Academic writing: Primary PGCE students in transition

Jane SharpLearning Development Tutor

Bishop Grosseteste University

Starting points…

• transition graduates experience as academic writers as they move from one subject discipline to another

• Primary PGCE students writing in the discipline of education for the first time

• …and me

Some themes from the literature around academic writing…

• socially situated, complex and contested practice (Lea and Street, 1998; Lillis, 2001)

• disciplines as discourse communities (Northedge, 2003)• disciplinary differences in epistemology and attributes (Lea

and Street, 1998; Hyland, 2009, Jones, 2009, Giminez, 2012)• intra disciplinary differences…(Lea and Street, 1998, Baynham,

2000) • academic and professional discourses (Hoadley-Maidment,

2000; Lea and Stierer, 2000; Scott, 2000)• transition, identity and confidence (Fergie et al, 2001)

Initial research questions…

• What are the disciplinary backgrounds and academic writing experiences of primary PGCE students?

• What are primary PGCE students’ perceptions of academic writing in education and how do their perceptions develop through the year of study?

• What are the disciplinary backgrounds and academic writing experiences of primary PGCE academic tutors?

• What are primary PGCE academic tutors’ perceptions of academic writing in education?

Emergent research design…

• Broadly interpretivist• Case study• Exploratory; Instrumental; Collective;

Longitudinal

The phenomenon of the horizontal transition, as experienced by one cohort of primary PGCE students at one English university; 8 students, 2 academic tutors; 3 sets of interviews

The pilot study…

• Timing; participants; methods• Themes– Originating discipline– Education as a discipline• Emerging characteristics (epistemology and attributes)• Intra disciplinary variations• Professional reflective writing

Originating disciplines

• Politics was: ‘looking at the policy and then thinking about the theories afterwards’.

• International Relations: ‘would be actually focussing on...liberalism or realism and looking at the people behind those theories’.

• ‘It was different to the work that we had to do for this course where I didn’t have to relate it to any like practical context that I’d been in. Even for the Journalism side it was all research and theory in both. Obviously in the English I had to link to books and primary sources’.

Education as a discipline – emerging characteristics

• ‘In education I think there is more of an expectation to take that quote further and paraphrase it and then analyse it. But then I mean I suppose that might have been an expectation in International Relations; it might have just been something that I never did.’

• ‘It requires an extremely deep level of analysis. A lot deeper than on [my] degree course and I think that it requires a really good foundation of present issues, practical experience, really relating it to in the classroom, which is different to my degree, completely different. And having good knowledge of current…issues and being able to show… what you would do for the future as well as what impact it would have.’

Education as a discipline – intra disciplinary variation

• ‘The biggest difference I found was with the research project; that was totally unknown to me. I’d never, ever done anything [like that]. I’d read research before but I’d never, ever done a research project myself and I think that…was a massive step for me’.

• ‘I found it hard to…bring clarity to my report because there wasn’t clarity in my results’

Education as a discipline – professional reflective writing

• ‘I found that quite interesting because I could relate my experiences to what I’ve learnt… I’ve put it [dialogic teaching] into practice and reflected on how it’s made my practice different and how it affects the children and whether it’s kind of developed them.’

• ‘You feel more confident…because this is what you’ve experienced, whereas talking about what other people have found is quite hard isn’t it?’

Emergent findings (n=4)…

• Disciplinary differences between previous subject discipline and education appear to be very real experiences for PGCE students; complex and will require detailed exploration

• Issues around academic and professional practice appear to be more easily easily navigated

• Differences in the types of academic writing involved (essays and small-scale research projects) appear to be more problematic

Implications for Learning Development

• Targetting– Resource development and provision– Embedded interventions– Tutorial support– Working with colleagues

Your views?

• Working with students and academics making horizontal transitions?

• Personal experiences of making horizontal transitions?

References…Baynham, M. (2000) Academic Writing in New and Emergent Discipline Areas. In: Lea, M.R. and Stierer, B. (eds.) Student Writing in Higher Education: New Contexts. Buckingham: Society for Research into Higher Education and Open University Press, pp.17-31.Fergie, G., Beeke, S., McKenna, C., and Creme, P. (2011) “It’s a Lonely Walk”: Supporting Postgraduate Researchers through Writing. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 23 (2), pp.226-245.Gimenez, J. (2012) “but they don’t write like us”: texts, writing processes and practices across disciplines in higher education. Paper presented at Academic Writing Theory and Practice in an International Context Conference, Coventry, April 2012.Gimenez, J. (2012) Disciplinary epistemologies, generic attributes and undergraduate academic writing in nursing and midwifery. In Higher Education, 63 pp.401-419.Hoadley-Maidment, E. (2000) From Personal Experience to Reflective Practitioner: Academic Literacies and Professional Education. In: Lea, M.R. and Stierer, B. (eds.) Student Writing in Higher Education: New Contexts. Buckingham: Society for Research into Higher Education and Open University Press, pp.165-178.Hyland, K. (2009) Academic discourse. London:Continuum.Jones, A. (2009) Redisciplining generic attributes: the disciplinary context in focus. In Studies in Higher Education, 34 (1) pp.85-100.Lea, M.R and Stierer, B. (2000) Editors’ Introduction. In: Student writing in higher education: new contexts. Buckingham : Society for Research into Higher Education/Open University Press, pp.1-13.Lea, M.R. and Street, B.V. (1998) Student writing in higher education: an academic literacies approach. Studies in Higher Education, 23 (2) pp.157-172.Lillis, T.M. (2001) Student Writing: Access, Regulation, Desire. Abingdon: Routledge.Northedge, A. (2003) Rethinking Teaching in the Context of Diversity Teaching in Higher Education, 8 (1), pp.17-32.Samuels, P. and Dean, M. (2001) Writing for Mathematics Education at Doctoral Level. In: Dean, M. and O’Neill P. (eds.) Writing in the Disciplines. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp.140-154.Scott, M. (2000) Writing in Postgraduate Teacher Training: A Question of Identity. In: Lea, M.R. and Stierer, B. (eds.) Student Writing in Higher Education: New Contexts. Buckingham: Society for Research into Higher Education and Open University Press, pp.112-124.Stierer, B, (2000) Schoolteachers as Students: Academic Literacy and the Construction of Professional Knowledge within Master’s Courses in Education. In: Lea, M.R. and Stierer, B. (eds.) Student Writing in Higher Education: New Contexts. Buckingham: Society for Research into Higher Education and Open University Press, pp.179-195.