Hello everyone! I have attached my notes on the changes to higher
education that were stimulated by the article in University Affairs. If
anyone would like to comment, please feel free as I think this might be
the start of a good discussion thread. Thanks everyone for a great
Inkshed meeting on Tuesday!!
Comments inspired by “It’s Time to Transform Undergraduate Education”
from University Affairs” , by Patrick Dean and Pierre Zundel in November
2010.
The authors set out the changing landscape of undergraduate education at
the institutional level and argue that we have to create links to these
institutional changes to “re-orient ourselves to our goals by
………reconceptualizing of the teaching and learning process with the goal
becoming ‘helping students learn’” . Basically, there are three
movements in higher education in Canada today that require this of us as
writing instructors and service providers.
1. Globalization:
a. Amit Chakma has announced a commitment to grow international
students’ population beyond the 3% UWO currently accommodates .
Institutional examples of this include: The Strategic Plan also commits
to more scholarships for international PhD students, and more funding
for international partnerships for research for the faculty, and more
opportunities for UWO students to do exchanges abroad.
b. Huron: IQRP (International Quotient Review Process) to look at how
internationalization impacts all aspects of the college: courses taught,
services provided; encouragement to students and faculty to go on
exchanges or engage in international research.
2. Introduction of new programs of study:
a. Interdisciplinary Studies programs: these blur distinctions between
programs.
b. New courses in communications, film, TV, study of popular culture:
cartoons:
c. Service & Experiential learning courses
3. Impact of budget cuts causing the use of more part-time instructors
and larger classes.
Some examples of changes in delivery of writing skills at the course level:
1. Brock Eayrs has redesigned one of the Writing Program Courses to
reflect the new reality of course in popular media: “2202F/G a basic
understanding of the principles of 'visual rhetoric and argumentation.'
That competence and that understanding can then be applied inside
different rhetorical contexts.”
2. The writing required of students in service & experiential learning
courses is often reflective writing: e.g. History
3. Part-time teachers at Huron have sought out the services of the
Writing centre to develop workshops that help the students in their
classes write what they need them to write.
4. I’ve tried to indicate in my talk at CASDW some of the implications
of the issue of globalization for the way we run the Writing Centre, for
research in writing and ultimately for curriculum change.
*Matter for discussion: “*Dean quotes Kuhn’s call for a “Profound escape
from inherited paradigms” to deal with these changes. So, what does all
of this mean for disciplinary writing? For the generic skills students
need for these courses? Evidence-gathering? genres? What we do in the
Writing Centre in appointments? Construction of credit writing classes?
Theresa.
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