Composing to Learn, Learning to Write: Improving Medical Students Writing Competence

Presentation Transcript



Writing to Learn, Learning to Write: Improving Medical Students' Writing Competence

Presented by: Virginia A. Chestnut, MA HU College of Medicine C&FM – Program in Health Care Ethics

OBJECTIVE To Improve Students' Professional Writing Abilities Via: Demonstration of Mastery of Relevant Ethical Theory, Utilization of Parenthetical Citation (APA), and Execution of Format and Mechanics Conventions.

BACKGROUND History of Ethics Program Fall 1993 Inaugural Class Prerequisite - Clinical Experience Established as Required Course Delivery 2 Credit Hours Large Lecture, Small Group Quiz, Midterm, Research Paper w/o WAC Curriculum, and Practicum Fall 2005 Incorporated WAC Curriculum

Background, cont'd Multidisciplinary Faculty Compliment/semester, 20-24 Health Science, Law, Philosophy, and Divinity Interdisciplinary Health Science Allied Health - Jr/Sr, Graduate Dental - 3 rd year Medicine - 3 rd year Nursing - Jr/Sr, Graduate Pharmacy - 4 th year Average enlistment, 400/year

PROCEDURE Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) Established for more than 30 years Features of WAC Include: Fostering Critical Thinking, Utilizing "Figuring out how to Write" and "Writing to Learn" Techniques, Incorporating Discipline Specific Vocabulary and Conventions (Professionalism in Writing), Responding and Adapting to Student Needs, and Linking Writing, Listening, and Speaking (Active Learning).

IMPLEMENTATION Development of Getting Ready To Write (GRTW) Activities Identification of "Terrible" versus "Great" Papers Selection of Interventions Development of Course Material

GRTW Prepare, Pre/Re-compose, and Submit Part 1. 500 Word Statement of Problem Annotated Bibliography (APA organize) Part 2. Sentence Outline Peer Review Draft Part 3. Last Submission

PARTICIPANTS Allied Health N=46 Clinical Health Science Students N=251 Fall 2005 Dental N=71 Medicine N=57 Nursing N=46 Pharmacy N=46

ASSESSMENT End of Semester Survey by Discipline Medical Student Survey Responses 28 various decision inquiries in all out 4 WAC particular inquiries Standard Likert Scale Optional Essay Administered by means of Blackboard 39 of 57 understudies reacted

WAC SURVEY QUESTIONS Q1. The WAC strategies were useful. Q2. WAC procedures presented and utilized for this course were valuable in get ready to look into and compose the exploration paper. Q3. I would prescribe the WAC guideline to different understudies. Q4. The assignments in regards to the catalog and legitimate reference procedures were all around sketched out in the Concise Rules.

RESPONSES

CONCLUSION The consolidated normal of emphatically concurred and concurred respondents uncovered that, all things considered, 56% of the medicinal understudies discovered WAC methodologies valuable. Staff noticed that execution on WAC methodologies connected to conclusive paper grades.

NEXT STEPS Develop pre/post appraisals of expert written work learning Incorporate gathering of "review gauge" connection Expand overview questions re: Attendance at composing address 1 st dialect as English/ESL Frequency of paper entries