Becoming a Scholar of Authentic Learning (ODU ENGL 810, Paper 6, 15 December 2016)

Rhetoric > Composition> Authentic Learning > OoS> Authentic Learning > My Scholarly Contributions (Final version)

My planned Scholarship on the discipline of Authentic Learning

I plan on studying how and why Authentic Learning improves undergraduates’ writing skills, and the transference of those abilities across disciplines. Authentic Learning writing artifacts are the final deliverable or document prepared by the student for consideration by a non-academic consumer (such as an editor or client); the students work could be submitted with or without final instructor assessment indicated by an academic grade. A final deliverable or document can be traditional paper-printed or digital and accessible online.  

Does It Improve Pass Rates and Student Satisfaction?

Recent studies of Authentic Learning focus on small, class-sized cohorts. Nadia Malik published her study focusing on a small group of NYC college students in the Costume Pathway theatre arts program (2016). Her stated outcomes included students developing “self-awareness and analytical and reflective thinking… to improve [their] written communication,” to enrich learning experiences and develop transferable skills for industry-ready graduates (Malik). During the same period but on the other side of the pond, Dr. Justine Simpson published findings of her six-year small-scale study reviewing “quantitative and qualitative data” of 180 undergraduates at Leeds Beckett University

(UK). She compared six years of pass rates and student satisfaction, three years before and three years after instituting Authentic Learning methods (Simpson).

For my study, it has been suggested that I conduct student interviews at the end of the semester to identify if student success is related to how my class is structured, a quantified instruction technique that the students feel is relevant, or my “stellar, charismatic personality” (Laws).  That last one is not as ridiculous as it seems. “Personality,” or humor, is documented as a successful teaching tool bonding students and teachers, and improving relevance, retention and application of lessons for students  (Abbas, Darweesh and Aziz). Those are essential for students to effectively transfer skills from the classroom to the workplace.

Authentic Learning, Project Based Learning, and Applied Learning

The State University of New York (SUNY) mixes authentic, project based, and applied learning as one effort across their colleges and universities. SUNY further defines “activities [that] must meet these criteria as one criteria for Approved Applied Learning Activities.” The course activities must (Puff, Allison):

1.      Be Structured, intentional and authentic

2.      Require preparation, orientation, and training

3.      Include monitoring and continuous improvement

4.      Require structured reflection and acknowledgement

5.      Be assessed and evaluated

Professional Knowledge

As a successful, working, and published technical writer, I know from professional knowledge that strong writing skills transfer across industries, document formats, and genres. Real-world assessments occur outside the academy by professional editors or real customers with no input from an instructor. Students in my classes are challenged and engaged with a semester-long, iterative process of selecting their writing topics and walking through documentation procedures that may result in publication outside the college. Having students choose their writing topic themselves gives them sole responsibility for identifying what Dr. Audrey Rule, professor of curriculum and instruction at SUNY Oswego calls “a path to the solution.”

 

In his classic book of advice for beginning writers, “On Writing Well,” William Zinsser says that “Writers are the custodians of memory.” We glean facts from written records (paper and online), but the actual, detailed, and nuanced information is what a writer collects by speaking with a subject matter expert. That interview occurs in every writing genre, including journalism, medical writing, technical writing, and any writing that involves getting facts from someone else.

Grounded Theory

Understanding how Authentic Learning impacts successful communication across the disciplines and into the real world improves by using Grounded Theory, which is “grounded in data systematically gathered and analyzed” (Corbin). Grounded Theory is an approach for developing theory that is "grounded in data systematically gathered and analyzed" (Strauss& Corbin, qtd by Cohen). Dr. Joyce Ness, ODU English professor emeritus, contends that instead of focusing on a single, limiting question or thesis, grounded theory studies all the players in an arena.

Ness points out that the players in my study could be the instructors, the students (published and unpublished), editors or those accepting student work for publication or distribution, and the audience (Ness). My study will focus on several categories of people (“players”) including undergraduate students in my classes (who are published at an unusually high rate from a small school); the professional editors or real customers reviewing and possibly accepting student work, and faculty leading classes subject to this study (including me and hopefully at least one control group).

Grounded Theory uses these three types of coding to identify research elements (Cohen):

1.      Open coding assigns categories for examination. Categories here could be students initially seeking and obtaining publication, those who seek publication but whose work is rejected, and those who did not seek publication.

