Thanks Pat! I have located the text on line -- it was indeed on EBSCO
so I didn't have to hie my body over to the physical library -- and will
check out the links. Thanks to everyone else too -- keep 'em coming.
Doug
psaunders wrote:
>Hello Doug,
>I too have recently had cause to consider the issue of mass testing methods
>
>of literacy/writing competance and have found some help in an article
>written by Casey Jones : "The Relationship Between Writing Centers and
>Improvement in Writing Ability: An Assessment of the Literature"
>_Education_Vol. 122 No.1. I found access to this article in full text PDF
>format on-line, but no longer remember where (possibly EBSCO). (it is worth
>tracking down as it is couched in terms likely to be meaningful to those who
>
>put a good deal of faith in quantative testing-if you can't locate it or the
>
>journal easily I would be willing to fax it to you. ). I also found useful
>the
>articles found at the following links:
>http://wac.colostate.edu/llad/v3n2/olds.pdf
>http://wac.colostate.edu/journal/vol5/lord.pdf
>http://wac.colostate.edu/llad/v6n1/carter.pdf
>http://wac.colostate.edu/llad/v6n1/carson.pdf
>
>Hope this is helpful,
>Pat
>
>Doug Brent wrote:
>
>
>
>>A bit of a plea for help here.
>>
>>I keep looking for literature that addresses the larger philosophical
>>and pedagogical issues surrounding mass writing competence testing. I
>>find that most of the literature seems to be written by people who more
>>or less approve of competence testing and want to discuss how it can be
>>improved or to share war stories. There seems to be a fairly large camp
>>of sentiment that suggests that the entire enterprise of mass competence
>>testing is flawed for a number of reasons,. the most common being that
>>it fails to take account of what most of us believe about writing being
>>centred in discourse communities, recursive, social, messy, and all
>>those things that no "competence test" can by its nature measure. But
>>as far as I can see (after searching ERIC, COMPILE, etc), most of this
>>material is "anecdotal," ie. argued on listserves like CASLL but seldom
>>shared in peer-reviewed papers. The people who have serious doubts
>>about competence testing seem to keep it to themselves, working against
>>these tests at home when they can but seldom writing seriously about
>>their misgivings, perhaps because they aren't interested in writing
>>about something they don't believe in.
>>
>>Or do they? It seems to me that there was a thread on CASLL a long
>>while ago that was originated by the McGill crowd when they were trying
>>to fend off competence testing. Anthony, I think it was, asked whether
>>anyone had any literature on the subject that they could share. I don't
>>remember if any emerged, though plenty of discussion ensued.
>>
>>Now I'd like to ask again. Does anyone have any references to published
>>work on the larger issue of whether we should test (not just how we
>>should test)? I'm particularly interested in the uneasy relationship
>>between competence testing and WAC, a subject which (not
>>co-incidentally) I want to address for my presentation at the CCCC
>>Canadian Caucus. (OK, you're right, I'm trying to shore up my anecdotal
>>resentation with a little more reference to published literature.)
>>
>>Thanks!
>>
>>Doug
>>
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>>
>
> -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
> To leave the list, send a SIGNOFF CASLL command to
> [log in to unmask] or, if you experience difficulties,
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>For the list archives and information about the organization,
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>
--
Dr. Doug Brent
Associate Dean (Academic)
Faculty of Communication and Culture, University of Calgary
2500 University Drive N.W.
Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2N 1N4
Voice: (403) 220-5458 Fax: (403) 282-6716
http://www.ucalgary.ca/~dabrent
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
To leave the list, send a SIGNOFF CASLL command to
[log in to unmask] or, if you experience difficulties,
write to Russ Hunt at [log in to unmask]
For the list archives and information about the organization,
its newsletter, and the annual conference, go to
http://www.stu.ca/inkshed/
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