Academic writing in a post-graduate curriculum: do examples work and how do we know it?

Firssova, O. (2012, 18 September). Academic writing in a post-graduate curriculum: do examples work and how do we know it? Presentation given at the plenary meeting of Learning & Cognition, Heerlen, The Netherlands. [Internal]Writing research has convincingly demonstrated the effectiveness of observational learning and other forms of cognitive modelling for writing-skill development of schoolage children and beginning college students. There are indications, but limited empirical evidence, that observational and example-based learning can also be an effective learning strategy at advanced levels of this highly demanding yet ubiquitous and indispensable academic skill. A study situated in one of the courses of the OU Masters’ in Learning Sciences attempted to contribute to the sparse amount of scientific literature on this topic. The study focussed on using good-practice examples to learn to write in a new academic genre. Curriculum re-design was used to set up a between-groups / control group study. The study examined if and how analysing examples can support students in getting a grip on a new writing genre, and in performing complex writing tasks in this genre. As task performance was used as a dependent variable, the curriculum-based performance assessment instrument was fine-tuned and validated through Rasch modeling so that the quality of writing task performance could be measured. In her presentation Olga Firssova gives an account of the conducted instrument validation and elaborate on the study and its results