supporting scholarly exchange about communication across the curriculum
Content Area:
Communication Across the Curriculum
Electronic Communication Across the Curriculum
Writing to Learn vs. Writing in the Disciplines
Discipline:
Welcome to the WAC Clearinghouse Theses and Dissertations Page. The theses are displayed below. If you'd like us to add a new thesis or dissertation to our list, please contact Kevin Eric De Pew.
Much recent composition research has focused on writing difference. Deviations from standard written English have been studied regarding gender, ethnicity, age, and socioeconomic status. for example, after the implementation of open admissions policies, composition scholars researched methods to assist “basic writers” in developing their writing skills to collegiate levels. One group of writers which has not been studied, though, is honors students. A review of twentieth-century American college-level honors education demonstrates that honors programs focus their curricula and instruction upon developing critical thinking skills; similarly composition and language Theorists argue that writing instruction, both in the composition classroom and throughout the college curriculum, is a key tool in developing those critical thinking skills. Therefore, I contend that honors students need to strengthen critical thinking skills and that participation in a comprehensive writing program designed specifically for honors students is essential in strengthening such skills. To facilitate development of such programs, I propose a set of guidelines for this development which include program admission exercises, composition courses and seminars, capstone projects, and extracurricular writing activities. Information for these guidelines was gathered through a survey of composition components within 300+ National Collegiate Honors Council member programs at two-year, four-year, and graduate degree-granting colleges and universities. Guideline sections also include discussion of differentiationbetween honors and nonhonors courses and writing assignments. From these guidelines, honors program directors and writing program directors should develop honors composition components which meet honors students' needs in building their writing and critical thinking skills.
Statement of the problem. Gifted programs have been a subject of controversy in this country for many years. Gifted education is not regulated by any federal mandate and is not a required service under Public Law 94-142. Consequently, the delivery model offered and the curriculum delivered to gifted students depends totally upon the philosophy of the school system in which these students are enrolled. A common misconception about gifted students is that they are automatically destined for high achievement because of their abilities and do not need special attention. These learners may need less direct instruction than other learners but the assumption can not be made that they need no explicit instruction. Educational strategies and materials of an effective intervention were investigated for use in a gifted classroom. Methods. A quasi-experimental, nonequivalent pretest- posttest control group design was used in this investigation. The purpose of this research was to evaluate the effectiveness of an instructional program designed to improve writing and thinking skills when used with gifted students. The independent variable in this investigation was the type of instruction given: regular, non-explicit gifted instruction for each of the three control groups and Direct Instruction for the experimental group. The dependent variables were the Test of Written Language-3 (Hammill & Larsen, 1996) and the New Jersey Test of Reasoning Skills (Shipman, 1983). Results. Statistical analysis of the data collected during this study revealed a significant improvement in the writing skills of gifted fifth graders who were instructed using a Direct Instruction program. No significant difference was found in the reasoning skills of these gifted fifth graders. However, all groups showed improvement in reasoning from pretest to posttest. Conclusions. The findings from this study suggest that there is a relationship between instruction in Reasoning and Writing, Level F (Engelmann & Grossen, 1995), and improvement in the overall writing of gifted fifth graders. Weakness in writing abilities Across exceptionalities (LD and gifted) and regular education has been well documented (Shaughnessy & Gerkey, 1986), and this study offers one solution to help alleviate this weakness.
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