructor• Constraint• Heuristic

Model Research-Writing Processes

• Moving from opinion (‘I know’) to argument (‘I think’)• Sources as models // Sources as information• Sources as constraining // Sources as broadening• Source use is rhetorical // Source use is confirmative• Sources are constructed // Sources are authoritative• Assessing source engagement: Mechanics // Rhetorics

8%

14%

23%

24%

15%

17%

Models of Source Engagement

Opinion/Ar-gumentModels/Informa-tionConstraining/BroadeningRhetorical/Con-firmativeConstructed/Au-thoritativeMechanics/Rhetorics

Sticking Points for Students• Varying conceptions of ‘academic’

audience• Lack of engagement with quotes• Complexity not seen as a goal• Using tangentially related sources• Students don’t see themselves as part

of a community or conversation

10%

23%

26%

13%

29%

What Instructors Say Students Struggle With

AudienceQuotesComplexityTangential SourcesConversation

Identifying Areas of Intervention

#3 Transitioning between your ideas and another’s#7 Evaluating accuracy, authority, and point of view#2 Summarizing and quoting#5 Incorporating source material without being ‘swamped’#4 Evaluating sources based on writing purpose

Four

Five

Two

Seven

Three

One

Eight

Nine

Ten

Eleven

Six

Twelve

0 1 2 3 4 5 6

Direct Instruc-tionInstruction Goals

Implications for teaching.

‘Wayfinding is the organization and communication of our dynamic relationship to space and the environment. Successful design to promote wayfinding allows people to: determine their location within a setting;determine their destination, and; develop a plan that will take them from their location to their destination.’

– Center for Inclusive Design & Environmental Access, SUNY-Buffalo

space

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space

‘Predatory Reading’• Think pragmatically – what does each part of the argument ‘do’?• Identify signposts (subheadings, chapters, etc.)• Topic sentences• Evidence• Identify internal structures• Examine transitions• Identify key conceptual distinctions• Identify explicit references to rival scholarly positions• Watch for strategic concessions• Incoherence is a possibility!

plandestination

Applications.

Think modular

.

Photo: The London Telegraph

Wayfinding&

‘Old Ghosts’

Bibliography: tinyurl.com/info-use

Acknowledgments

The U-M Department of EnglishThe U-M Center for Research on Learning & Teaching

Graduate research assistants Nabil Kashyap & Alix Keener