Funded mini-projects
(532) Improving students’ ability to communicate complex ideas in writing: development and evaluation of an adaptable within-discipline teaching resource
N.B. The information below is authored by the mini-project applicants, not by staff of the subject centre.
This text represents the views and opinions of the mini-project team
only, not those of the subject centre or its affiliates.
Principal investigator
Dylan Morrissey, Barts and The London, Queen Mary's School of Medicine & Dentistry
Full list of project partners
Dr Dylan Morrissey (Centre for Sports and Exercise Medicine, QMUL)
Sally Mitchell (Thinking Writing, Language and Learning Unit, QMUL)
Dr Jon Fuller (Director of Centre for Medical Education, QMUL)
Professor Steve Greenwald (Head of Intercalated Degrees, QMUL)
Topic
This is a MINI-PROJECT proposal ,support dissemination of good practice to a wider audience ,promote collaboration to enhance new and existing partnerships ,pump prime feasibility studies in innovative areas ,promote staff development
Background
The standard of intercalating medical students’ written work has been a subject of concern for some time. Several initiatives to improve written argument and the communication of research findings have been employed or considered at QMUL. The focus of these initiatives has, until recently, been on remedial teaching or generic packages of instruction rather than an in-course approach directed at key written tasks. However, in 2006-7 the applicants delivered a novel in-course seminar package, using an embedded approach to skills development, (Hattie, Biggs & Purdie, 1996) co-taught by a language specialist and discipline-specific tutors (cf. Skillen et al. 1999). The result was positive feedback and higher coursework marks to 15 students.
In this proposal our first aim is to develop further the in-course writing tutorials and related materials to produce a resource pack that can be adapted and applied by course tutors on a diverse range of courses (undergraduate and taught post-graduate). A related ‘train the trainers’ course will also be developed in order to share the experience of working with students on the materials.
Our second aim is to evaluate the materials and approach. Firstly, students’ opinions about the experience and impact of the intervention will be elicited by semi-structured interviews. Secondly, quantitative evaluation is essential to establish whether the standard of written work is improved as a result of taking the course. To this end, a group of intercalating students and a control sample of matched academic level medical students who are not intercalating will be recruited. Both groups will sit a writing task under controlled conditions, before and after the intervention phase (delivered only to the intercalating students). Control subjects will be paid a small sum in order to attract and retain their co-operation. The written work will be double marked by language- and discipline-specific tutors according to clear criteria. The evaluation will therefore yield both qualitative data relating to the participants’ experience and quantitative data on the impact of the intervention on students’ academic performance. The evaluation will be supervised by the applicants and carried out by intercalating students from the intercalated degrees in SEM and medical education.
The proposed work recognises the key role played by writing in developing students’ specialist expertise and identity. It is premised on the view that, as such, writing development work should be integrated within mainstream course provision. The model proposed and in part developed in the current academic year uses an innovative partnership between language and discipline-based specialists, The proposal develops practical resources for use by course tutors and includes a robust evaluation of the intervention. The results will be of interest not only in medical education, but more widely across the higher education sector.
References
Hattie, J., Biggs, J. & Purdie, N. (1996) ‘Effects of Learning Skills Interventions: A Meta-Analysis’, Review of Educational Research. 66,2 pp 99-136
Skillen, J et al. ‘Integrating the instruction of generic and discipline specific skills into the curriculum’ in James, R. et al. (eds) Proceedings of the Higher Education Research and development Society of Australasia International Conference. www.herdsa.org.au/branches/vic/Cornerstones/authorframeset.html (accessed 29.5.07)
Proposed activities
2007-8
Semester 1 - Resource development:
*Review of existing resources with respect to published literature and existing student feedback
*Development of generic electronic resource pack and accompanying tutorial content
Writing tutorials delivered to course tutors by DM & SM
Semester 1 - Study design:
*Refine study design
* ethics application
*recruitment of student researchers
Semester 2 - Delivery & Evaluation
* Recruit subjects to intervention & control groups
* Quantitative assessment 1
* ten hours writing tutorials for intercalated degree students only
* Quantitative assessment 2
* Qualitative assessment by intercalated student 1
* Quantative assessment by intercalated student 2
* First draft of research findings by students supervised by DM & JF
* Final write-up of research findings by students supervised by DM,JF&SM
* Formal written work assessment by course team (May 2008)
* Dissemination at Writing Across the Curriculum International Conference (May 2008)
June - September 2008
*Dissemination by publication and internal/external conference
Proposed outcomes
1. For dissemination:
a. a resource pack suitable for adaptation by course tutors to deliver to students on under-graduate and taught post-graduate courses
b. a ‘train the trainers’ course
c. qualitative data concerning student experience of the intervention
d. quantitative data concerning the effect of the intervention
2. Benefits to the institution:
a. testing of a model of embedded co-taught skills teaching, suitable for wider use across the university
b. improved student performance
c. collaboration and learning development between academic disciplines
3. Students directly affected:
a. 150 intercalating students in the first wave of application
Expertise of grant holder and project team
Dylan Morrissey is a clinical academic and the course leader for the intercalated BSc in Sports and Exercise Medicine, the largest intercalated BSc at QMUL. He has a strong record in clinical trials and has recently started to dip into qualitative work with two studies in the process of submission for publication. He successfully developed a package of writing tutorials in conjunction with Sally Mitchell, which constitute the pilot work for this proposal.
Sally Mitchell coordinates the QMUL Thinking Writing initiative and works across disciplines to develop courses, pedagogy and assessments that support the twin aims of helping students ‘write-to-learn’ and ‘learn-to-write’ (See www.thinkingwriting.qmul.ac.uk). She has considerable experience of managing educational research projects, of working with academic teachers to identify the writing demands of their subject and of developing embedded approaches to skills development. Her research background and publications are in argument and related cognitive/rhetorical strategies typically employed in academic writing. Thinking Writing is well respected nationally and internationally for its ‘writing in the disciplines’ work and is well connected with best practice in the field.
Jon Fuller specialises in Medical Education and has led successful projects in assessment of therapeutics, and the use of bulletin board in IPE. He is currently a member of a project group introducing an e-portfolio encouraging reflective writing for all students, in its pilot stage at present. He will liaise between the two projects. The School of Medicine and Dentistry is starting an intercalated degree in Medical Education in September, in collaboration the other London medical schools. Students on the BSc Medical Education will be working closely with this project to assist in the evaluation.
Stephen Greenwald was the organiser of the intercalated degree in Experimental Pathology from 1990 until 2002 and since then has been head of the intercalated degrees program for the School of Medicine and Dentistry as a whole. During this time he has supervised more than 70 experimental projects and overseen the writing and presentation of the associated dissertations. These take the form of a thesis typically of seven to nine thousand words including a critical survey of the literature and, usually, a detailed description of complex results. The students are also expected to compare their results with those from other studies and to discuss their significance with respect to the long term aims of the work. Professor Greenwald thus has considerable insight into the difficulties that students face when tackling such an ambitious writing task.
Similar work
From a search of the suggested databases there appears to be little existing work on student writing within medical education and none with our particular focus on effective research writing. The proposal will mesh with other initiatives within Thinking Writing, including its involvement in a Wollongong University-led project ‘Developing Academic Literacy in Context’ (DALiC)
Contact details
Grant holder: Dylan Morrissey,
Barts and The London, Queen Mary's School of Medicine & Dentistry
Amount awarded: £4000
Subject centre project contact: Nigel Purcell
Reports
