ERIC Number: ED618920
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2021-Sep
Pages: 12
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Assessing Basic Writers: Perceptions, Expectations, and Agency. Occasional Paper No. 56
Wood, Susan
National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment
If assessment is about improving learning and facilitating better teaching through research and helping students learn what higher education purports to value, then the often-invisible institutional barriers that do not always embrace the ways in which classroom assessment can teach an institution about student learning within individual courses--and even individual sections of courses--need to be examined. This occasional paper focuses upon connections between institution-level and classroom practice as related to basic writers and basic writers' perceptions of agency, assessment, and their own writing. While faculty in higher education consistently lament inadequate student writing, this paper explores whether students are even aware that their writing is an issue. The paper explores if institutions would benefit from asking students what they understand of and think about the ways in which their writing is assessed, or if they are even aware that their writing is being measured against a set of criteria or learning outcomes. In other words, should composition specialists engage with students to better understand their perceptions of how their writing is assessed? And would this sort of investigation be a productive means to help students succeed? By asking a group of basic writing students what they thought and how they felt about the ways in which their writing was evaluated, the paper explores student agency in the writing process and argues that instructors will need to design their courses--including those that use remote teaching technologies--in ways that strengthen individualized student-to-teacher interaction and see students as individuals with unique strengths, challenges, and perceptions.
Descriptors: Writing Evaluation, Basic Writing, College Students, Writing Attitudes, Self Evaluation (Individuals), Writing Processes, Curriculum Design, Distance Education, Teacher Student Relationship
National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment. 340 Education Building MC 708, 1310 South Sixth Street, Champaign, IL 61820. Tel: 217-244-2155; Fax: 217-244-5632; Web site: http://www.learningoutcomeassessment.org
Publication Type: Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A