"Developing Curriculum for a Multi-Course Interdepartmental Learning Community to Promote Retention and Learning for Underprepared Engineering Students"
About the AuthorsRachel A. Milloy is a Ph.D. student in the Rhetoric and Professional Communication program at New Mexico State University where she teaches first-year writing and technical communication courses. She serves as a writing program assistant and as a co-writer for the English department’s first-year composition textbook, Paideia 14. Her research interests include online pedagogy, composition pedagogy, writing technologies, writing program administration, and student success. When not teaching, she enjoys reading, running, and spending time outdoors. Matthew Moberly is a doctoral student in Rhetoric and Professional Communication at New Mexico State University where he has taught first-year composition and technical communication. His current research interests include writing center administration, incorporating information literacy into first-year writing curriculum, and assessment in higher education. Outside of teaching and research, he enjoys cooking, watching reality television, and figuring out ways to design productive classroom activities based on the reality television he watches. Rebecca Powell is a Ph.D. student in Rhetoric and Professional Communication at New Mexico State University. She revised this article with a baby in her lap. When the baby is not in her lap, she teaches, writes, gardens, runs, and bikes. Her publications include chapters and articles on the intersections of literacy and place, expressivism pedagogy, discourses surrounding motherhood, online instructor identity, and teacher inquiry. Her research interests include writing-across-the-curriculum, literacy, place studies, and composition pedagogy. ContentsThe ILC: Interdisciplinary Collaboration The ILC: Interdisciplinary Collaboration (cont.) Collaborative Curriculum Design for Learner Independence Dependent Learners Become Active Participants Active Learners Gain Confidence Confident Learners Collaboratively Investigate Real World Issues Self-Directed Learners Take on Complex Tasks Formative and Summative Assessment: Gathering Stories and Numbers In Their Own Words: Assessment Outcomes |
Collaborative Curriculum Design for Learner IndependenceWith our underprepared student population in mind, we re-designed English 111 to address the needs of ILC learners. In Learner-Centered Teaching: Five Key Changes to Practice, Maryellen Weimer claims, “If students develop as learners incrementally, then the assumption is that assignments, activities, events, indeed, courses can be sequenced so that the order in which they are experienced expedites growth” (171). Based on Grow’s four stages of the developmental process, Weimer suggests that assignment sequencing can move students from “dependence to self-direction” and “encourage the growth and development of learning skills and learners” (168-169). By adapting existing English 111 writing assignments for the ILC and SMET 101 learning objectives, we created a writing course that encourages active participation from students, allows students to build relationships with peers through collaboration, and investigates real world engineering problems through multiple disciplinary perspectives. Students work through four learning units that serve as scaffolds for success and lead to “more complex levels of learning” (Weimer 172). Instructional scaffolding in the ILC English 111 course aids students in developing new writing and engineering knowledge and problem-solving skills. While working through each learning unit, students strive to become active participants in their own learning; they learn to collaborate with peers and instructors through problem-based learning and develop critical thinking skills that allow them to work independently when identifying, analyzing, and creating disciplinary arguments. Students must work through each learning unit with assistance from their instructor and peers but also depend on their own prior knowledge to successfully complete assigned tasks. In English 111, our goal is to facilitate students’ development as writers and future engineers so that they become more independent learners capable of meeting the demands of college courses and the writing tasks common in engineering professions. To best prepare our students for future academic and professional writing tasks, the four learning units in the ILC English 111 course support the learning goals of English 111 and SMET 101. In addition to reading texts that explore issues in engineering and examining writing as a process, students learn to view writing as a scene of investigation, as a way to describe problems, and as a way to brainstorm solutions to problems (collaboratively and independently). These reading practices support students in completing the following major assignments within each unit:
In the following section, we explain how the four learning units support the learning objectives for English 111and SMET 101; how the units encourage students to develop ways for exploring and examining complex issues as they become independent, self-directed learners; and how the units help students understand the purpose and significance of the writing activities they complete. As students work through the learning units, they evolve from dependent learners to self-directed learners capable of communicating their own needs, goals, and standards. Finally, once they have completed the four learning units, ILC students possess the habits of active learners, making them better prepared for future writing tasks.
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