2.      Axial coding groups similar categories for creative and statistical comparison.

3.      Selective coding “integrates the categories…in a way that articulates a coherent understanding or theory of the phenomenon of study.”

Objective

Melding ODU and SUNY Guidelines

Implementing this study on a SUNY campus requires first resolving conflicting definitions of authentic learning. For ODU, standards for Ph.D. research requires focusing on one discipline for a dissertation. For the purposes of this study, authentic learning has previously been limited an academic definition: “Authentic Learning writing artifacts are the final deliverable or document prepared by the student for consideration by a non-academic consumer (such as an editor or client).”

Conducting this study at any campus requires using student work, which also requires obtaining approval of the Campus Institutional Review Board (IRB). The Farmingdale State IRB will ask for this proposal to also obtain approval of the Applied Learning Committee (ALC) at Farmingdale State College to meet the broader SUNY “Criteria for Approved Applied Learning Activities,” described above (Puff, Allison). I have spoken informally with members of the ALC, offering a possible solution. They are eager to see this study proceed and support using the more formal academic definition, above.

Conclusion

This work will include the five standards from SUNY. It was agreed that this study will also require that artifacts be subject to review by a non-academic professional without regard of an academic instructor’s grade, and that students show an ability to effectively transfer skills from the classroom to the workplace.
 

I first imagined performing this study years ago, but felt that my small sampling of only three years’ data was insufficient to develop a clear conclusion. Now, with over a decade of data from my classes, I can compare the next three year’s results parallel to a control class run by another faculty member.  That will provide results that can be quantified, codified, and shared with other instructors as a pedagogical model for using Authentic Learning to move students towards mainstream publication.

 

References

Abbas, Al-Duleimi, Deygan Darweesh and Rana Naji Aziz. "Humour As EFL Learning-Teaching Strategy." Journal Of Education And Practice 7.10 (2016): 105-115. ERIC. 03 Dec 2016. http://www.eric.ed.gov/contentdelivery/servlet/ERICServlet?accno=EJ1099483 .

Cohen D, Crabtree B. "Qualitative Research Guidelines Project." July 2006. http://www.qualres.org/HomeGrou-3589.html. Retrieved 01 November 2016.

Corbin, J.. & Strauss, A. "Grounded theory method: Procedures, canons, and evaluative criteria." Qualitative Sociology 13.3 (1990): 3-21. Web. 03 Dec 2016.

Glaser, Barney G. (1965) “The Constant Comparative Method of Qualitative Analysis.” Social Problems, Vol. 12, No. 4 (Spring, 1965), pp. 436-445. Published by: University of California Press on behalf of the Society for the Study of Social Problems. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/798843?origin=JSTOR-pdf&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

Laws, Joaanna. "ODU English 810:." Howard Gold, 9 Nov 2016. Academic Blog. http://hovgoldclass.blogspot.com/2016/11/theories-and-methods-grounded-theory.html#comments.

Malik, Nadia. "Pedagogies applied to develop student self-awareness and written self-evaluations: A costume case study." Art, Design & Communication In Higher Education 15.2 (2016): 161-174. Web. 03 Dec 2016.

Ness, Joyce. Theories and Methods: Grounded Theory (Paper 4, ODU810, H. Gold) Howard Gold. October 2016. Blog. 05 December 2016. http://hovgoldclass.blogspot.com/2016/11/theories-and-methods-grounded-theory.html.

Puff, Allison. "Criteria for Approved Applied Learning Activities." 2016. Farmingdale State College. Web. 13 Dec 2016. https://www.farmingdale.edu/academics/applied-learning/criteria.shtml

Rule, Audrey. "Editorial: The Components of Authentic Learning." Journal of Authentic Learning 3.1 (2006): 1-10. Web. 27 Nov 2016. http://www.ernweb.com/educational-research-articles/the-four-characteristics-of-authentic-learning/.

Simpson, Justine. "Authentic Learning – Does It Improve Pass Rates and Student Satisfaction?" Journal of Perspectives in Applied Academic Practice 4.2 (2016): 62-76. Web. 3 Dec 2016.

Strauss, A. & Corbin, J. (1994). "Grounded Theory Methodology." In NK Denzin & YS Lincoln (Eds.) Handbook of Qualitative Research (pp. 217-285). Thousand Oaks, Sage Publications.

Zinsser, William. On Writing Well. New York: Quill, 1976. Dec3 2016.